amphibious_ReViews

  As a remake of Crash Bandicoot 's first racing game that also revisited his other kart-themed outings, this was definitely a game I was interested in trying. I mean, It's a rare game that can stand up to the juggernaut Mario Kart series. Plus, the jump from PlayStation polygons to modern graphics really looks superb. Unfortunately, my entire experience with the game was plagued with the thick, muggy air of free-to-play. This normally wouldn't be a problem for me - I will gladly grind more to get stuff the hard way if I didn't pay for the game on the first place. However, this game is not free. Setting that aside for now, my general experience with the game was a series of ups and downs. The controls took some getting used to after years of Mario Kart, and my instincts, especially when it comes to drifting, needed a lot of retraining. Though once I got the hang of it, if felt pretty intuitive! The difficulty was also a shock. As this game lacks things like "rubb

As Mario 's first polygonal-3d adventure, and one of the earliest games to take advantage of such technology on this scale, there were so many ways that Nintendo could have messed this up. Luckily, they didn't, and Super Mario 64 quickly earned it's place as one of the best 3d adventure games ever made. I personally still prefer Mario 's later 3d escapades, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this title. As Mario , the game tasks you with exploring a surprisingly large amount of sandbox-style levels in order to collect power stars. Each level hides seven, but there are an additional fifteen that clever players can find while exploring Princess Peach 's castle. These power stars are used to open up new areas, eventually leading you to a final battle with King Bowser himself. As I made my way through the castle and the worlds hidden with it, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed exploring the same levels over and over in order to collect each of their stars. I wo

  Continuing exactly where the previous entry, Cube Escape: Birthday , left off, Theatre welcomes us into another strange and twisted adventure into the mind of Dale Vandermeer. As expected, all of the usual motifs are present, bringing back recognizable characters and callbacks to previous entries in the series. However, as one of the more straightforward Cube Escape titles, this was a breeze to finish, and kind of left something to be desired. As I played through Theatre , I was glad to see some familiar faces, and I really enjoyed how clever some of the puzzles were. Unfortunately, most of the game is spent focused on just one place, being the theater stage, making the whole experience feel somewhat bare bones in retrospect. On top of that, the story doesn't really seem to advance at all through this entry, which felt especially weird after how big the steps seemed in Birthday . Though the plot technically advanced, this title felt more like filler than actual new content. Desp

  When it comes to mobile games, the best performers are typically those that are conducive to the "pick up and play" mentality. Flow Free has held it's ground on mobile devices for nearly a decade while other games have come and gone, and I believe that is on no small part due to the fact that it is the epitome of "pick up and play." Bored at home? Waiting for a friend? Stuck on an elevator and surrounded by strangers? Flow Free is always ready to help. The gameplay is very straightforward, tasking you with connecting colored dots with each other, while filling in every space in the grid. Once you get a hang of the general structure of the puzzles, they typically aren't too difficult to solve. However, solving them is super addictive. There are thousands of puzzles, so I never really felt bad when I completed a few hundred in one sitting. Flow Free provides you with a large selection of "packs," each with over 100 puzzles following a certain th

  When I first heard about SUPERHOT , I thought it was an awesome concept for a shooter. The thought of transforming the bullet-hell shooters that I was used to playing into a game of pure-strategy seemed like an exciting proposition. Now that I have actually played it, I realize that it offers so much more. Even without a story, SUPERHOT could have been an amazing arcade-style game. However, that wasn't enough for the developers, and I'm grateful that it wasn't. SUPERHOT is a first-person shooter with  simple-yet-impressive graphics, and a simple-yet-impressive gimmick to boot. That is, time only moves when you move. Every little action has to be calculated if you want to defeat the opposing army of "red guys." No turned head, fired shot, or thrown bottle should be wasted. On top of that, SUPERHOT' s story acts like a psychological thriller, and I'm all for it! I'm a sucker for world-building story, especially one that makes me think; for such a sho

  If the pictures didn't make it painfully obvious, I am bad at this game. Classic arcade games usually give me trouble (that's their quarter-eating job), but Frogger kicked it up a notch. Other arcade legends eased me into the intense difficulty by making simple adjustments every level. However, just the second level of Frogger added faster vehicles, more diving turtles, less frequent logs, and two kinds of alligators. There's no room for learning - this game is a trial by fire. Each level tasks you to escort five frogs across a street and over a river while avoiding obstacles and, optionally, grabbing some extras for bonus points. With nothing deliberately seeking to kill me, Frogger did end up being a more "zen-like" experience than I'm used to from the genre. Unfortunately for me, zen and simplicity are not synonymous. Frogger  wrecked me, and like most other arcade games, I lack the dedication to improve. If you have a chance to play this game, by all m

Like it's recent predecessors , Pokémon Sword aims to keep the series fresh by shaking up previous staples and adding exciting new gameplay features. After the Let's Go games got me excited for new possibilities and directions in the main series, Pokémon Sword worked hard to deliver. However, as a collector, I was very put off by the absence of hundreds of Pokémon - so much so that I almost didn't even play the game. Luckily, I was so distracted by everything that this game does right, that I nearly forgot about it's issues. In their imitation of the mobile game, Pokémon Go , the Let's Go games did away with the series standard of random encounters in favor of having all of the Pokémon wander the world in plain sight. My number one wish for the series going forward was to adopt that feature permanently. With a little modification, Sword and Shield did exactly that, and it was amazing. Gone are the days of constant interruption of your adventure, and in their

  Smaller indie titles often live their whole lives in the shadows, yearning for a big break that never comes. That was almost the fate of Among Us , a simple yet addictive take on the classic group game, mafia. However, the world took an unexpected turn in 2020 that left people aching for a way to connect with each other, and Among Us was how many filled that void. With a low price tag and a big community, the game's accessibility helped to make it into the runaway success that it became. The gameplay revolves around the crew of a spaceship attempting to keep things running, despite the presence of imposters whose only goal is to kill everyone on board. When a round starts, your role is automatically assigned, and then it's a mad dash to get everything done before the opposition succeeds in there mission. The major point of interaction that made this game perfect for 2020 comes once a body is discovered (or when someone calls an emergency meeting). In the meetings, players at