noctiluca
10 reviews liked by noctiluca
Balatro
2024
A surreal feeling struck me in my first time restarting a run of Balatro immediately after ending another almost successful one. Suddenly, all of the twisted rules that gradually seeped into my playstyle and mind reverted to their original blank slate. I noticed my instinct to seek out diamonds and straights which my previous jokers favored in my winning run and subsequent leap into endless mode. When I recognized that my recently game-over'd ways were no longer especially effective, there was a realization of how this game had hypnotized me into a fool. I had only gotten just a taste of this game's addictive nature; I would continue to be made a fool time and time again for hours upon hours.
The gently swaying UI, the steady rhythm of the soundtrack, and the exponentially snappy turns all bolster Balatro's enchanting attitude. Even I, with the majority of my poker experience only being with Luigi, found myself entranced in this spin on a card game I only vaguely admire.
This game has boiled down the familiar roguelite to one of its simplest yet most effective spells yet. If this game has piqued your interest, beware the intoxication.
The gently swaying UI, the steady rhythm of the soundtrack, and the exponentially snappy turns all bolster Balatro's enchanting attitude. Even I, with the majority of my poker experience only being with Luigi, found myself entranced in this spin on a card game I only vaguely admire.
This game has boiled down the familiar roguelite to one of its simplest yet most effective spells yet. If this game has piqued your interest, beware the intoxication.
Infinite Craft
2024
some of my First Discoveries:
Octohorse
Sex Nun
The Return Of The Homie
/r/showerthoughts
Neil Confused
Generative AI wasn't always sorevolting disheartening. The appeal I found in programs like Big Sleep and the early versions of AI Dungeon was always in their chaotic flaws. Big Sleep produced grotesque, surreal images that could only be tangentially related to your prompt's concept. For early AI Dungeon, it had something charming in its inability to cohesively keep a story together and tendency to go off the rails to a batshit insane degree. Modern generative AI programs have smoothed out all those goofy edges, leaving their software less silly and more uncanny.
Infinite Craft brings generative AI to the old alchemy game trend. Like those games, the only goal is continuing to find as many valid combinations as the game allows. This grows your set of ingredients to work with. Every solution can hopefully serve as a part of another experiment.
The limitations on solutions used to be what the developers had already devised. With Infinite Craft, that restriction has been pushed all the way to the limits of a large language model. This reliance on machines for solutions leaves the game unable to match all of what was special and precious in what inspired it. This genre used to require some thought towards making concocted combinations to solve curated puzzles. Emotional intent is what chose elements in games like Little Alchemy and Doodle God.
In Infinite Craft, the systems in play have taken out all of that human expression to become an almost emotionless toy. New discoveries feel inevitable and far less wonderful. Your results are spat out by a heartless machine.
To make up for the lost human input, the AI is sufficiently absurd. As the phrases you combine stray further from your initial set, you'll find baffling random results and odd combinations. The deeper you go, the more chaos ensues. You may find yourself wondering how you got so deep in a long string of nonsense.
If Infinite Craft was made with more reasonable interpretations of inputs from its LLM, it would be a far less charming experience. This neat little time waster ends up being a pleasant trip back to that more experimental era of generative AI software.
Octohorse
Sex Nun
The Return Of The Homie
/r/showerthoughts
Neil Confused
Generative AI wasn't always so
Infinite Craft brings generative AI to the old alchemy game trend. Like those games, the only goal is continuing to find as many valid combinations as the game allows. This grows your set of ingredients to work with. Every solution can hopefully serve as a part of another experiment.
The limitations on solutions used to be what the developers had already devised. With Infinite Craft, that restriction has been pushed all the way to the limits of a large language model. This reliance on machines for solutions leaves the game unable to match all of what was special and precious in what inspired it. This genre used to require some thought towards making concocted combinations to solve curated puzzles. Emotional intent is what chose elements in games like Little Alchemy and Doodle God.
In Infinite Craft, the systems in play have taken out all of that human expression to become an almost emotionless toy. New discoveries feel inevitable and far less wonderful. Your results are spat out by a heartless machine.
To make up for the lost human input, the AI is sufficiently absurd. As the phrases you combine stray further from your initial set, you'll find baffling random results and odd combinations. The deeper you go, the more chaos ensues. You may find yourself wondering how you got so deep in a long string of nonsense.
If Infinite Craft was made with more reasonable interpretations of inputs from its LLM, it would be a far less charming experience. This neat little time waster ends up being a pleasant trip back to that more experimental era of generative AI software.
Animal Crossing
2001
K.K. Slider himself delivers Animal Crossing's thesis at the beginning of the game when you first boot it up. If you haven't given this entry in the series a shot, I'd recommend you try the game first before reading this review. This isn't a case where there's spoilers or anything like that, but I do think it's best to read this after experiencing the game for a while. This written from a retrospective lens rather than as a recommendation.
Animal Crossing is the strongest champion of virtual interactivity in video games.
This video game provides a world you live in for as long as you take care of it. It's like a bonsai tree that you maintain and cultivate, which gives it something akin to a life. Animal Crossing uses that life-medium hybrid to converse with players about living as an individual in a social world similar to our own. It makes lighthearted satirical fun of the world that made it in its friendly assholes and utopian capitalism. It's a fun world made to encapsulate and interact with reality.
Animal Crossing gracefully manifests what other mediums could only dream of doing; it creates a world for the player to necessarily immerse themselves in. The game achieves its immersion through participation with only brief, unassertive guidance. Unlike popular media outside of video games where their fictional worlds are statically and directly communicated, the towns of Animal Crossing and their meaning to the player change in ways not limited to the player's interpretation. The purposes within Animal Crossing shift to what players make of it through options in interactivity. Beyond the few tutorial tasks in the introduction, the game gladly welcomes its players ignoring any and all of the intent in its creation.
Animal Crossing encourages communication within its own community and beyond. The game tells you to share your town with your real friends outside of the game. It doesn't want to replace; it wants to support. The game constantly seeks to reflect you in your written letters, your brief friendships, and your impression on the town's nature, and it urges players right from the introduction to share your sandcastle town with others. Villagers from your town can move to the towns of other players you have interacted with. You can visit those other towns from other players by putting their memory card in the second slot. Animal Crossing can be a medium for connection.
There's something tragically idealistic here in what I see as this Animal Crossing's most unfortunate flaw. Animal Crossing has high hopes in this social dream that is a dated and ignored burden to fulfill in the present. However, I do find that this flaw does give towns some neat physicality. I can remember myself as a kid imagining the miniature towns being stored inside of blocks in those tiny memory cards where all my villagers continued to live out their lives, while the GameCube and the CRT it was hooked up to were a magnifying glass and an avatar. This flaw also did not exist in the series for long, as Animal Crossing's unfairly disregarded sequel introduced a much easier way to share your town with others.
Like the villagers in its towns, Animal Crossing itself won't last forever. It only has seven years left. After 11:59pm on December 31st, 2030, the in-game calendar will break and reset to January 1st, 2030. The game will still be playable, but it will no longer function as intended. Animal Crossing discs in their unmodifiable state on their GameCubes will succumb to this as their discs rot, memory cards corrupt, and consoles break. Future Animal Crossing games have been made, but none of them with the sass or the abstract zaniness that came in the first entry. The sequel I previously mentioned traded the sass for a pensive melancholy vibe. That sequel's banal follow-up completely eroded even that new identity away.
The series has recently built itself a new identity as something closer to a dollhouse in its bestselling, joyous, resortlike entry (read my review here). New Horizons captures what the world wanted as an escape from a pandemic at the time of its release. Compared to the original, New Horizons is more likely to go down in any history of video games for its popularity and the social impact it had. New Horizons serves as an artifact of its time. In contrast, Animal Crossing brings forth a far less idealized (but still very fun) reflection of reality. As the experimental origin of the series, it does less to interpret desires of the masses, and does more to capture a sentiment about modern lifestyles. Animal Crossing is artistic ethnography embedded in a toy with indifference towards being seen as an art. It's not a film, not a painting, not a sculpture, not a song, not a dance, not a book. It doesn't strive to be anything like them.
Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube could only want (and deserve) to be recognized and respected as itself; a video game through and through.
Animal Crossing is the strongest champion of virtual interactivity in video games.
This video game provides a world you live in for as long as you take care of it. It's like a bonsai tree that you maintain and cultivate, which gives it something akin to a life. Animal Crossing uses that life-medium hybrid to converse with players about living as an individual in a social world similar to our own. It makes lighthearted satirical fun of the world that made it in its friendly assholes and utopian capitalism. It's a fun world made to encapsulate and interact with reality.
Animal Crossing gracefully manifests what other mediums could only dream of doing; it creates a world for the player to necessarily immerse themselves in. The game achieves its immersion through participation with only brief, unassertive guidance. Unlike popular media outside of video games where their fictional worlds are statically and directly communicated, the towns of Animal Crossing and their meaning to the player change in ways not limited to the player's interpretation. The purposes within Animal Crossing shift to what players make of it through options in interactivity. Beyond the few tutorial tasks in the introduction, the game gladly welcomes its players ignoring any and all of the intent in its creation.
Animal Crossing encourages communication within its own community and beyond. The game tells you to share your town with your real friends outside of the game. It doesn't want to replace; it wants to support. The game constantly seeks to reflect you in your written letters, your brief friendships, and your impression on the town's nature, and it urges players right from the introduction to share your sandcastle town with others. Villagers from your town can move to the towns of other players you have interacted with. You can visit those other towns from other players by putting their memory card in the second slot. Animal Crossing can be a medium for connection.
There's something tragically idealistic here in what I see as this Animal Crossing's most unfortunate flaw. Animal Crossing has high hopes in this social dream that is a dated and ignored burden to fulfill in the present. However, I do find that this flaw does give towns some neat physicality. I can remember myself as a kid imagining the miniature towns being stored inside of blocks in those tiny memory cards where all my villagers continued to live out their lives, while the GameCube and the CRT it was hooked up to were a magnifying glass and an avatar. This flaw also did not exist in the series for long, as Animal Crossing's unfairly disregarded sequel introduced a much easier way to share your town with others.
Like the villagers in its towns, Animal Crossing itself won't last forever. It only has seven years left. After 11:59pm on December 31st, 2030, the in-game calendar will break and reset to January 1st, 2030. The game will still be playable, but it will no longer function as intended. Animal Crossing discs in their unmodifiable state on their GameCubes will succumb to this as their discs rot, memory cards corrupt, and consoles break. Future Animal Crossing games have been made, but none of them with the sass or the abstract zaniness that came in the first entry. The sequel I previously mentioned traded the sass for a pensive melancholy vibe. That sequel's banal follow-up completely eroded even that new identity away.
The series has recently built itself a new identity as something closer to a dollhouse in its bestselling, joyous, resortlike entry (read my review here). New Horizons captures what the world wanted as an escape from a pandemic at the time of its release. Compared to the original, New Horizons is more likely to go down in any history of video games for its popularity and the social impact it had. New Horizons serves as an artifact of its time. In contrast, Animal Crossing brings forth a far less idealized (but still very fun) reflection of reality. As the experimental origin of the series, it does less to interpret desires of the masses, and does more to capture a sentiment about modern lifestyles. Animal Crossing is artistic ethnography embedded in a toy with indifference towards being seen as an art. It's not a film, not a painting, not a sculpture, not a song, not a dance, not a book. It doesn't strive to be anything like them.
Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube could only want (and deserve) to be recognized and respected as itself; a video game through and through.
Palworld
2024
At the time around its early access release, Palworld is a heated main topic in the circles gathered around gaming news. The game has sold at least 8 million copies already in its first week, exceeding all expectations. This has sparked a lot of discussion about why this game is finding its success. In my brief participation in some discussions in various parts of the internet, I consistently found that others would try to slot me into one of two camps: A freak for Game Freak who believes Nintendo can do no harm, or some techbro weirdo defending modern generative AI and plagiarism. This is based on whether I'm expressing positivity or negativity about the game, with no regard for what is praised or criticized. Conversations have turned into vitriolic flamewars under these dogmatic perspectives.
Palword isn't doing much new while being responsible for all of this heated debate. All of this hubbub is happening around a game that would be, in a vacuum detached from the present's perspective, ordinary and uninspiring. This game lifts a bunch of ideas from other games, and makes them all shallow enough to unobtrusively stick together. It's a baffling blurred mess of familiar popular ideas. You'll see Pokémon, Ark, Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom, and Fortnite all jarringly mishmashed into a clumsy excuse for a game.
In the game's evoked confusion, there's something fascinating about it all. The game, for me, ended up being a mildly fun experience and a mildly funny joke. These lifted elements of gameplay, as jarring as they are, make an interesting base for the gameplay to work from. The loop keeps me more hooked in your standard open world survival crafting experience than anything else I've tried in the past decade's deluge of these games. The mimicry of Palworld's inspirations leads to some hilarious exaggerations in Palworld's interpretations. There's always some goofy goal or weird new Pal to keep me engaged. The game, whether by accident or intention, serves as a parody of the modern gaming landscape.
As of writing this, Palworld has only just entered "Early Access"/"Game Preview" but in its current state, it might effectively be seen as a condensed reflection of current common interests. Palworld is everything that makes a game popular in January 2024.
Palword isn't doing much new while being responsible for all of this heated debate. All of this hubbub is happening around a game that would be, in a vacuum detached from the present's perspective, ordinary and uninspiring. This game lifts a bunch of ideas from other games, and makes them all shallow enough to unobtrusively stick together. It's a baffling blurred mess of familiar popular ideas. You'll see Pokémon, Ark, Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom, and Fortnite all jarringly mishmashed into a clumsy excuse for a game.
In the game's evoked confusion, there's something fascinating about it all. The game, for me, ended up being a mildly fun experience and a mildly funny joke. These lifted elements of gameplay, as jarring as they are, make an interesting base for the gameplay to work from. The loop keeps me more hooked in your standard open world survival crafting experience than anything else I've tried in the past decade's deluge of these games. The mimicry of Palworld's inspirations leads to some hilarious exaggerations in Palworld's interpretations. There's always some goofy goal or weird new Pal to keep me engaged. The game, whether by accident or intention, serves as a parody of the modern gaming landscape.
As of writing this, Palworld has only just entered "Early Access"/"Game Preview" but in its current state, it might effectively be seen as a condensed reflection of current common interests. Palworld is everything that makes a game popular in January 2024.
I am a few hours and bosses into this snackified sekiro souls and I adore it.
it's not on the same level of elegance, but the fun in the game is so translucently purely fun. you get smooooth combat flow, goofy bosses, cool skillmagicstatstuff, and it's all wrapped up in flawless application of the three kingdoms mood. wo long gay bowser
it's not on the same level of elegance, but the fun in the game is so translucently purely fun. you get smooooth combat flow, goofy bosses, cool skillmagicstatstuff, and it's all wrapped up in flawless application of the three kingdoms mood. wo long gay bowser
I love New Horizons. I call it my favorite game in the series since Wild World, and I'd revisit NH over WW even if I like it only almost as much.
My only gripe is that the dollhouse feel hasn't been able to surpass Animal Crossing's old attitude. The New Horizons villagers conform to you like slaves rather than live alongside you. No matter how much you neglect them, abuse them, help them, or attempt to change them, they don't dare to treat you with anything but the reverence they have had since City Folk.
With New Horizons, players nearly have total control over their world. You are given a desolate slate of land, and you chip away at it until you have what you envisioned. You won't learn any culture. You'll just build yours. It's pretty cool to have, and it isn't as confused as New Leaf or bland as City Folk, but it can't compare to what Animal Crossing once was in Wild World or the original.
With that out of the way, I should acknowledge that New Horizons one of the finest Switch titles you can get, and other common complaints about it are far too overblown. I'm growing weary of seeing the rose-tinted take of New Leaf offering a superior experience over New Horizons, and I've been disappointed with the use of the original's greatness as a reason to dismiss what this game brings to the table.
This game is following trends in the simulation genre, sure. Despite its trendy additions, this is the bravest game in the series in such a long time. It's a breath of fresh air "Breath of the Wild" for the series just as many other Switch titles have been. Rather than iterating on the fermenting formula from City Folk and New Leaf, the game pushes the series into an entirely different feel.
The shift in atmosphere is made immediately noticeable in the visuals. Even though I adore the low-poly crunchy look of Wild World and the cartoon zaniness of the original, the art style here is the most elegant direction the series has taken. This relaxed and washed out aesthetic is slick. It's so comfortable to lay your eyes upon, especially after the smudged plastic look of New Leaf.
There's actually a bunch of other huge improvements coming from New Leaf, with the biggest one being player freedom. There's no longer all these pointless restrictions and limitations on customizations. In New Leaf, restrictions are so forced for the sake of tradition or laziness or fear or whatever. This game moves beyond what is broken, and pushes the boundaries of player control in this style of game. This new direction alongside making Happy Home Designer a separate experience has got to be the best possible way to react to the newer audience of the series treating it less like classic Animal Crossing and more like The Sims.
Even with the new direction, this game is still very Animal Crossing. In fact, it manages to remember a part of Animal Crossing that I feel was lost in the waves of growth this series experienced. Tool durability injects the daily inconveniences that the series lost over time. Just like how they used to be, they aren't really that interruptive to (or clashing with) the core flow of the bonsai gameplay; it's just a limitation that you need to maintain. I'm a fan of the relocation of this essential aspect, because it existed in some unsavory areas in the other games that would've been even more obnoxious here.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has gone as far as it could with providing the player with what they would want. With any more radical shifts, it would be hard to call this an Animal Crossing game. It struck a delicate sweet spot on a risky high note.
It's really hard for me to hate this game just for deciding not to conform to traditions. Instead of being an inferior attempt of the original formula with nothing truly special left in it, New Horizons experiments. The game lives up to the title, setting a bold new standard for the series. Only time will tell if it has the lasting strengths that the first two had, but the amount of finesse in New Horizons makes admiration a likely future.
My only gripe is that the dollhouse feel hasn't been able to surpass Animal Crossing's old attitude. The New Horizons villagers conform to you like slaves rather than live alongside you. No matter how much you neglect them, abuse them, help them, or attempt to change them, they don't dare to treat you with anything but the reverence they have had since City Folk.
With New Horizons, players nearly have total control over their world. You are given a desolate slate of land, and you chip away at it until you have what you envisioned. You won't learn any culture. You'll just build yours. It's pretty cool to have, and it isn't as confused as New Leaf or bland as City Folk, but it can't compare to what Animal Crossing once was in Wild World or the original.
With that out of the way, I should acknowledge that New Horizons one of the finest Switch titles you can get, and other common complaints about it are far too overblown. I'm growing weary of seeing the rose-tinted take of New Leaf offering a superior experience over New Horizons, and I've been disappointed with the use of the original's greatness as a reason to dismiss what this game brings to the table.
This game is following trends in the simulation genre, sure. Despite its trendy additions, this is the bravest game in the series in such a long time. It's a breath of fresh air "Breath of the Wild" for the series just as many other Switch titles have been. Rather than iterating on the fermenting formula from City Folk and New Leaf, the game pushes the series into an entirely different feel.
The shift in atmosphere is made immediately noticeable in the visuals. Even though I adore the low-poly crunchy look of Wild World and the cartoon zaniness of the original, the art style here is the most elegant direction the series has taken. This relaxed and washed out aesthetic is slick. It's so comfortable to lay your eyes upon, especially after the smudged plastic look of New Leaf.
There's actually a bunch of other huge improvements coming from New Leaf, with the biggest one being player freedom. There's no longer all these pointless restrictions and limitations on customizations. In New Leaf, restrictions are so forced for the sake of tradition or laziness or fear or whatever. This game moves beyond what is broken, and pushes the boundaries of player control in this style of game. This new direction alongside making Happy Home Designer a separate experience has got to be the best possible way to react to the newer audience of the series treating it less like classic Animal Crossing and more like The Sims.
Even with the new direction, this game is still very Animal Crossing. In fact, it manages to remember a part of Animal Crossing that I feel was lost in the waves of growth this series experienced. Tool durability injects the daily inconveniences that the series lost over time. Just like how they used to be, they aren't really that interruptive to (or clashing with) the core flow of the bonsai gameplay; it's just a limitation that you need to maintain. I'm a fan of the relocation of this essential aspect, because it existed in some unsavory areas in the other games that would've been even more obnoxious here.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has gone as far as it could with providing the player with what they would want. With any more radical shifts, it would be hard to call this an Animal Crossing game. It struck a delicate sweet spot on a risky high note.
It's really hard for me to hate this game just for deciding not to conform to traditions. Instead of being an inferior attempt of the original formula with nothing truly special left in it, New Horizons experiments. The game lives up to the title, setting a bold new standard for the series. Only time will tell if it has the lasting strengths that the first two had, but the amount of finesse in New Horizons makes admiration a likely future.
Kirby Air Ride
2003
Kirby Air Ride earned critical disdain at release. it just wasn't good at what it was expected to do. it ended up as a cult classic for its buried brilliance. in that, there's a lesson to learn;
if a game mode goes hard, dont bury it under/with other garbage unless you have soda drinker pro/glittermitten grove energy.
Kirby Air Ride fails itself by improperly acknowledging the most admirable part of the game. it's a misguided game that presents itself as something it never was, and overshadows its true genius in the process.
if i was new to Kirby Air Ride, i would have lot of high expectations. this game has kirby, and i love kirby. i got this game when i was younger because it was the only kirby game available on gamecube. it's also directed by masahiro sakurai. to this day, he has never missed...well, except for smash tour...and a lot in this game.
i would also think i'd be getting into a racing game. if i really wanted a racing game, i'd be in for a massive disappointment.
the titular mode, air ride, is pretty bad. if you want a non-traditional racing game on your gc, go play sonic riders or f-zero gx over this. the game's central mechanic (and only mechanic) is turning your brakes for almost all the vehicles in this game into a charged boost. in a standard race, it just feels like im yanking around my car to get tiny moments of speed. jerky janky. according to his game concepts video on this, he wanted to make a unique form of drifting. his chimera of simplicity in boosting and breaking makes the drift lose my favorite piece: the preservation of momentum. drifting in other games lets you give up control and just flow at a high speed through a turn. in the air ride mode, drift doesnt just sacrifice the flow for control; it is your only trick that you can use. you're pulling back on every curve that feels less like pulling a slingshot and more like you're some poor schmuck in a wwe match bouncing off ropes. if you mess up and run into a wall, the game drags you along by the collar into that lame feel anyways. you just get bounced back in the general direction you need to go with no loss in momentum. the driving is just too oversimple and unsatisfying.
the tracks dont help at all. awkward annoyances galore. claustrophobic corridors, invisible walls, and opaque gimmicks plague this game. celestial valley and frozen hillside were the only levels that felt cohesive and competent. the rest are only enjoyable if you're chipping away at them in time trials.
the third strike against this mode are the awful abilities. air ride's abilities are the worst items ive personally experienced in any racing game. half are stubby and only useful when you were about to pass someone anyways. some require you to hit the breakboost button and ruin your flow. plasma is just overpowered in every race and not even satisfying to build up. the last two make your machine choice irrelevant. also fuck the mic im just trying to race goddammit
strike out for this mode. nothing is fun about plain ol racing in this game, unless...
top ride is still racing, but something is clearly better here. it's the most ignored part of this game but the mode is put together far better than air ride. the camera angle works better with the mechanics and it allows for some havoc to develop. there's some seriously underwhelming side game energy here from the limited choices, making it all too soft, but at least theres faint fun to be had. this mode mightve been pretty solid with some more content, and maybe it wouldve been cooler if it was introduced as a side mode in another kirby game. as is, top ride is a pop fly and the 2nd out.
nothing is fun about plain ol racing in this game, unless...it's a quick lap you didnt even know was going to be happening. city trial is unrefined chaotic bliss delegated to the bottom of the game's menu. pretty much everyone else i knew who grew up with this game had the exact same experience as me, which is city trial and nothing else. this game mode singlehandedly sustains the admiration that props this game up as a gamecube gem. twisted metal, cel damage, and wreckfest can all eat their puny hearts out because this is the best vehicular party game you're getting.
your goal in city trial: scavenge a vehicle, gather all sorts of stat stuffs, and avoid all of the batshit that the world throws at you. after all that, pray that you got yourself dressed for the right event, because thats how you win.
the mode even makes the baffling control decisions make sense. the simple driving mechanics actually work here because they almost feel made for an open area. you can turn in all directions pretty quickly and get a boost when you figure out your direction. it's also pretty easy to figure out exactly what a vehicle is good at when you find one because there arent many functions to test.
the abilities mesh well with the open world environment, as you're a lot more likely to be running into others, wanting a temporary new movement option, dodging spark, or mic lol.
i refuse to believe the mechanics werent designed or at least predominantly balanced around this mode.
every part of the way is fun. slowly building your character, getting destroyed by some gimmick, or even just vibing around the city are all fun. this is one of the few games where it's pure joy in the mayhem even when my luck isnt so great. everything that happens is so absurd and sudden that even when im getting screwed over, the fun overtakes it all. city trial pulls off a home run for the game, bringing it all together into something good.
there seems to be a problem with letting sakurai's concept shine. he gave this idea another go, but it got stuck on the 3ds with no online play and no ability to interact with other players on the map. it didnt work as well in smash bros, where the game is already a frenzy and this expanded game mode takes away from that a little bit, but it's still a blast even as a fighting game.
there have been indie homages to all sorts of niche game concepts, but i haven't seen one for air ride yet. it's only a matter of time until that day and i cant wait. the concept deserves a full game's focus. until then, i'm totally down to play some city trial via dolphin's netplay. shoot me a message in my usual places and let's get crackin.
if a game mode goes hard, dont bury it under/with other garbage unless you have soda drinker pro/glittermitten grove energy.
Kirby Air Ride fails itself by improperly acknowledging the most admirable part of the game. it's a misguided game that presents itself as something it never was, and overshadows its true genius in the process.
if i was new to Kirby Air Ride, i would have lot of high expectations. this game has kirby, and i love kirby. i got this game when i was younger because it was the only kirby game available on gamecube. it's also directed by masahiro sakurai. to this day, he has never missed...well, except for smash tour...and a lot in this game.
i would also think i'd be getting into a racing game. if i really wanted a racing game, i'd be in for a massive disappointment.
the titular mode, air ride, is pretty bad. if you want a non-traditional racing game on your gc, go play sonic riders or f-zero gx over this. the game's central mechanic (and only mechanic) is turning your brakes for almost all the vehicles in this game into a charged boost. in a standard race, it just feels like im yanking around my car to get tiny moments of speed. jerky janky. according to his game concepts video on this, he wanted to make a unique form of drifting. his chimera of simplicity in boosting and breaking makes the drift lose my favorite piece: the preservation of momentum. drifting in other games lets you give up control and just flow at a high speed through a turn. in the air ride mode, drift doesnt just sacrifice the flow for control; it is your only trick that you can use. you're pulling back on every curve that feels less like pulling a slingshot and more like you're some poor schmuck in a wwe match bouncing off ropes. if you mess up and run into a wall, the game drags you along by the collar into that lame feel anyways. you just get bounced back in the general direction you need to go with no loss in momentum. the driving is just too oversimple and unsatisfying.
the tracks dont help at all. awkward annoyances galore. claustrophobic corridors, invisible walls, and opaque gimmicks plague this game. celestial valley and frozen hillside were the only levels that felt cohesive and competent. the rest are only enjoyable if you're chipping away at them in time trials.
the third strike against this mode are the awful abilities. air ride's abilities are the worst items ive personally experienced in any racing game. half are stubby and only useful when you were about to pass someone anyways. some require you to hit the breakboost button and ruin your flow. plasma is just overpowered in every race and not even satisfying to build up. the last two make your machine choice irrelevant. also fuck the mic im just trying to race goddammit
strike out for this mode. nothing is fun about plain ol racing in this game, unless...
top ride is still racing, but something is clearly better here. it's the most ignored part of this game but the mode is put together far better than air ride. the camera angle works better with the mechanics and it allows for some havoc to develop. there's some seriously underwhelming side game energy here from the limited choices, making it all too soft, but at least theres faint fun to be had. this mode mightve been pretty solid with some more content, and maybe it wouldve been cooler if it was introduced as a side mode in another kirby game. as is, top ride is a pop fly and the 2nd out.
nothing is fun about plain ol racing in this game, unless...it's a quick lap you didnt even know was going to be happening. city trial is unrefined chaotic bliss delegated to the bottom of the game's menu. pretty much everyone else i knew who grew up with this game had the exact same experience as me, which is city trial and nothing else. this game mode singlehandedly sustains the admiration that props this game up as a gamecube gem. twisted metal, cel damage, and wreckfest can all eat their puny hearts out because this is the best vehicular party game you're getting.
your goal in city trial: scavenge a vehicle, gather all sorts of stat stuffs, and avoid all of the batshit that the world throws at you. after all that, pray that you got yourself dressed for the right event, because thats how you win.
the mode even makes the baffling control decisions make sense. the simple driving mechanics actually work here because they almost feel made for an open area. you can turn in all directions pretty quickly and get a boost when you figure out your direction. it's also pretty easy to figure out exactly what a vehicle is good at when you find one because there arent many functions to test.
the abilities mesh well with the open world environment, as you're a lot more likely to be running into others, wanting a temporary new movement option, dodging spark, or mic lol.
i refuse to believe the mechanics werent designed or at least predominantly balanced around this mode.
every part of the way is fun. slowly building your character, getting destroyed by some gimmick, or even just vibing around the city are all fun. this is one of the few games where it's pure joy in the mayhem even when my luck isnt so great. everything that happens is so absurd and sudden that even when im getting screwed over, the fun overtakes it all. city trial pulls off a home run for the game, bringing it all together into something good.
there seems to be a problem with letting sakurai's concept shine. he gave this idea another go, but it got stuck on the 3ds with no online play and no ability to interact with other players on the map. it didnt work as well in smash bros, where the game is already a frenzy and this expanded game mode takes away from that a little bit, but it's still a blast even as a fighting game.
there have been indie homages to all sorts of niche game concepts, but i haven't seen one for air ride yet. it's only a matter of time until that day and i cant wait. the concept deserves a full game's focus. until then, i'm totally down to play some city trial via dolphin's netplay. shoot me a message in my usual places and let's get crackin.
Street Fighter 6
2023
traditional fighting games tend to be extremely unsatisfying. the genre has been in an embarrassing state for years with most new releases giving you barely any innovative content. then, they try to nickle and dime you for tiny driblets of dlc. i get that the fgc isnt massive that there's no room for smaller games to experiment that much, but the previous entry in this series Street Fighter V had no excuse. i unfortunately chose it as my first traditional fighting game and it just put me off the genre entirely.
seven years have passed since my first experience with SFV, and i have some more experience in the genre. i've played various Guilty Gears and Mortal Kombats and even past Street Fighters, and even learned how to play them on a basic level, but i still couldn't shake the feeling that the genre just is not for me. there's always just so little to do.
Street Fighter 6 not only is one of the first traditional fighting games that ive tried in what feels like forever to include thoughtful side content, but also one of the first to make competition irresistible. the allure of "gitting gud" in this the strongest i've ever felt.
world tour is a joke and i mean that in the most positive way possible. this mode is extremely endearing in how cheap and gimmicky it feels. it's very clear that a lot of this mode is crafted around getting new players familiar with fighting game mechanics in a fun way. everything you do stays rooted in street fighter's core gameplay. i see this mode as an extended tutorial for anyone who is new to the series that was also made to simultaneously draw in people like me who feel fighting games don't offer enough.
battle hub is probably the best lobby system ive encountered in any game. it's clear that a lot of thought and effort went into making this game a pretty positive social space all around. the community been really pleasant, which makes any anger you may feel about their playstyle just disappear. it's a great chill place to spam emotes with fellow character editor monstrosities in-between rounds.
fighting ground is your usual sf business that never had me hooked. pretty much everything in this mode is what sf games in the past had as much of or less than. however, there are some seriously cool things now. the practice mode offers a robust selection of settings that allow you to see whats under the hood of the game. extreme battle adds some overdue party settings to the street fighter formula that i'll be trying whenever i get the chance. arcade is kept short by default, and offers a collection of art as a pretty neat little reward for your efforts. the content in this mode alone is superior in quality compared to anything else ive gotten from the series, and only Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX can rival it in the quantity of ways to play.
underneath all of these modes are great new mechanics with fantastic cast of characters. drive is much more straightforward than all the stuff they continued piling on Street Fighter V. it's hard to see a future where these mechanics make the meta less exciting, and the present makes it clear that they're fun to use. alongside the new mechanics are my favorite set of newcomers in the series history since Street Fighter II. the designs and personalities are inspired additions to the cast of the series. the returning cast also has some strong picks with seriously neat revamps to their style with the new drive mechanics. it's nice to have a new sf where the initial cast doesn't have that feeling of a crucial character being missing.
at every single point in this review, i was tempted to write "all fighting games should have this." this is the new kingpin of the genre. other competitive games should be taking as much inspiration from as they can.
if you are curious about getting into traditional fighting games for some fun competition, this is the most accessible entry point that there has ever been.
seven years have passed since my first experience with SFV, and i have some more experience in the genre. i've played various Guilty Gears and Mortal Kombats and even past Street Fighters, and even learned how to play them on a basic level, but i still couldn't shake the feeling that the genre just is not for me. there's always just so little to do.
Street Fighter 6 not only is one of the first traditional fighting games that ive tried in what feels like forever to include thoughtful side content, but also one of the first to make competition irresistible. the allure of "gitting gud" in this the strongest i've ever felt.
world tour is a joke and i mean that in the most positive way possible. this mode is extremely endearing in how cheap and gimmicky it feels. it's very clear that a lot of this mode is crafted around getting new players familiar with fighting game mechanics in a fun way. everything you do stays rooted in street fighter's core gameplay. i see this mode as an extended tutorial for anyone who is new to the series that was also made to simultaneously draw in people like me who feel fighting games don't offer enough.
battle hub is probably the best lobby system ive encountered in any game. it's clear that a lot of thought and effort went into making this game a pretty positive social space all around. the community been really pleasant, which makes any anger you may feel about their playstyle just disappear. it's a great chill place to spam emotes with fellow character editor monstrosities in-between rounds.
fighting ground is your usual sf business that never had me hooked. pretty much everything in this mode is what sf games in the past had as much of or less than. however, there are some seriously cool things now. the practice mode offers a robust selection of settings that allow you to see whats under the hood of the game. extreme battle adds some overdue party settings to the street fighter formula that i'll be trying whenever i get the chance. arcade is kept short by default, and offers a collection of art as a pretty neat little reward for your efforts. the content in this mode alone is superior in quality compared to anything else ive gotten from the series, and only Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX can rival it in the quantity of ways to play.
underneath all of these modes are great new mechanics with fantastic cast of characters. drive is much more straightforward than all the stuff they continued piling on Street Fighter V. it's hard to see a future where these mechanics make the meta less exciting, and the present makes it clear that they're fun to use. alongside the new mechanics are my favorite set of newcomers in the series history since Street Fighter II. the designs and personalities are inspired additions to the cast of the series. the returning cast also has some strong picks with seriously neat revamps to their style with the new drive mechanics. it's nice to have a new sf where the initial cast doesn't have that feeling of a crucial character being missing.
at every single point in this review, i was tempted to write "all fighting games should have this." this is the new kingpin of the genre. other competitive games should be taking as much inspiration from as they can.
if you are curious about getting into traditional fighting games for some fun competition, this is the most accessible entry point that there has ever been.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom follows up on the promise in Breath of the Wild serving as a new foundation for the series and not a brief deviation. the sequel to one of the most brilliant open world games ever made has managed to one-up the predecessor in a direction simultaneously superior and different. BotW has not been overwritten, but this new take stretches its concepts to a new high.
i felt an unexpected fascination with how hyrule may have changed that i felt exceeded my explorative curiosity in my original playthrough of BotW. hyrule has been recontextualized. you do return to the same foundation as BotW, but it has been renovated, revised, and revitalized. all of the regions in this game are affected by phenomena that shift them away from their usual climate. the remixed world serves as a strong base for an exciting adventure, but the game provides even more.
the two separate realms act more like game modes than alternative worlds. the skies of hyrule are now populated with floating islands, which provide much denser content. outside of the small skyblock-sized drops in the sky, every piece of land you set foot on offers a challenge or quality resources. in contrast, the depths make the content much more sparse. spelunking through the depths often has you gathering resources or hunting for treasure. the search for these is made difficult by the dark vastness of the depths, spanning the entire area of the overworld while having much less to find. enemies in the depths also do a more severe form of damage, and there are combat challenges waiting for you scattered throughout this underworld. in these alternate areas, TotK has explored other open world designs as a treat on top (and under) the returning foundation. sky islands feel like a direct improvement on the design of Wind Waker, while the depths feel like an improvement on the experience of something like Hollow Knight's large and empty underground environment with the occasional tough enemy. i call them improved because, unlike those games, navigating through the vastness of the world is actually fun.
ultrahand, beyond serving as a stronger form of magnesis that lets you grab and rotate anything that isnt tied down or alive, gives the player the ability to build all sorts of contraptions. you can stick anything that isnt tied down in the world together. the game lets you go nuts & Bolts with making any vehicle you want to make out of the various zonai artifacts you get from the big gumball machines in the sky. using your haphazardly-frankensteined heap or carefully-planned contraption keeps traversal fresh in the familiar and unfamiliar lands.
recall compliments ultrahand perfectly. it's an improved stasis. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be rewound through its recent movements. its usage may be the most opaque, but recall becomes so invaluable once you figure out all of the things you can do with it. i feel like it's best if i abstain from praising this ability with more detail right now. as im writing this, the game is still new, and it's best if you figure out the ways this ability can be used for yourself.
there is yet another ability that compliments the others in fuse. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be fused to your weapon or shield. i'm not someone who had an issue with botw's weapon durability, but i imagine that this must fix it for many people. your abundance of weapons that you find in the field can now consistently be something you like by just dropping one of the many horns in your inventory at any given moment. this doesn't forgo that old system entirely because the base still has an impact, but you generally get to remake the weapon you desire as much as you want by having the blade in your materials.
all of the above allow for some really unique experimentation, but there is still one more ability. ascend is a bit of an odd one out among the four new abilities in the game. it can be used on static environments and the outcome of using the ability is always the same predictable result. some ascend skills can be learned, but it's got less to it than the other three. despite that, i adore the inclusion of this ability, as it still completely rewrites how you interact with the world and intertwines with usage of the other abilities. all of the abilities in this game are such a massive leap over the disconnected tools in link's BotW arsenal not just because of their inherently cool and impactful concepts but also because of just how well they mix together in usage and (mostly) concept.
the active story this time around is more ambitious, and it mostly pays off. the various characters that the game gives focus too have compelling stories with actual character development. this is a huge leap from its predecessor's empty husk of a cast. however, these stories do require TotK to act in branches instead of the wide open world in BotW. dungeons require longer questlines to be completed before you can actually approach them, and those questlines have to be initiated before you can make progress.
similarly, the beginning of the game is also much more linear. the game begins you with a slow buildup in the depths of hyrule castle. soon, you are placed into the great sky island, which serves as this game's great plateau. unlike the great plateau, the great sky island really pushes you along a set path. you can break the order, but everyone of the many people i've talked to this game about acquired every ability in the same order on their first run. the linear nature of the introduction to this game has been controversial, but i feel that it's generally a better introduction despite the lack of freedom. this introduction built excitement in the prologue under the castle, which really is not fast to just skip through on a second run. the linear great sky island also builds a sense of direction for players that might have felt lost or paralyzed by choice in BotW. i find myself preferring the great plateau's explicit freedom, but this is nevertheless a great parallel to it.
the sense of direction that the game pushes on to you feels imperative to it not feeling excessive. this game occupies a vague threshold around it being too big for its own good. BotW and now TotK often get compared to ubisoft's slop, but this has always came off as a desperately diminishing and disingenuous to me. every part of the plethora is so carefully polished. every tool for an intended solution provided for you, but the game also accounts for the ways which you may circumvent its trials, and makes careful design choices on whether to let you break it or not. this game is absurdly stable in both its physics and its game design. there might just be too much going on here. it justified its $70 price tag by being this behemoth of quality content, but this behemoth may be too big of a beast for most players comfortably approach.
i was worried that Tears of the Kingdom would not live up to the astronomical levels of hype that it had silently built for itself. nintendo held off from presenting much information on the game until it was just around the corner even though it was mostly complete a year before it launched according to aonuma. it felt like they might have nothing to show from minute changes in the trailers, with some changes requiring detailed analysis to even spot. those concerns did not find fruition in disappointment with the game's release. TotK excels in being just an iteration upon BotW, and has plenty of perks to warrant the reuse of BotW as a base.
i felt an unexpected fascination with how hyrule may have changed that i felt exceeded my explorative curiosity in my original playthrough of BotW. hyrule has been recontextualized. you do return to the same foundation as BotW, but it has been renovated, revised, and revitalized. all of the regions in this game are affected by phenomena that shift them away from their usual climate. the remixed world serves as a strong base for an exciting adventure, but the game provides even more.
the two separate realms act more like game modes than alternative worlds. the skies of hyrule are now populated with floating islands, which provide much denser content. outside of the small skyblock-sized drops in the sky, every piece of land you set foot on offers a challenge or quality resources. in contrast, the depths make the content much more sparse. spelunking through the depths often has you gathering resources or hunting for treasure. the search for these is made difficult by the dark vastness of the depths, spanning the entire area of the overworld while having much less to find. enemies in the depths also do a more severe form of damage, and there are combat challenges waiting for you scattered throughout this underworld. in these alternate areas, TotK has explored other open world designs as a treat on top (and under) the returning foundation. sky islands feel like a direct improvement on the design of Wind Waker, while the depths feel like an improvement on the experience of something like Hollow Knight's large and empty underground environment with the occasional tough enemy. i call them improved because, unlike those games, navigating through the vastness of the world is actually fun.
ultrahand, beyond serving as a stronger form of magnesis that lets you grab and rotate anything that isnt tied down or alive, gives the player the ability to build all sorts of contraptions. you can stick anything that isnt tied down in the world together. the game lets you go nuts & Bolts with making any vehicle you want to make out of the various zonai artifacts you get from the big gumball machines in the sky. using your haphazardly-frankensteined heap or carefully-planned contraption keeps traversal fresh in the familiar and unfamiliar lands.
recall compliments ultrahand perfectly. it's an improved stasis. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be rewound through its recent movements. its usage may be the most opaque, but recall becomes so invaluable once you figure out all of the things you can do with it. i feel like it's best if i abstain from praising this ability with more detail right now. as im writing this, the game is still new, and it's best if you figure out the ways this ability can be used for yourself.
there is yet another ability that compliments the others in fuse. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be fused to your weapon or shield. i'm not someone who had an issue with botw's weapon durability, but i imagine that this must fix it for many people. your abundance of weapons that you find in the field can now consistently be something you like by just dropping one of the many horns in your inventory at any given moment. this doesn't forgo that old system entirely because the base still has an impact, but you generally get to remake the weapon you desire as much as you want by having the blade in your materials.
all of the above allow for some really unique experimentation, but there is still one more ability. ascend is a bit of an odd one out among the four new abilities in the game. it can be used on static environments and the outcome of using the ability is always the same predictable result. some ascend skills can be learned, but it's got less to it than the other three. despite that, i adore the inclusion of this ability, as it still completely rewrites how you interact with the world and intertwines with usage of the other abilities. all of the abilities in this game are such a massive leap over the disconnected tools in link's BotW arsenal not just because of their inherently cool and impactful concepts but also because of just how well they mix together in usage and (mostly) concept.
the active story this time around is more ambitious, and it mostly pays off. the various characters that the game gives focus too have compelling stories with actual character development. this is a huge leap from its predecessor's empty husk of a cast. however, these stories do require TotK to act in branches instead of the wide open world in BotW. dungeons require longer questlines to be completed before you can actually approach them, and those questlines have to be initiated before you can make progress.
similarly, the beginning of the game is also much more linear. the game begins you with a slow buildup in the depths of hyrule castle. soon, you are placed into the great sky island, which serves as this game's great plateau. unlike the great plateau, the great sky island really pushes you along a set path. you can break the order, but everyone of the many people i've talked to this game about acquired every ability in the same order on their first run. the linear nature of the introduction to this game has been controversial, but i feel that it's generally a better introduction despite the lack of freedom. this introduction built excitement in the prologue under the castle, which really is not fast to just skip through on a second run. the linear great sky island also builds a sense of direction for players that might have felt lost or paralyzed by choice in BotW. i find myself preferring the great plateau's explicit freedom, but this is nevertheless a great parallel to it.
the sense of direction that the game pushes on to you feels imperative to it not feeling excessive. this game occupies a vague threshold around it being too big for its own good. BotW and now TotK often get compared to ubisoft's slop, but this has always came off as a desperately diminishing and disingenuous to me. every part of the plethora is so carefully polished. every tool for an intended solution provided for you, but the game also accounts for the ways which you may circumvent its trials, and makes careful design choices on whether to let you break it or not. this game is absurdly stable in both its physics and its game design. there might just be too much going on here. it justified its $70 price tag by being this behemoth of quality content, but this behemoth may be too big of a beast for most players comfortably approach.
i was worried that Tears of the Kingdom would not live up to the astronomical levels of hype that it had silently built for itself. nintendo held off from presenting much information on the game until it was just around the corner even though it was mostly complete a year before it launched according to aonuma. it felt like they might have nothing to show from minute changes in the trailers, with some changes requiring detailed analysis to even spot. those concerns did not find fruition in disappointment with the game's release. TotK excels in being just an iteration upon BotW, and has plenty of perks to warrant the reuse of BotW as a base.
this remaster was an inevitable win. a 4k 60fps remaster with improved visuals and new content is fitting for We ♥ Katamari. the original game portrayed the excitement, ambivalence, and anxiety in a sequel to success, and took me to a conclusion that whatever shares love and inspiration is a good thing.
with that being said, i also want to say that i adore this site's community. seeing all of the unique perspectives on games in all forms is a treat. i also have already been shown some really cool new games in my short time here from the many lists that you wonderful people have compiled. thank you if you have contributed to this site in any way, and thank you for reading this goofy stuff.
anyways, creating a remaster of that sequel feels natural as a follow-up to the other remaster. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is a better version of a game that was all about being better. the ultimate fanservice. $30 of love. sweet!
with that being said, i also want to say that i adore this site's community. seeing all of the unique perspectives on games in all forms is a treat. i also have already been shown some really cool new games in my short time here from the many lists that you wonderful people have compiled. thank you if you have contributed to this site in any way, and thank you for reading this goofy stuff.
anyways, creating a remaster of that sequel feels natural as a follow-up to the other remaster. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is a better version of a game that was all about being better. the ultimate fanservice. $30 of love. sweet!