Blue Storm is the only Wave Race game I've played. I had it growing up, but never really put much time into it outside the occasional Dolphin Park free roam. This week, I decided to give it a proper run-through.

Blue Storm does a really good job simulating what it's like to ride a jet ski. I really like how courses change depending on the weather, exposing or covering rocks or shoals, and the weather effects themselves are very convincing. They got a lot of mileage out of the limited number of levels by changing up routes and bouy placement according to circuit difficulty.

The controls are strange. I placed second on the expert circuit before I even bothered learning them. I didn't know about crouching, or leaning, and didn't understand how quick turns worked. This seems to be more of a simulation racer than an arcade racer, so I understand why the controls aren't as simple to intuit as something like Mario Kart 64, but why was I able to get so far without these techniques? For example, maybe they should have required the player to crouch to withstand big waves. Would have forced me to learn it real quick.

Anyway, after Blue Storm, I'm more interested in checking out the N64 Wave Race. It seems to be more of an arcade racer, which is more my speed. Many of its fans were disappointed by Blue Storm, so I'm excited to see what all the fuss is about.

I haven't purchased a Ubisoft game in many years. I loved this game back in the day, so I bought the Limited Run Games physical rerelease, against my better judgement.

The original was the poster child for game preservation, an early prominent casualty of a digital delisting. They successfully negotiated with the various rights holders for a physical release, and what does Ubisoft go and do? They lock Knives Chau behind a free DLC that requires a Ubisoft account to download, utterly destroying the entire purpose of a physical release.

Fuck Ubisoft. They can't go out of business soon enough.

What a great game.

I missed out on Woolly World at launch. My brother was the one who owned the Wii U. I first tried out the demo on my 3DS years later, and was immediately hooked. It was clear the visuals took a big hit, so I decided to wait until the inevitable Switch port...

...which never came. I broke down and bought a Wii U early this year pretty much just so I could experience this game as God intended, and I'm glad I did.

It's clear Woolly World had plenty of time in the oven. Solid performance, new, polished mechanics regularly introduced right through to the very end, and probably the most inspired execution of an aesthetic I've ever seen in a videogame.

The secret collectibles can be downright nasty. I've played plenty of Nintendo platformers over the years, and despite a pretty thorough first run of each level, I found I was already missing some by World 2. I played the original New Super Mario Bros. for the first time last year, and could have found all the collectibles and secret exits in my sleep. Yet, here's this cutesy platformer made for babies, forcing crow down my throat.

It's interesting to compare this one to Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's Island's controls were responsive and liberating, and its boss fights imaginative and hilariously subversive. Woolly World's controls get the job done, and its boss fights are unfortunately bog-standard Nintendo. It also feels like there was a mandate to recycle many enemies and mechanics from the original (as was common with Nintendo games during this era), which makes the game less exciting than it otherwise could have been.

However, one thing that I kind of despised about Yoshi's Island was its insistence on finding all of its collectibles and finishing with full health all in the same run of a level for 100%. I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself, but even I felt like this was a bit much to ask of the player.

Woolly World graciously nullifies this demand. As long as you meet one of its requirements and complete the level, that requirement stays complete. This one change by itself makes going for 100% completion so much more feasible and enjoyable. I'm curious if there's anyone out there that resents this change.

Woolly World is a super cozy game with surprising depth. I'm awe-inspired by the commitment and execution of its wool aesthetic, and impressed by how many gameplay ideas they crammed into it. Highly recommended.