amphibious_ReViews

Remakes in the Pokémon series have been seriously impressive in the past. Many even still consider HeartGold and SoulSilver to be some of the best games in the entire series. Each of the first three remakes in the franchise used an upgraded version of the engine from the most recent mainline titles at the time, incorporated every Pokémon  released up to that point, and added new story content on top of whatever the original had. This led them not only to be improvements of the games they remade but also of the current generation of titles as a whole. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (and Shining Pearl ) does none of that. I wanted to get all of that out of the way at the start because, although they didn't live up to series standards, I still ended up having a great time with the Sinnoh remakes. I definitely think that this was the wrong direction for these games to go, but I'm not letting myself be too mad, as I ultimately enjoyed what we ended up getting. If you have ever played

Even though I knew this was a direct spinoff of Super Mario 3D World before I started playing, I was surprised by how familiar it felt. Obviously, the game's whole premise comes from the cute side-levels scattered throughout 3D World , but the two games have more in common than that. Sharing a soundtrack, HUD, enemy selection, and control scheme (even down to the touchscreen) made the whole experience feel very comfortable and familiar. Just like 3D World , Treasure Tracker ends up being pretty short if you just play through the levels to beat them. However, it offers a lot more to do if you tackle all of the additional challenges, making for a pretty meaty experience. Throughout this surprisingly hefty game, you'll play as Captain Toad and Captain Toadette as they hunt for treasure and repeatedly rescue each other from some pretty perilous situations. Just like the side-levels in 3D World , most of the adventure takes place in these meticulously crafted little dioramas, gi

Typically, when an online multiplayer game makes the transition from console to mobile, one of two sacrifices has to be made. Either the game comes over as-is and suffers thanks to unintuitive touchscreen controls, or it gets redesigned as a spin-off, losing some of the oomph of the original, but feeling a lot more at home on the platform. Psyonix chose the second option with Rocket League and created Sideswipe , blowing everyone away with how it still felt like the source material, despite the redesign. As a testament to its quality, within days of its release, professional Rocket League players were raving about Sideswipe and playing it as a legitimate counterpart to the original. As a fresh perspective on a familiar game, Sideswipe picked up steam pretty quickly. When I think of Rocket League , I think of two things - playing "soccar" and customizing my vehicles. While there's more nuance to it than that, I feel like my experience generally boils down to those two

A Link to the Past is often referred to as the best 2D Zelda game. While I agree that this is where the series really started to understand what it wanted to be, I don't think people are remembering the game for what it actually is. Anybody familiar with a non- Breath-of-the-wild  modern  Zelda title will feel comfortable in A Link to the Past from the very start, as an impressive amount of what this game does end up becoming a trope for the series. However, the unbelievable amount of cryptic and unnecessary gatekeeping that you'll encounter as you progress is a reminder that this is truly a game for a different era. A Link to the Past is a fairly standard adventure game with some puzzle elements, tasking you with traveling throughout the kingdom of Hyrule in order to rescue Princess Zelda from the dark wizard Aghanim and restore peace. At the start of the game, the world is pretty blocked off, and there's a fairly straightforward path that you're supposed to follo

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team was one of my GBA staples. I played that game until there was virtually nothing left to do in it, and then I still played more. The gameplay loop was okay, and I don't think the rescue missions alone would've been enough to keep me coming back, but I absolutely fell in love with the characters and the world, making it easy to dive in every time. Picking up Rescue Team DX was immediately nostalgic; it looked, sounded, and felt just like I remembered from the original, which I would say marks a fantastic first impression for a remake. Just like the originals, the main gameplay could be improved, but the story is a delight and kept me fully engaged. In Rescue Team DX , you play as a human who mysteriously woke up as a Pokémon.  With the help of your new partner, you have to try and figure out why you transformed while also helping the Pokémon you meet during your adventure. With your partner, you form a rescue team that volunteers to en

It's a lot of fun showing off virtual reality to people who have never tried it before, but most VR games are a single-player affair. Even when a game is multiplayer, it often requires multiple headsets, which can be really limiting. This makes it a lot more difficult to introduce people in party settings, which is easily the most fun way to do it. That's why Acron was such an exciting discovery for me. Anybody with a smartphone can join the VR player in a "1 v. All" competitive format, keeping the whole group engaged, even though only one person can be in the headset at a time. Acron feels like a combination of capture the flag and tower defense, more of one or the other depending on what side you're on. The smartphone players control a group of squirrels that need to collect all of the tree's acorns and return them to their home before the time runs out. They can play as one of many classes, each with their own specialty, such as forming a temporary shield

I guess I have a thing about playing mobile games that are on their deathbeds. I didn't pick up Harry Potter: Wizards Unite until Niantic announced that it was being shut down. It wasn't for a lack of interest though; I was definitely intrigued by the concept, and I am a fan of the Wizarding World , I just couldn't see myself balancing two location-based games at a time, and I still play Pokémon Go regularly. Now that the game is officially in its end-of-life, there are no long-term commitments to be made, and I can enjoy it for a bit without feeling bad when I decide to move on. I also had an unexpected sense of freedom since I didn't feel like I needed to ration my resources for later use. I could use anything I wanted on a whim without worrying that there would have been better opportunities for use if I had just saved them. With this overwhelming sense of freedom, I was able to dive right into Wizards Unite . Using my Pokémon Go instincts, I just started clickin

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has evolved a lot since its initial launch, and with over 10,000 unique cards released to date, people have been able to do a lot in the competitive scene over the years. As exciting as that is for the modern player, it also means the original competitive TCG experience has largely been lost to time. Luckily, the popularity of Pokémon on the Gameboy prompted a videogame translation of the classic rules and earliest cards, giving curious folks like me the chance to play the game as it was originally designed without the hassle of rounding up a bunch of 20-year-old cards and finding someone just as crazy to play against. While the card game rules are just those of the TCG as they were in 1998, the developers added some context to your dueling in order to make the experience feel more like a videogame than a simulator. Right from the start, you'll probably notice that the goal was to imitate the mainline games, and despite the smaller scale, it does a

When Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp came out, I was blown away by how it managed to look even better than the most recent mainline game at the time, New Leaf . The fundamental structure of the series was obviously modified to allow it to be free-to-play, but it still has all the right pieces to make it feel just like its console counterparts. The developers brought over the models and animations straight from the main series, making this look far more like a true mainline entry rather than just a mobile spinoff, and the Animal Crossing "feeling" is largely there too, with villagers' corny monologues and near-infinite debt ceilings fully in-tact. Pocket Camp differs from its mainline cousins in a few ways in order to support the new pick-up-and-play model. First, you don't actually have access to a whole village in this game. Instead, you manage a campsite and can travel to different islands to collect resources and interact with villagers. These little separated isla