spageddystyle
A great historical article of a game that I feel holds up more as a part of history than an actual piece of life changing art that you must play.
I played it back on the Zelda: Collector's Edition for GameCube and did like it, it laid down building blocks for the series as it went on but going back to this recently with that Nintendo Switch subscription, I can absolutely feel it's age.
Good to go back to for seeing how far the series has come in regards to design and presentation and general appreciation of video game history, on it's own sadly due to the passage of time, it feels weak.
EDIT: keeping the previous review up for accountabilitie's sake but this review sucked ass.
This is like, really a foundation for so many games, and while it quickly became beat out by it's successors, Ocarina of Time still has such a wonderful vibe and that weird spark of game publisher's doing everything they could with 3d, this game really pushed the N64 to it's limits back then.
This is also just such a cozy game, there's something reassuring of the soul trotting along Hyrule Field from Kakariko Village, to Gerudo Valley, and back to the Lon Lon Ranch. Horse galloping, music swelling, you feel like a goddamn superhero.
Ignore my old review earlier, that shit sucked ass what the Hell was I talking about?!
I played it back on the Zelda: Collector's Edition for GameCube and did like it, it laid down building blocks for the series as it went on but going back to this recently with that Nintendo Switch subscription, I can absolutely feel it's age.
Good to go back to for seeing how far the series has come in regards to design and presentation and general appreciation of video game history, on it's own sadly due to the passage of time, it feels weak.
EDIT: keeping the previous review up for accountabilitie's sake but this review sucked ass.
This is like, really a foundation for so many games, and while it quickly became beat out by it's successors, Ocarina of Time still has such a wonderful vibe and that weird spark of game publisher's doing everything they could with 3d, this game really pushed the N64 to it's limits back then.
This is also just such a cozy game, there's something reassuring of the soul trotting along Hyrule Field from Kakariko Village, to Gerudo Valley, and back to the Lon Lon Ranch. Horse galloping, music swelling, you feel like a goddamn superhero.
Ignore my old review earlier, that shit sucked ass what the Hell was I talking about?!
A very cute calming game that I lost my drive to engage with.
While it is the most freeing AC game in regards to decorating your island, your home, and your own characters styles, it still feels that you've seen everything the game has to offer you.
I do appreciate my friends and others making beautiful little vistas and themed houses and sharing them with me, but I just don't have the drive to attempt anything of that calibur myself.
While it is the most freeing AC game in regards to decorating your island, your home, and your own characters styles, it still feels that you've seen everything the game has to offer you.
I do appreciate my friends and others making beautiful little vistas and themed houses and sharing them with me, but I just don't have the drive to attempt anything of that calibur myself.
2011
This game leaves me feeling aimless, and I am happy people are able to get mileage out of this game, but I'm shocked as this is one of the most ungainly games I've played. No form of direction, no form of incentives regarding story, or interactions with the world, despite being able to build anything.
The building aspect underwhelms as you can only place one block at a time, with no options to rotate blocks aside from stairs, which you can place upside down.
The combat is bare bones and underwhelming, with just stiff animations conveying you're using weapons or knock back indicating you have received damage.
The built by blocks view of the world is interesting from afar but going up close textures are a pixelated mush with some textures still being a decade old by a person with no comprehension of pixel art and how to convey textures.
I really tried to like this game, I really did, I've tried for years but I'm accepting I just don't care enough to pour as much into it as others have.
The building aspect underwhelms as you can only place one block at a time, with no options to rotate blocks aside from stairs, which you can place upside down.
The combat is bare bones and underwhelming, with just stiff animations conveying you're using weapons or knock back indicating you have received damage.
The built by blocks view of the world is interesting from afar but going up close textures are a pixelated mush with some textures still being a decade old by a person with no comprehension of pixel art and how to convey textures.
I really tried to like this game, I really did, I've tried for years but I'm accepting I just don't care enough to pour as much into it as others have.
2018
A wonderfully done gameplay loop of climbing up from Hell, dying, and repeat, with some fantastic dialogue and themes of greek mythology holding it and elevating it higher than it probably would reach if the game did not have such great artwork and dialogue/story.
A drawback is it does not have nearly the same environmental mix-ups and enemy variations as other rogue likes, like Dead Cells or Binding of Isaac.
A drawback is it does not have nearly the same environmental mix-ups and enemy variations as other rogue likes, like Dead Cells or Binding of Isaac.
2005
This game is one of the roots of modern game design, good, bad, and everything in between.
Leon throws kicks and suplexes through a remote part of Europe with the greatest assembly of guns ever assigned to one person. A fantastical game, where random rural villagers' and robbed cultists' heads can explode into parasitic nightmares and some of the most hilarious nonsensical writing in a video game.
Essential playing for historical reasons, and for suplexing dudes after shooting them in the knee with a pistol reasons.
Leon throws kicks and suplexes through a remote part of Europe with the greatest assembly of guns ever assigned to one person. A fantastical game, where random rural villagers' and robbed cultists' heads can explode into parasitic nightmares and some of the most hilarious nonsensical writing in a video game.
Essential playing for historical reasons, and for suplexing dudes after shooting them in the knee with a pistol reasons.
There is never going to be another Zelda game like this again.
A bleak tale of the world succumbing to despair, and Link fighting as hard as possible for a world that is not his.
The character dialogue reads like depression induced poetry, many in denial about the way the world is, and what it could be, in flat denial about the incoming apocalypse, or fearful creatures hiding in bunkers, crying.
Death is the heaviest hook of this game, but for all of it's misery, Link continues to fight, to bring people in this world closer together.
Gameplay wise it is very similar to the previous OoT which I had said felt a bit creaky due to the way games have evolved, and that stands true. It's save system is obtuse but there is a way they attempt to tie it into the story: Reset the cycle, undo the hard work you have done, remember short cuts to reach those same threads next cycle. The owl statues are only functional as warp points which playing the Song of Soaring can get tedius because you have to do the inputs, then hear Link doot the inputs but again with a flourish, then it pops up the map, then you select, then an animation happens.
Mechanics from this game are not at all casual friendly and even people that played it as a kid I guarantee may end up having problems with playing it on the recent switch ports via the N64 expansion pack.
For all those mechanical failings and it's own commitment to be more abstract and mystifying, it absolutely is worth it for one of the most remarkable Zelda games of all time.
This game rewards are emotional catharsis and the very struggle of reaching out for help, for friends, for anything despite how hard it can be, is worth it.
A bleak tale of the world succumbing to despair, and Link fighting as hard as possible for a world that is not his.
The character dialogue reads like depression induced poetry, many in denial about the way the world is, and what it could be, in flat denial about the incoming apocalypse, or fearful creatures hiding in bunkers, crying.
Death is the heaviest hook of this game, but for all of it's misery, Link continues to fight, to bring people in this world closer together.
Gameplay wise it is very similar to the previous OoT which I had said felt a bit creaky due to the way games have evolved, and that stands true. It's save system is obtuse but there is a way they attempt to tie it into the story: Reset the cycle, undo the hard work you have done, remember short cuts to reach those same threads next cycle. The owl statues are only functional as warp points which playing the Song of Soaring can get tedius because you have to do the inputs, then hear Link doot the inputs but again with a flourish, then it pops up the map, then you select, then an animation happens.
Mechanics from this game are not at all casual friendly and even people that played it as a kid I guarantee may end up having problems with playing it on the recent switch ports via the N64 expansion pack.
For all those mechanical failings and it's own commitment to be more abstract and mystifying, it absolutely is worth it for one of the most remarkable Zelda games of all time.
This game rewards are emotional catharsis and the very struggle of reaching out for help, for friends, for anything despite how hard it can be, is worth it.
2007
This review contains spoilers
A game brought to us during the time where family friendly presentation ruled on the Nintendo Wii in 2007.
Super Mario Galaxy was the benchmark for how most games on the Wii tended to present themselves, generally more family friendly and approachable for no qualms no fuss "Good gaming fun"
No More Heroes release on the Wii exclusively back in 2007 was like getting kicked in the teeth with a steel toe boot, instantly gripping you with it's loud, brash, crass, and anime weirdo Travis Touchdown as he mows through hundreds and hundreds of faceless goons, eviscerating them in showers of clarot and screams of "AAAAAH" and "MY SPLEEN"...then the game slaps you with the coldest fish possible and tells you after you had decapitated and or horrifically vivisected the ranked assassin in a samurai one-on-one duel to the death style, you are told you have to earn your way to the next ranked battle, and to begin earning money, you have to collect coconuts for a juice stand as the job manager calls you a third-rate slacker even when you complete the job!
The world of No More Heroes contrasts it's game play loop of murdering literally hundreds of people that have no chance of even standing close to you as Travis Touchdown, the most dangerous man in all of Santa Destroy:
By kicking you out of the bloodbath to realize that Travis Touchdown is the loneliest man in the entire town, alone in his apartment, a tomb to anime otaku fixations and his only friend "Bishop" only called on to retrieve his oversized tank of a bike, and even that relationship is being strayed cause he'll tell you "We're old friends but shit like this won't fly!".
The city of Santa Destroy is desolate, run down, and lonely. I think many people derided this game back then as an open world because "There was nothing fun to do in it" and it was "drab, boring, and empty" when even when I was young...it hit me that it was the point.
That's one of the reasons Travis Touchdown joined the world of ranked assassination: He was alone, in a dying town where coconuts are worth more than human life.
While at once a hilarious takedown of such an uber dickhead like Travis Touchdown, is a parody and stripping down of what gamers had expected from games: The open world is literally an abandoned shithole town, and it's only real reward for going through the grinding of money to get to rank fights, is more pointless bloodshed.
Running around, doing menial chores to earn money and a reward of an assassination gig with the sole goal of earning money to enter the ranked assassin fights whose only goal is...more bloodshed and a higher entry fee for the next ranking battle.
After everything the game throws at him, Travis wants off the ride. He's in too deep. He wants to bail.
He wants to find that exit they call paradise.
But all there is, is blood.
Super Mario Galaxy was the benchmark for how most games on the Wii tended to present themselves, generally more family friendly and approachable for no qualms no fuss "Good gaming fun"
No More Heroes release on the Wii exclusively back in 2007 was like getting kicked in the teeth with a steel toe boot, instantly gripping you with it's loud, brash, crass, and anime weirdo Travis Touchdown as he mows through hundreds and hundreds of faceless goons, eviscerating them in showers of clarot and screams of "AAAAAH" and "MY SPLEEN"...then the game slaps you with the coldest fish possible and tells you after you had decapitated and or horrifically vivisected the ranked assassin in a samurai one-on-one duel to the death style, you are told you have to earn your way to the next ranked battle, and to begin earning money, you have to collect coconuts for a juice stand as the job manager calls you a third-rate slacker even when you complete the job!
The world of No More Heroes contrasts it's game play loop of murdering literally hundreds of people that have no chance of even standing close to you as Travis Touchdown, the most dangerous man in all of Santa Destroy:
By kicking you out of the bloodbath to realize that Travis Touchdown is the loneliest man in the entire town, alone in his apartment, a tomb to anime otaku fixations and his only friend "Bishop" only called on to retrieve his oversized tank of a bike, and even that relationship is being strayed cause he'll tell you "We're old friends but shit like this won't fly!".
The city of Santa Destroy is desolate, run down, and lonely. I think many people derided this game back then as an open world because "There was nothing fun to do in it" and it was "drab, boring, and empty" when even when I was young...it hit me that it was the point.
That's one of the reasons Travis Touchdown joined the world of ranked assassination: He was alone, in a dying town where coconuts are worth more than human life.
While at once a hilarious takedown of such an uber dickhead like Travis Touchdown, is a parody and stripping down of what gamers had expected from games: The open world is literally an abandoned shithole town, and it's only real reward for going through the grinding of money to get to rank fights, is more pointless bloodshed.
Running around, doing menial chores to earn money and a reward of an assassination gig with the sole goal of earning money to enter the ranked assassin fights whose only goal is...more bloodshed and a higher entry fee for the next ranking battle.
After everything the game throws at him, Travis wants off the ride. He's in too deep. He wants to bail.
He wants to find that exit they call paradise.
But all there is, is blood.
I've played this game for what steam reports to be one thousand, four hundred, ninety four hours last played on July 8th, 2022.
Endlessly fun roguelike, and with the most recent and "final" expansion Reptentance as well as mod support through the Steam Workshop, I will always come back to this game as a quick rush of fun.
Another one of those formative games I picked up in high school with the original flash version "The Binding of Isaac" and still reference and still play to this day!
Roguelikes peaked with Isaac, and everything released after the fact just doesn't hold me as well as Isaac.
Endlessly fun roguelike, and with the most recent and "final" expansion Reptentance as well as mod support through the Steam Workshop, I will always come back to this game as a quick rush of fun.
Another one of those formative games I picked up in high school with the original flash version "The Binding of Isaac" and still reference and still play to this day!
Roguelikes peaked with Isaac, and everything released after the fact just doesn't hold me as well as Isaac.
2005
This is a game of assassins, in a world where all moves have already been considered, where no matter what someone may do, they will never break out of their "role", their "position" on the game board of global politics and relationships.
This game's presentation is like an espionage thriller captured in a gritty, underground comic book.
The enemies, the Heaven Smiles, burst into beautiful explosions of pointillism blood particles, sometimes looking like rose pedals, are absorbed into your character. Beautiful displays of terrorism made to shake the world into fear by God-Like being Kun Lan.
The only group capable of standing against Kun Lan, out of the United Nations, are the Killer7!
Helmed by Harman Smith, he summons his 7 multiple personalities he has absorbed with his own God-like powers and manifests them as the greatest team of assassins the world has ever known!
The means which these personalities are manifested, is with Harman Smith's primary personae: Garcian Smith! He serves as medium for the story to play out, as well as the in universe vessel for the other 6 personae.
The game continues to change itself up, sometimes offering entirely different means of presentation for the sake of the narrative which while there is a coherent point a point b story line throughout, goes through so many tangents, so many hard turns, sometimes even being left unresolved, leaving you to pick up the pieces.
This game is so captivating, from an artistic standpoint. I fully understand why it cannot appeal to everyone, it's somewhat of a clarion call for eccentrics in the gaming art form. The stark black shadows highlight vibrant colors, incredible character designs and the soundtrack that goes from classic spy-film thriller, to edm drops, and haunting pieces of sonic discord that pins and pricks at your spine, leaving you uneasy and on edge.
This is one of the most important games to my development as a person, I've never played anything like it, and probably never will. It's dream like story, characters, presentation, and the overall message and themes that only hit me as an adult: There are sometimes where even our actions are but plays, in a game of Chess.
I love this game, and always come back to it, the experiences I can't find anywhere else in regards to storytelling. I've played the Gamecube version, and the most recent steam release.
I've thought about this game for 10+ years, and I don't think I will ever stop thinking about it for much longer than that.
This game's presentation is like an espionage thriller captured in a gritty, underground comic book.
The enemies, the Heaven Smiles, burst into beautiful explosions of pointillism blood particles, sometimes looking like rose pedals, are absorbed into your character. Beautiful displays of terrorism made to shake the world into fear by God-Like being Kun Lan.
The only group capable of standing against Kun Lan, out of the United Nations, are the Killer7!
Helmed by Harman Smith, he summons his 7 multiple personalities he has absorbed with his own God-like powers and manifests them as the greatest team of assassins the world has ever known!
The means which these personalities are manifested, is with Harman Smith's primary personae: Garcian Smith! He serves as medium for the story to play out, as well as the in universe vessel for the other 6 personae.
The game continues to change itself up, sometimes offering entirely different means of presentation for the sake of the narrative which while there is a coherent point a point b story line throughout, goes through so many tangents, so many hard turns, sometimes even being left unresolved, leaving you to pick up the pieces.
This game is so captivating, from an artistic standpoint. I fully understand why it cannot appeal to everyone, it's somewhat of a clarion call for eccentrics in the gaming art form. The stark black shadows highlight vibrant colors, incredible character designs and the soundtrack that goes from classic spy-film thriller, to edm drops, and haunting pieces of sonic discord that pins and pricks at your spine, leaving you uneasy and on edge.
This is one of the most important games to my development as a person, I've never played anything like it, and probably never will. It's dream like story, characters, presentation, and the overall message and themes that only hit me as an adult: There are sometimes where even our actions are but plays, in a game of Chess.
I love this game, and always come back to it, the experiences I can't find anywhere else in regards to storytelling. I've played the Gamecube version, and the most recent steam release.
I've thought about this game for 10+ years, and I don't think I will ever stop thinking about it for much longer than that.
This is one of the most gripping games I've recently played, with incredible dialogue ranging from ludicrous, hilarious, thoughtful, and downright emotionally devastating.
The ending is one of the most powerful things I've recently felt playing a video game.
This is only my review, if I had to base a recommendation, this would be for intense dialogue heavy fans that can really sink their teeth into branching conversations and very lengthy exchanges between characters.
Conversations can last up to an entire hour and if that is something you feel may be a detractor, I understand. I will still swing for the bat because the dialogue is so fresh, almost alien to our own general concepts of reading comprehension that the hours will fly by and it will be the next day when you started playing yesterday afternoon.
There are so many wrinkles and hard forks to where the story goes and how events play out I just want to binge it and experience everything possible it has to offer.
Not recommended for those who seek brevity, but absolutely recommended for those that want stories to grab them by the throat and not let go.
I've beaten it once and will be back for more, absolutely.
Note: I had played the Final Cut Physical Edition for Nintendo Switch, while I still recommend this game wholly for it's stories, characters, dialogue, world, general immersion: I do not recommend the switch version for people wanting a more solid experience regarding performance.
The nintendo switch suffers from slowdown, some animations desyncing, and lower quality texturework.
I just got the switch version cause it's what I got and I like supporting physical media, if you do have the console, I'd recommend the physical version for PS4 or Xbox
The ending is one of the most powerful things I've recently felt playing a video game.
This is only my review, if I had to base a recommendation, this would be for intense dialogue heavy fans that can really sink their teeth into branching conversations and very lengthy exchanges between characters.
Conversations can last up to an entire hour and if that is something you feel may be a detractor, I understand. I will still swing for the bat because the dialogue is so fresh, almost alien to our own general concepts of reading comprehension that the hours will fly by and it will be the next day when you started playing yesterday afternoon.
There are so many wrinkles and hard forks to where the story goes and how events play out I just want to binge it and experience everything possible it has to offer.
Not recommended for those who seek brevity, but absolutely recommended for those that want stories to grab them by the throat and not let go.
I've beaten it once and will be back for more, absolutely.
Note: I had played the Final Cut Physical Edition for Nintendo Switch, while I still recommend this game wholly for it's stories, characters, dialogue, world, general immersion: I do not recommend the switch version for people wanting a more solid experience regarding performance.
The nintendo switch suffers from slowdown, some animations desyncing, and lower quality texturework.
I just got the switch version cause it's what I got and I like supporting physical media, if you do have the console, I'd recommend the physical version for PS4 or Xbox