amphibious_ReViews

I used to watch my dad play Joust a lot when I was a kid, but a large majority of my gaming experience from that time in my life was Nintendo -centric. That trend continues even today, although to a much lesser degree, and those experiences really shape the lenses through which I view the games that I play. It's because of this that I had two prevailing thoughts while playing Joust . Those being, it's a lot like Balloon Fight , and Balloon Fight is better. This isn't to say that Joust is a bad game, just that I found the NES classic feels like a more refined iteration of the same formula. Both games provide you control over a character that can really only move by flapping through the air (although Joust does let you run while on the ground). Repeated button presses help you gain elevation, with steering requiring both patience and good timing while in flight. This system of navigation was a real sticking point for me in Joust , thanks to how floaty it is. In Balloon F

When I first picked up Animal Crossing: New Leaf , I had no idea what to expect. It was my first encounter with the series, and I only decided to get it because I had seen it mentioned positively in articles and videos about separate games. My hopes were high when I first booted it up, and I was completely done within an hour. The slow pace and general lack of direction just didn't mesh with whatever expectations I had formed, and it wasn't until a whole year later that I decided to give it a second chance. Luckily, entering with an open mind that second time gave me the opportunity I needed to truly appreciate what was on offer in this charming little game, and I ended up putting a few dozen more hours into it after that. As with the rest of the series, New Leaf acts as a "life-simulator," letting you do plain, real-life things like furnishing your home, going shopping, planting flowers, or interacting with your neighbors. The big change here is that you are no long

When I first heard about Crash Bandicoot: On the Run , I was excited about the prospect of playing a Crash game on my phone, especially one built with the platform in mind. The pre-release screenshots inspired most of my hopefulness, making the game out to be a safe but enjoyable combination of Subway Surfers and the N. Sane Trilogy . The developer's history didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the potential player-friendliness of the game, but I stayed hopeful nonetheless. Upon release, I found that everything played out generally as expected, if not a little worse. It all looks and feels pretty great, but the execution is a total disaster. The primary goal in On the Run is to defeat interdimensional bosses and their henchmen, thereby returning them to their home dimension. You do this by avoiding obstacles and attacks in three-track auto-runner levels until you are close enough to hit your opponent with a portal weapon. If that was the whole game, I would be happy. Unfort

I had never played a MOBA before Pokémon Unite , so I wasn't sure what to expect coming into it. I had obviously heard of games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 , but I'm just not huge on the whole competitive scene, so I was never too interested in giving them a try. However, I don't think I have ever argued with a free Pokémon game, especially one for the Switch . They may not always be that great, but I love Pokémon and I love not spending money, so I will always give them a shot. Leading with that mindset, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly this game sucked me in, though less pleasantly surprised by how quickly I felt like I had my fill. As its genre dictates, each match in Pokémon Unite sees you teaming up with a small group of other players to try and outperform an opposing team in a small arena. You do so by defeating the wild Pokémon throughout the arena to collect their energy and earn experience points. Energy can be used to earn points for your team

The original  LEGO Star Wars games were a huge part of my childhood. Alongside my brother and my dad, I completed both of them, unlocking every character, finding every collectible, and finishing every challenge. As a testament to their quality, I kept on playing them, even hours after there was nothing new left to do. My love of the first two games made  The Complete Saga  an appealing title. Not only did it offer the entirety of both games in one seamless package, it included a bunch of brand new content to keep me engaged. I'll admit, I never actually hit 100% in this game, but I do own it on four different platforms, so I have plenty of places to go if I need a quick hit of nostalgia, or just some humorous Star Wars fun. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga takes you through the first six Star Wars films, retold in an abridged format by humorous, non-speaking Minifigures. Each movie is represented by around half a dozen stages. These levels take some necessary liberties with t

When Dr. Mario World  was first released, I was worried that it would just be another Candy Crush with virtually endless levels and premium boosters that become a necessity in the later stages. To a degree, I was right. I chose to pass on this one for the longest time, and it wasn't until the official end-of-life date for the game was announced that I thought I should finally try it. I had a mild case of FOMO, if you will. While all of the pressure to spend money was still very much in-tact, the microtransactions themselves were permanently disabled, which made me just comfortable enough to appreciate what the game was actually offering. Dr. Mario World isn't Dr. Mario as you remember it, but the influence of the original is still clear enough. Beyond the aesthetic similarities seen in the pills and viruses, this new puzzler retains the structure of slowly whittling away at a screen full of colored blocks by color-matching three in a row. However, Dr. Mario World literally f

As it was the first game available to redeem with My Nintendo points, Twilight Princess Picross gave me a lot of hope. I had already gotten hundreds of dollars of free games (and merch) from the previous rewards service, Club Nintendo , and I wasn't sure what to expect from its replacement. An exclusive game like this was definitely a good way to boost my confidence, and the expiration date it originally mentioned on the redemption page hinted that this was only the first in a line of My Nintendo branded titles. Fast forward five years and the redemption page still hasn't expired, we haven't seen even a hint of another original title, and My Nintendo  lives in the shadow of its predecessor. Luckily, this was still a fantastic game for Picross fans like me, so at least we have that. Twilight Princess Picross is a pretty standard affair for a Jupiter -developed  Picross game. It's shorter, with just two sets of 45 puzzles and one enormous "Micross" puzzle,

Defender was another arcade game that snuck up on me. I had heard the name plenty of times, but I had never actually seen the game played, let alone actually played it myself. Based on the name, I was expecting something along the lines of Missile Command , but I was way off. With it being an earlier arcade release, I also wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the quality or the quantity of the game's content. Fortunately, while Defender doesn't offer much variety, it is a solid, well-polished alien-shooting experience. The game takes place close to the surface of a barren alien planet, requiring you to avoid crashing into the terrain as you evade enemy fire. Similar to other space shooters, Defender is broken into a series of increasingly difficult stages, and you progress between them by defeating every enemy in the given stage. However, the aliens know how to take advantage of their space, and aren't all going to be in firing range at once. Luckily, the mini-map

Google has a history of releasing cute little games to commemorate holidays, big sporting events, and anniversaries, so the release of Doodle Champion Island Games for the Tokyo Olympics wasn't much of a surprise. However, with the Olympics delayed a full year by the pandemic, I can't help but believe the developers took advantage of their extra window. Where other Google "Doodle" games are just little time wasters that lose my attention after around five minutes, this was almost a full blown RPG that took over an hour for me to beat, and I couldn't get enough! Playing as a cat named Lucky, you're   challenge is to become the champion of a sport-centric island by beating its inhabitants in their preferred Olympic events. There are nine villages to explore, each with their own sport and their own population of characters and creatures straight out of Japanese folklore. You can technically beat the game by quickly running into each village, winning its respec

My first Crash Bandicoot game was The Wrath of Cortex . I chiefly played it with my dad, as I was not nearly good enough to get past more than the first few levels on my own, but it was always fun to watch him play. With the N-Sane Trilogy , I wanted to relive those memories a little bit, but hopefully have an easier time actually beating the games. Although the nostalgia did come back somewhat while playing this first game, I was surprised by how difficult and frustrating I found the whole experience to be. While there were a few stages that only took one or two attempts and werw a lot of fun, the more memorable ones either had VVVVVV -level platforming without the abundant checkpoints, or janky 3D jumps that just don't work for the bandicoot, making this a hard game for me to look back on positively. Crash Bandicoot has you playing as the titular anthropomorphic marsupial as he attempts to save his girlfriend from the mad scientist, Dr. Neo Cortex. This quest will take you from