saxmaster896
1995
Way more fleshed out of a game as the other Kirby's Dream Land, much more substance. The Animal Friends plus the copy abilities on top of that offers a great number of different ways to complete the levels. Great if you are just running though for fun.
Debating on going back for all the Rainbow Shards. Likely will to see what all is on offer
Debating on going back for all the Rainbow Shards. Likely will to see what all is on offer
1992
A great first entry, though I will say that I do miss copy abilities. It was a natural evolution for the series to make it stand out, for sure.
Still worth a play though, very short!
Still worth a play though, very short!
1993
I've played this one before, via Nightmare in Dreamland for the GBA; a remake of this classic. I'll just start right now by saying if you have that version handy, that is the better version in my opinion just in terms of controls.
Graphically, this game is insane for being on the NES. I actually played through this because friends of ours got my wife a blanket from this and I had to replay it but on the NES.
I will say, having played it before I did not find this difficult at all, only having trouble with re-wiring my brain to the fact you press up to float rather than just multi pressing A. That took some adjustment but wasn't dealbreaking for me.
Overall, good if you don't have access to Nightmare in Dreamland; but if you do have Nightmare I wholly recommend you play that instead.
Graphically, this game is insane for being on the NES. I actually played through this because friends of ours got my wife a blanket from this and I had to replay it but on the NES.
I will say, having played it before I did not find this difficult at all, only having trouble with re-wiring my brain to the fact you press up to float rather than just multi pressing A. That took some adjustment but wasn't dealbreaking for me.
Overall, good if you don't have access to Nightmare in Dreamland; but if you do have Nightmare I wholly recommend you play that instead.
1990
Solid platformer, much better than DKC in terms of difficulty. You can tell a lot of modern mario platforming borrows from this title specifically. This game is a must play only to experience a major entry in gaming history.
2023
Its okay, nothing super special
Very fun platformer. Bunny Mario makes this game 100 times easier, and if you spam it fast enough you can skip a large portion of levels.
2000
Words cannot describe how truly iconic this game is. From start to finish this game captures you and won't let go. Slow start in terms of combat but once you start investing skill points and obtain more augmentations it really opens up.
Bosses were a cakewalk for me, but I almost feel like I juked a lot of them out. Gunter was as easy as banking a LAM off the corner, and I think Walton Simons ai bugged and he never enabled his shield augment. These moments made the game what it is, the ultimate imsim.
Bosses were a cakewalk for me, but I almost feel like I juked a lot of them out. Gunter was as easy as banking a LAM off the corner, and I think Walton Simons ai bugged and he never enabled his shield augment. These moments made the game what it is, the ultimate imsim.
I had to shelve this one for now. Where Golden Souls 1 had short, sweet levels the ones on offer in Golden Souls 2 are much longer and more complicated. This is starting to shy away from the classic DOOM feel that I loved in GS1, where it felt like a mod of the original game. This feels like something completely different. And it isn't a bad thing in spots, but it's just not what I was looking for after coming from GS1.
Hot take: This game is absolutely overhyped. Let me explain.
A common point that is brought up as to why this game is so great is the writing and characters, specifically N the primary antagonist. N has to be the textbook definition of "manipulated by the true mastermind" trope to an extreme fault. If you can't see the fact that Team Plasma was liberating pokemon to control everyone like they were controlling N from the start you miss the main gripe I have with the story. Even with each Team Plasma rally, the crowd clearly writes off Team Plasma as zealots. In what world would Ghetsis' plan actually succeeded? Who's to say that the pokemon, once liberated would just stay with their trainers, OR just allow the trainers to capture them again? Lysandre of Team Flare had a better plan, and an actual weapon to back up his claims even. Beyond flawed logic.
I also felt that the difficulty, another point brought up about this game being good, was another part of this game that fell flat for me. Gym leaders either stat checked you until your party was at a specific level (again, I will defend Gen 6 and onward's EXP share forever), or were a cakewalk once you were above that level cap. There ALSO were instances where the game's damage calculation visibly cheats to allow the ai script to heal their pokemon to drag the battle out. I know for a fact petal dance does 4x damage to Carracosta and I quiver danced to raise Spec Attack; ain't no way it only did 20 damage Ghetsis.
About the only good parts of this game were the art and music, which is probably the main reason the pokemon fandom looks at this game with such intense rose tinted glasses. They stretched the limit of what they were able to do with 2D sprites and it payed off well, it still holds up today.
I likely will, just like I did in High School when I played it before, set the game aside for a while. I didn't care for this one when it came out at all, but I at least can appreciate it ever so slightly more now.
A common point that is brought up as to why this game is so great is the writing and characters, specifically N the primary antagonist. N has to be the textbook definition of "manipulated by the true mastermind" trope to an extreme fault. If you can't see the fact that Team Plasma was liberating pokemon to control everyone like they were controlling N from the start you miss the main gripe I have with the story. Even with each Team Plasma rally, the crowd clearly writes off Team Plasma as zealots. In what world would Ghetsis' plan actually succeeded? Who's to say that the pokemon, once liberated would just stay with their trainers, OR just allow the trainers to capture them again? Lysandre of Team Flare had a better plan, and an actual weapon to back up his claims even. Beyond flawed logic.
I also felt that the difficulty, another point brought up about this game being good, was another part of this game that fell flat for me. Gym leaders either stat checked you until your party was at a specific level (again, I will defend Gen 6 and onward's EXP share forever), or were a cakewalk once you were above that level cap. There ALSO were instances where the game's damage calculation visibly cheats to allow the ai script to heal their pokemon to drag the battle out. I know for a fact petal dance does 4x damage to Carracosta and I quiver danced to raise Spec Attack; ain't no way it only did 20 damage Ghetsis.
About the only good parts of this game were the art and music, which is probably the main reason the pokemon fandom looks at this game with such intense rose tinted glasses. They stretched the limit of what they were able to do with 2D sprites and it payed off well, it still holds up today.
I likely will, just like I did in High School when I played it before, set the game aside for a while. I didn't care for this one when it came out at all, but I at least can appreciate it ever so slightly more now.
It was a great tech demo for the source engine, more specifically HDR lighting they were looking at for Episodes 1 and 2.
If you follow the timeline when it released, HDR was super early in its infancy where the only people that had it spent thousands of dollars on monitors and GPUs for it only to be supported natively in a handful of games. Oh but did it look good though.
If you follow the timeline when it released, HDR was super early in its infancy where the only people that had it spent thousands of dollars on monitors and GPUs for it only to be supported natively in a handful of games. Oh but did it look good though.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good Kirby game as much as the next person. This game was amazing; fantastic level design made Kirby feel right at home in 3D space, and amazing graphics only added to the charm. But, I find that with each subsequent release of this franchise I am less and less inclined to sit through and finish it. What I mean is, it takes me quite a while to finish these games. Perhaps its due to their difficulty (simple and easy) or the extreme repetitiveness of the gameplay loop but it took me a while to finish this one.
Still loved it though, debating if I want to finish the post game or not still. The boss of the main story is top notch, but it left me wanting more gross goo amalgamates rather than furry bait.
Still loved it though, debating if I want to finish the post game or not still. The boss of the main story is top notch, but it left me wanting more gross goo amalgamates rather than furry bait.
What a great free DLC. I love roguelites in games, its always a good time for me. Add that sprinkle of story for fans and you have something special. Even me, who only played parts of the OG GoW series felt the callbacks hitting. It was a great time.
Final Tyr has hands though, but it was a welcome challenge to complete. What an amazing game!
Final Tyr has hands though, but it was a welcome challenge to complete. What an amazing game!
Very technical platformer, much like its predecessor. I will give it though, the difficulty was more evenly smoothed out in DKC1. In this entry, I felt like the opening half was a cake walk and near the second half it began to ramp up, until the last two levels which were near-impossible in some spots. Toxic Tower was rough as I wasn't aware Rattly could do a super jump until my 20th or so death on the first high rock (I had thought you had to damage boost off a bee the whole time). I thought the K Rool fight was good, but his attacks were either easily manageable or downright masochistic (looking at you parabolic spinning spike balls).
Dixie was an utter beast for some of the levels, I seldom used Diddy at all.
Dixie was an utter beast for some of the levels, I seldom used Diddy at all.
What an amazing mod. It was so good I never knew how good the Doom mod scene could be. And there's two more of these? Count me in!
I thought all the levels were well thought out and executed, even some trickier platforming elements. For sure something that I would consider to be a full game on its own in the DOOM engine no less. Weapons felt amazing to use and were placed in a way that you never felt too underprepared for the enemies. Speaking of, I thoroughly enjoyed all the enemies that were on offer here, even the custom cacodemon that shot green fire that MELTS your health. All in all, a good time!
There's still more to do for secret/completion hunting and I may return to it someday; but I'm glad I got through to the final boss.
I thought all the levels were well thought out and executed, even some trickier platforming elements. For sure something that I would consider to be a full game on its own in the DOOM engine no less. Weapons felt amazing to use and were placed in a way that you never felt too underprepared for the enemies. Speaking of, I thoroughly enjoyed all the enemies that were on offer here, even the custom cacodemon that shot green fire that MELTS your health. All in all, a good time!
There's still more to do for secret/completion hunting and I may return to it someday; but I'm glad I got through to the final boss.
It was...okay. It was about what I was to expect for the conclusion to the DLC for this game. While I enjoyed the nods to Unova through the music for the Blueberry Academy, I personally hate Gen 5 and that feeling carried over into the first part of this story.
While I thought a New Elite 4 was good, I thought the difficulty spike from base Scarlet & Violet was extremely apparent. I had to assemble a near- competitively viable team to even have a CHANCE at beating each member. Once I had said team though, the battles proved a nicer challenge that more often than not became a War of Attrition in some bouts. I didn't grow fond of any of the new characters for this chapter, they were very single-dimensional and lacked any sort of depth as compared to Carmine or even Kieren for that matter. Speaking of, I thought they developed Kieren through well being an utter incel. It felt good to beat him, although at the same time it felt like his battle quickly ended at the last pokemon as Kieren made fatal mistakes for at least 3 turns in a row.
There is a decent post-game on offer here for this finale; however the system with which you obtain these rewards is insane. The tasks, or BBQs, you have to complete are all the same and a major grind for mere PENNIES. It's almost prohibitive for players unless they have a group of friends to multiply the earnings. Still debating if I even want to go through it...
One last thing. To nobodies surprise Game Freak made zero attempts to optimize or improve game performance. The map feels smaller too so you would think it would run slightly better seeing as how they load the ENTIRE MAP in at all times. Nope, it still runs bad. Be warned.
In conclusion, it was okay and what I expected for this game. After this title I seriously hope The Pokemon Company uses other studios rather than Game Freak, or give them more time between titles. Its really starting to show.
While I thought a New Elite 4 was good, I thought the difficulty spike from base Scarlet & Violet was extremely apparent. I had to assemble a near- competitively viable team to even have a CHANCE at beating each member. Once I had said team though, the battles proved a nicer challenge that more often than not became a War of Attrition in some bouts. I didn't grow fond of any of the new characters for this chapter, they were very single-dimensional and lacked any sort of depth as compared to Carmine or even Kieren for that matter. Speaking of, I thought they developed Kieren through well being an utter incel. It felt good to beat him, although at the same time it felt like his battle quickly ended at the last pokemon as Kieren made fatal mistakes for at least 3 turns in a row.
There is a decent post-game on offer here for this finale; however the system with which you obtain these rewards is insane. The tasks, or BBQs, you have to complete are all the same and a major grind for mere PENNIES. It's almost prohibitive for players unless they have a group of friends to multiply the earnings. Still debating if I even want to go through it...
One last thing. To nobodies surprise Game Freak made zero attempts to optimize or improve game performance. The map feels smaller too so you would think it would run slightly better seeing as how they load the ENTIRE MAP in at all times. Nope, it still runs bad. Be warned.
In conclusion, it was okay and what I expected for this game. After this title I seriously hope The Pokemon Company uses other studios rather than Game Freak, or give them more time between titles. Its really starting to show.