Bio
not immune to fantasy
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

Badges


Trend Setter

Gained 50+ followers

Adored

Gained 300+ total review likes

Pinged

Mentioned by another user

Gone Gold

Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page

N00b

Played 100+ games

Popular

Gained 15+ followers

Loved

Gained 100+ total review likes

Well Written

Gained 10+ likes on a single review

GOTY '23

Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event

Shreked

Found the secret ogre page

Busy Day

Journaled 5+ games in a single day

Roadtrip

Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap

Donor

Liked 50+ reviews / lists

GOTY '22

Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event

Liked

Gained 10+ total review likes

Best Friends

Become mutual friends with at least 3 others

Noticed

Gained 3+ followers

3 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years

Favorite Games

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Etrian Odyssey
Etrian Odyssey
Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics
Touhou Eiyashou: Imperishable Night
Touhou Eiyashou: Imperishable Night

119

Total Games Played

048

Played in 2024

341

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Mar 28

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

Mar 27

Honkai: Star Rail
Honkai: Star Rail

Mar 24

Fire Emblem Gaiden
Fire Emblem Gaiden

Mar 12

Idol Showdown
Idol Showdown

Mar 11

Recently Reviewed See More

Time travel is not alien to the world of videogames, let alone RPGs. Partners in Time though treats timeline shenanigans in a clever, weirdly somber and mature approach, considering the depressing and oppressive turn the game's story takes: it is now the Shrooms whom act as cruel and memorable villains in this story, having conquered the Toad Kingdom past.

Mario, Luigi, Mario Jr. & Luigi Jr. work well enough together as a team, but it's not as effective as in Super Star Saga: instead of using points to use combo attacks, they are now essentially items you can buy. Since money was never an issue in M&L games, you can see where the issue lies: the game's difficulty takes a nosedive each time a new combo item is introduced, making enemies' health bars just a matter of time, instead of strategic thinking. Platform sections and puzzles are fun enough, but despite having more bros, there's much less to do in terms of combo and exploration. I'll be blunt, the game takes a lot of steps forward in settings, story, characterization, with the four protagonists weirdly well characterized despite never speaking and Prof. E. Gadd stealing every scene he's featured in. The soundtracks also kind of rocks?

At the same time, it takes away a lot of ingenuity and platforming\puzzles from Super Star Saga, not taking real advantage of the dual screen if not for the occasional battle animation. It tries striking a balance between funny and emotional, which doesn't always land. To me it'll always be charming, but there's a lot of things to consider and wade through before getting to the "good stuff". Strong beginning, weak middle, padded ending but satisfactory experience don't make for a game I'd recommend easily.

In terms the average game journalist can understand, it's a A24-produced, genre-redefining, trope-subverting, 40 KB JPG atmospheric, dark and eerie, emotionally draining [...] game.

All you had to do to make turn based look "fun" and "something I would play" was to attach it to a gacha. In Star Rail's defense, the game looks good, animations are wonderfully made and it plays well enough to justify any kind of investment: characters have a lot of charm and it's not as dull as other similar experiences in the same macro-genre of games.

If I had to say something contrarian: I would love to have an actual space exploration and\or better navigation. Instead of putting animations at double speed I wish I could skip them entirely.

Yet I am still salty that when I played turn based games in 2008 I was a boomer and had weird tastes, now it's hip and cool! The audacity. I also stopped playing because "wow this game is awesome!" ads kept filling my youtube essay playlist and I've had enough. Genshin ads aren't as insufferable and make me want to play their game, Honkai Star Rail made me want to unistall it.

This game is a true love letter by dedicated fans and, despite not feeling the cleanest compared to others, there's been an extraordinary amount of testing and effort put into it.

Which brings me to why I adore this kind of kusoge: despite not being the fondest of Vtubers, Idol Showdown caught me off guard by offering a great cast of characters, reminiscent of Under Night in Blood or Skullgirls in terms of specific roles and niches each character has covered; it made me appreciate each vibrant personality more and especially it made me do some research to see where the appeal was. I think the dog is funny and without Idol Showdown I don't think I would've watched her clips.

Funny how it took years for commercial fighting games to adopt rollback, and even then there's never guarantees, while Idol Showdown had it day one and it's still going on with updates and plans for new characters and assists, truly the power of love and all.