2014
This game have some strategy and fooling around, i got a little bit over 300k, is very dynamic. But after you discover the optimal strategy it just became a repetition chain. Good stuff to wind up your mind and just stack heavy points. I'll give more than 6/10 because the process of discovery of the better strategies is really rewarding and fun!
2012
The game could've been interested. The Panel de Pon puzzle mode move limit applied to Bejeweld. They already did this with Bubble Witch Saga witch was a Puzzle Bobble with move limit. The move limit is a cool idea and could work. The problem is that this whole game is a scam. There's little strategy, most of the game play by itself and is random, which mean there's excessive dopamine with explosive little effects and also that you can't consistently win. When i win i don't felt is my fault, neither when i loose. Is just a dopamine fest.
2000
I was honestly baffled by this
I went expecting cheap fun, but this is a great experience all around
The gameplay is polished and have some deegree of technicality, the characters play out a little different, large roster and each different court actually plays different. Also one of the earliest mario sport stuff. The game also have multiple unique game modes.
I think this is underapreciated for being a sports game that is not a simulator, but the game genuinely got me engaged. And there's a lot of challenging and understanding to be have here. Solid all around
I went expecting cheap fun, but this is a great experience all around
The gameplay is polished and have some deegree of technicality, the characters play out a little different, large roster and each different court actually plays different. Also one of the earliest mario sport stuff. The game also have multiple unique game modes.
I think this is underapreciated for being a sports game that is not a simulator, but the game genuinely got me engaged. And there's a lot of challenging and understanding to be have here. Solid all around
Aesthetics aside, this game is a mess. There are a number of reasons
1. The enemies never stop coming in a single room
2. There's too many enemies in a single room too often (a problem some of the later Zelda Dungeons face)
3. The game punish you too hardly for dying. Differently from Zelda, you can't afford to die, you gain nothing from it
4. There's no benefit in killing a lot of the enemies. You neither can explore the room later, because they never cease nor win anything relevant for killing them
The result is that the most efficient way of playing the game is just to run. The only situation where you need to kill an enemy is when the enemy is blocking a path or when you need to open a door.
There are some nice mechanics to the game too, but are just lost in this mess.
I would love to see Nintendo reviving the franchise (although i don't think it will happen)
1. The enemies never stop coming in a single room
2. There's too many enemies in a single room too often (a problem some of the later Zelda Dungeons face)
3. The game punish you too hardly for dying. Differently from Zelda, you can't afford to die, you gain nothing from it
4. There's no benefit in killing a lot of the enemies. You neither can explore the room later, because they never cease nor win anything relevant for killing them
The result is that the most efficient way of playing the game is just to run. The only situation where you need to kill an enemy is when the enemy is blocking a path or when you need to open a door.
There are some nice mechanics to the game too, but are just lost in this mess.
I would love to see Nintendo reviving the franchise (although i don't think it will happen)
This game suffers from the fact that if you played literally any other mainline The Elder Scrolls it just looks not that good.
It's fine and cool as it is, but far from an masterpiece. Also, is a nice starter from someone wanting to get into Western RPGs, due to the extremely simple RPG system, limited number of builds and very intuitive mechanics, something that games like Morrowind, Baldur's Gate or Arcanum would much probably overwhelm newcommers to the genre (although all these games are way better than Skyrim)
I could comment more about the game, but i think a lot of what i said about Fallout 3, is also true here. The world is really cool, there's a lot of good side quests (love the Markarth Political side Quests for god sake) and the exploration is quite fun, even with its shortcomings. But the main campaign is underwhelming and here, much more than in Fallout 3, the combat system sucks (to be fair with this one, in all TES games it sucks to some extent).
If you already into Western RPGs, you probably already played this game, but if you never played a TES go play Morrowind. If you are wanting to get into WRPGs, this can be a nice introduction, altough The Witcher 3 may be a more well rounded and solid experience (The Witcher 3 is way lighter in RPG elements tho, so this game may be good to get used to some tropes of the genre)
If you have a great PC, you can literally make this game a good game with mods, so it's worth a try,
It's fine and cool as it is, but far from an masterpiece. Also, is a nice starter from someone wanting to get into Western RPGs, due to the extremely simple RPG system, limited number of builds and very intuitive mechanics, something that games like Morrowind, Baldur's Gate or Arcanum would much probably overwhelm newcommers to the genre (although all these games are way better than Skyrim)
I could comment more about the game, but i think a lot of what i said about Fallout 3, is also true here. The world is really cool, there's a lot of good side quests (love the Markarth Political side Quests for god sake) and the exploration is quite fun, even with its shortcomings. But the main campaign is underwhelming and here, much more than in Fallout 3, the combat system sucks (to be fair with this one, in all TES games it sucks to some extent).
If you already into Western RPGs, you probably already played this game, but if you never played a TES go play Morrowind. If you are wanting to get into WRPGs, this can be a nice introduction, altough The Witcher 3 may be a more well rounded and solid experience (The Witcher 3 is way lighter in RPG elements tho, so this game may be good to get used to some tropes of the genre)
If you have a great PC, you can literally make this game a good game with mods, so it's worth a try,
1995
I've beaten this one in very hard, and is my biggest acomplishment and the hardest thing i did in my life after reading Heidegger for the first time
1996
it would be redundant to praise this game. Everybody and your grandma knows Mario 64 is great
The camera sucks hard tho
The camera sucks hard tho
2004
I started playing the game, and after the two initial sets of microgames I thought to myself "well, it's a fun usage of gyroscope, but the nature of the tech makes the gameplay limited in its possibility" and then almost immediately started eating my words. They take the overall structure of WarioWare and mess with both its initial mechanics and the gyroscope, while expanding considerably the variety and being wildly creative both in the microgames and the way they structure the microgames in sets. The game's also considerably more challenging than the first one.
Mario Kart Review (3/8)
An underrated pick
I'll be quick with this one. This is indeed underrated, maybe because it didn't made comercial sucess at the time like other Mario Kart Games, but also, is not an extraordinary experience, although it had pretty much everything to be a great mario kart.
This one is pretty straight forward with its intentions. It is trying to be an reimagination of the first Mario Kart but more polished and well rounded, and in this sense, partially achieves its goal, and also do some interesting things, but is held back by some flaws.
The biggest of its flaws is the Handling. It always feels as the track is covered in ice, and you will be sliding in the track. Is not as bad if you know how to play, slowing down and getting right in the curves and the racing lines, but even when you do this, while the game feels way better to play, is not 100% good, and you will often loose total control even when you did not commit any mistake.
And this way of handling, reminiscent of the first game, ties into another flaw of the game, it lacks dynamism and speed. The game is already slow and you have to slow down in every turn, slowing down the game even more.
Aside from that the game is really tight. Is a gorgeous game, the art in the background was a great addition, the karts are all pretty and the racers models too. This was by far the most balanced Mario Kart at the release time, the items were changed and now do a little bit more a regulatory function, the rubber band AI is reasonable and the retro tracks are cool and the level design is superb. The layouts are far more complex than we've seen in both SMK and MK64, with a lot of interesting turns and possible speed boosts and fun stuff to do. "Ribbon Road" and "Sky Garden" are personal favorites and this game "Rainbow Road" is one of the best in the series, with all the improvisation spots and wild jumps you can do.
My polemic opinion is that this was, at the time of release, the best Mario Kart game. Although not the greatest of racing games, this was pointing out for a more well rounded MK experience and is often overlooked by the fans.
An underrated pick
I'll be quick with this one. This is indeed underrated, maybe because it didn't made comercial sucess at the time like other Mario Kart Games, but also, is not an extraordinary experience, although it had pretty much everything to be a great mario kart.
This one is pretty straight forward with its intentions. It is trying to be an reimagination of the first Mario Kart but more polished and well rounded, and in this sense, partially achieves its goal, and also do some interesting things, but is held back by some flaws.
The biggest of its flaws is the Handling. It always feels as the track is covered in ice, and you will be sliding in the track. Is not as bad if you know how to play, slowing down and getting right in the curves and the racing lines, but even when you do this, while the game feels way better to play, is not 100% good, and you will often loose total control even when you did not commit any mistake.
And this way of handling, reminiscent of the first game, ties into another flaw of the game, it lacks dynamism and speed. The game is already slow and you have to slow down in every turn, slowing down the game even more.
Aside from that the game is really tight. Is a gorgeous game, the art in the background was a great addition, the karts are all pretty and the racers models too. This was by far the most balanced Mario Kart at the release time, the items were changed and now do a little bit more a regulatory function, the rubber band AI is reasonable and the retro tracks are cool and the level design is superb. The layouts are far more complex than we've seen in both SMK and MK64, with a lot of interesting turns and possible speed boosts and fun stuff to do. "Ribbon Road" and "Sky Garden" are personal favorites and this game "Rainbow Road" is one of the best in the series, with all the improvisation spots and wild jumps you can do.
My polemic opinion is that this was, at the time of release, the best Mario Kart game. Although not the greatest of racing games, this was pointing out for a more well rounded MK experience and is often overlooked by the fans.
1989
This is a marvelous RPG, with creative sense of aesthetics, charm and tone, a very original concept and fun story
The map design is overall well built, with intuitive navigation and a system of tips which allow you to wander with direction but without telling what you have to do
The combat system is really in-depth, with all sort of different mechanics you can do. I think Lloyd can be a little too much one dimensional when compared to the rest of the characters and some of the PSI Bonus are not as interesting in terms of affecting the battle (rarely Quick Up made any difference). The lack of longer boss battles also made the usage of tactics a little more limited.
The main issue with this game is the classic NES/Famicom Bullshit of creating random "challenge" to make the game seem longer that it is.
This game is very dependent on NRG, less than some other JRPGs of the time such as the first two Dragon Quest, but still is a game where you more often than not you win or lose based merely on luck (most of the time you will lose). I think particularly the way the game is abuses the "avoid" and the "boom" (the critical damage), which will be seem at least once in most matches. And since the game is decided, for both you and the enemies, in a few rounds, a single bad round of turns can ruin your battle.
It often puts bullshit to drain your health points and magic points just to stall you. The most notorious bullshits are
-A considerate amount of enemies with instakill attacks
-the freeze gamma which will almost deplete your health
-enemies that explode when you defeat
-an obnoxiously high encounter rate for random encounter
I think since most of this can be synthesized in the same problem is not a myriad of problems
But the overall experience is superb and I really enjoyed playing it. Is the first game in the series I play and I am super excited to play Mother 2/Earthbound and Mother 3, considering that almost everybody considers them to be masterpieces and big improvements upon the formula of the first one.
The map design is overall well built, with intuitive navigation and a system of tips which allow you to wander with direction but without telling what you have to do
The combat system is really in-depth, with all sort of different mechanics you can do. I think Lloyd can be a little too much one dimensional when compared to the rest of the characters and some of the PSI Bonus are not as interesting in terms of affecting the battle (rarely Quick Up made any difference). The lack of longer boss battles also made the usage of tactics a little more limited.
The main issue with this game is the classic NES/Famicom Bullshit of creating random "challenge" to make the game seem longer that it is.
This game is very dependent on NRG, less than some other JRPGs of the time such as the first two Dragon Quest, but still is a game where you more often than not you win or lose based merely on luck (most of the time you will lose). I think particularly the way the game is abuses the "avoid" and the "boom" (the critical damage), which will be seem at least once in most matches. And since the game is decided, for both you and the enemies, in a few rounds, a single bad round of turns can ruin your battle.
It often puts bullshit to drain your health points and magic points just to stall you. The most notorious bullshits are
-A considerate amount of enemies with instakill attacks
-the freeze gamma which will almost deplete your health
-enemies that explode when you defeat
-an obnoxiously high encounter rate for random encounter
I think since most of this can be synthesized in the same problem is not a myriad of problems
But the overall experience is superb and I really enjoyed playing it. Is the first game in the series I play and I am super excited to play Mother 2/Earthbound and Mother 3, considering that almost everybody considers them to be masterpieces and big improvements upon the formula of the first one.
The only reason to why there's so much praise for this game is nostalgia. And i don't mean it neither in the salty nor in the bad spirited way. I just really can't see otherwise. And it is fair, this was my first pokemon back in the day (specifically Soul Silver, but i've replayed recently in Heart Gold), so i do have tons of nostalgia for this one, but is just impossible to ignore the blatant flaws on these games, even with the emotional attachment to them.
And to be fair, SS/HG are great remakes, is just that Pokemon Gold and Silver weren't very good pokemons to begin with. This is good remake in the sense is infinitely better than the original, but the original was not good, so this is just ok.
The good parts are obvious: this game looks gorgeous, the post game is way more fun to play, with increased time and some adjustements, battle frontier, the new Safari Zone is probably the best the series ever had and the mechanical adds introduced in gen 4 such as better balancement, depth in move pool and physical/special split made this game way way better. Also, since most of the broken systems and mechanics that existed in the two first gens were wiped away in 3rd gen this game is much more polished and functionable when compared to the originals. There are Pokemons that are simply not good to play in the original games, like Heracross for instance, that now worth playing with, and some of the evolutions added in 4th gen also make some lines like in the case of Mamoswine and Weavile, way more interesting. The game also heavily remakes some dungeons layouts and some Gym puzzles, with most of them if not all ending up a little bit more complicated and interesting when compared to its original game.
This game also have an AI better than most pokemon (particularly when compared with the 6th gen onwards, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon being an exception)
Now the cons...
The most obvious and blatant one, the awful level curve. The early game requires some grinding, than from the 2nd gym to the 7th you just will be overleveled, and then the 8th gym will require grinding but now a ton of it and then the Pokemon League have also an considerable level spike and another for the pokemon champions (that one is manageable w/o grinding tho) and then another level spike before Kanto. This level curve is just insanity, and makes playing through game feeling like a chore. This was the one thing they DESPERATELY HAD to change in the remake, and simply adding adjustable levels for the gyms would already made it way way better. The whole idea of doing gyms in your prefered order is cool, but would need a better implementation and probably a massive rearragenement of the game's general progression.
Most dungeons in this game are wildly awful battle wise (even if now they are reasonable layout wise), with you playing the same matchup again and again. And pretty much every one of them are caves, with the noticeable exception of Sprout Tower and the the Bell Tower if you're playing Heart Gold. And in Sprout Tower case you will just play the same matchup of Bellsprout for a dozen of times in a row.
The rocket team is just confusing and messy. Goes from nowhere to nowhere and sincerely, just didn't need to be there.
The rival is just ok, one of the weaker of the franchise, and everything interesting to him can only be seen in an special event that you can only see if you got Celebi, a pokemon that you can only got in special limited events.
The gyms also drastically varies in quality, with some like Whitney, being great and others like Morty and Chuck not having any Johto pokemons, while also not being particularly memorable.
This is also the pokemon i've played with most bullshit. The quantity of times the enemy hits critical exactly when it needs to, or when you receive two criticals in a row is wild.
The games don't help itself much with going towards some of the most annoying tactics just to create cheap difficulty. Yeah, i've beaten Lt. Surge, Koga and Karen with ease, but it was extra annoying when most of their pokemon were based around evasiveness, and it wasn't satisfying to press magnitude 16x with my Donphan instead of pressing 3 or 4.
This game is overall an ok game, is a good remake, but it could've been so much more. I get the nostalgia for it, the Nintendo DS was also an console that my personality is indistinguishable from, but we have to come at ease with the reality that this game is not that good, and is way easier since Pokemon in Nintendo DS have some of the best in the franchise to fullfill that sentiment.
And to be fair, SS/HG are great remakes, is just that Pokemon Gold and Silver weren't very good pokemons to begin with. This is good remake in the sense is infinitely better than the original, but the original was not good, so this is just ok.
The good parts are obvious: this game looks gorgeous, the post game is way more fun to play, with increased time and some adjustements, battle frontier, the new Safari Zone is probably the best the series ever had and the mechanical adds introduced in gen 4 such as better balancement, depth in move pool and physical/special split made this game way way better. Also, since most of the broken systems and mechanics that existed in the two first gens were wiped away in 3rd gen this game is much more polished and functionable when compared to the originals. There are Pokemons that are simply not good to play in the original games, like Heracross for instance, that now worth playing with, and some of the evolutions added in 4th gen also make some lines like in the case of Mamoswine and Weavile, way more interesting. The game also heavily remakes some dungeons layouts and some Gym puzzles, with most of them if not all ending up a little bit more complicated and interesting when compared to its original game.
This game also have an AI better than most pokemon (particularly when compared with the 6th gen onwards, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon being an exception)
Now the cons...
The most obvious and blatant one, the awful level curve. The early game requires some grinding, than from the 2nd gym to the 7th you just will be overleveled, and then the 8th gym will require grinding but now a ton of it and then the Pokemon League have also an considerable level spike and another for the pokemon champions (that one is manageable w/o grinding tho) and then another level spike before Kanto. This level curve is just insanity, and makes playing through game feeling like a chore. This was the one thing they DESPERATELY HAD to change in the remake, and simply adding adjustable levels for the gyms would already made it way way better. The whole idea of doing gyms in your prefered order is cool, but would need a better implementation and probably a massive rearragenement of the game's general progression.
Most dungeons in this game are wildly awful battle wise (even if now they are reasonable layout wise), with you playing the same matchup again and again. And pretty much every one of them are caves, with the noticeable exception of Sprout Tower and the the Bell Tower if you're playing Heart Gold. And in Sprout Tower case you will just play the same matchup of Bellsprout for a dozen of times in a row.
The rocket team is just confusing and messy. Goes from nowhere to nowhere and sincerely, just didn't need to be there.
The rival is just ok, one of the weaker of the franchise, and everything interesting to him can only be seen in an special event that you can only see if you got Celebi, a pokemon that you can only got in special limited events.
The gyms also drastically varies in quality, with some like Whitney, being great and others like Morty and Chuck not having any Johto pokemons, while also not being particularly memorable.
This is also the pokemon i've played with most bullshit. The quantity of times the enemy hits critical exactly when it needs to, or when you receive two criticals in a row is wild.
The games don't help itself much with going towards some of the most annoying tactics just to create cheap difficulty. Yeah, i've beaten Lt. Surge, Koga and Karen with ease, but it was extra annoying when most of their pokemon were based around evasiveness, and it wasn't satisfying to press magnitude 16x with my Donphan instead of pressing 3 or 4.
This game is overall an ok game, is a good remake, but it could've been so much more. I get the nostalgia for it, the Nintendo DS was also an console that my personality is indistinguishable from, but we have to come at ease with the reality that this game is not that good, and is way easier since Pokemon in Nintendo DS have some of the best in the franchise to fullfill that sentiment.