amphibious_ReViews

I first tried playing the original Super Mario RPG on my SNES Classic years ago. I was actually really enjoying myself, but I bungled the state-saving functionality and lost hours of progress in one disheartening swipe. After that, I put the game down with only a vague intention of returning. Fast-forward to the June 2023 Nintendo Direct and a full remake of the game was announced for Switch, opening up the door for me to try the game again without feeling too much like I was rehashing all of my lost effort. It seemed a little weird to be buying the game again, but playing it on Switch with this shiny new coat of paint was definitely worth the entry fee. As the progenitor of both the Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario series, Super Mario RPG obviously does something very right. This is evident in its solid formula that uniquely combines RPG tropes and Mario's more action-oriented roots. This combined DNA pervades the whole game, but is most clear in two key elements of the experience.

I was born late enough that all the discourse I heard about EarthBound described it as a hidden gem, so much so that I wouldn't even consider it "hidden" anymore. Fueled by these discussions and a curiosity about the enigmatic psychic kids in Smash Bros., I was excited to give the series a try. However, being who I am, I couldn't start with the sequel when there's a whole NES predecessor I still hadn't played. After multiple attempts over the past few years, I realized that was a losing battle and ended up playing EarthBound without finishing Mother (EarthBound Beginnings). While I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't maintain my motivation in the NES original, I'm ultimately glad I gave up because EarthBound is just so much better. The SNES is an absolute juggernaut when it comes to RPGs, but this game is genuinely unique amongst its peers, truly standing out amongst the crowd. EarthBound is obviously a JRPG, and it doesn't hide that fact f

It took me ages to finally get to Sonic. I've been wanting to try his 2D games recently, but for the longest time before that, I just had no interest. My first Sonic game was Sonic Rush back on the DS, and I really wanted to like it back then, but the water stages put such a sour taste in my mouth that I pretty much gave up on the Blue Blur's mainline titles. I still enjoyed the Olympic crossover titles with Mario, and he was one of my favorite characters in Smash Bros , but it wasn't until Sonic Mania became such a phenomenon that I thought about giving his origins a second chance. Going into this Sega Genesis original, I was expecting "gotta go fast," but I ended up getting the much less exciting "gotta land precise jumps with slippery controls," and I'm a bit disappointed by the whole thing. Sonic's first outing sees you controlling the titular blue hedgehog as he races through increasingly mechanized locations in order to stop the evil Doctor

My first experience with Kirby's Adventure was actually the remade version for 3DS. I got it as a Club Nintendo reward and really enjoyed how much it reminded me of the DS Kirby games I used to borrow from friends. I played it a lot, but eventually got stuck on the Kracko boss fight and moved on to other games. Recently though, I've been interested in going back and playing all of the old Kirby games, and Kirby's Adventure was the next on my list, so here we are! I went with the NES version this time around, purely because it's easier to pick up and play my Switch than my 3DS, and I don't mind the slowdown or flickering. Unfortunately, and I don't think this is the fault of the platform, I just didn't enjoy it as much this time around. As the first Kirby game with copy abilities, it makes sense that those would be the main draw. However, that's not really anything new anymore, leaving the whole game feeling pretty vanilla. Thankfully, even the plainest K

When I was a kid, my dad scored a SNES and a pretty sizable collection of games for a price that would practically be illegal in today's market. He played that thing with me and my brother until we literally couldn't get it to work anymore. After that, even though I loved the games, they were just sitting around like paperweights. It wasn't until I was browsing GBA games at our local game shop that I learned there would still be a way to play all those SNES games again. Sitting on the top shelf behind the counter was the beautiful Yobo FC-16 Go. Allowing for both handheld and TV play (with wireless controllers included?!), our SNES library could be an option again! Needless to say, my GBA was not getting a new game that day, and I buckled down to save up the money for that shiny new handheld. As bulky as it was, that machine was one of my favorites for a very long time. I played Turtles in Time on the minivan TV with my brother, handheld Super Mario All-Stars in the living

I was almost afraid to start playing Super Metroid. Having truly started my Metroid journey with two more modern remakes of the previous games, I didn't want another A Link to the Past situation on my hands. So many people hold this game in such high regard, but would archaic design tropes or cryptic objectives push me away from the same conclusion? Unfortunately, the answer to that was ultimately yes. My first attempt at Super Metroid was almost entirely walkthrough free, and I made it about halfway through before I just couldn't figure anything out anymore. I took a break for a few months, then came back to a fresh playthrough with a walkthrough this time. While that really detracted from the search action that defines games like this, I'm glad that I got the chance to play all of Super Metroid without losing my mind, or spending hours trying to figure out what to do next, and I generally had a good time doing it. Despite it technically being the oldest game in the serie

Over the years, I had built up quite a reputation for Super Mario Land 2 in my head. It seemed like everyone who had played it felt like it was incredible, or even on par with the console releases. Relative to its status as a Gameboy game, I would certainly agree. However, taken on its own merits, I'd say that Super Mario Land 2 is a bit overhyped. That doesn't mean I dislike it or think it's a bad game, it just means that I don't think it's fair to stand this up to Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World without considering its context. The first Super Mario Land game was released as a launch title for the Gameboy, so everyone was still trying to figure out how to make games for it. This led to some unique design choices and technical quirks that I don't think we would have seen if the game came out later in the system's lifespan, yet they became integral to the Super Mario Land identity. Super Mario Land 2 may have had the extra development time needed

It took me absolutely forever to beat Final Fantasy V. I came off of FFIV on a high, started this game right away, and absolutely tore through its opening. I was really enjoying the game, especially thanks to all of the humor and pop-culture references included by the localization team. However, by the time I started to reach the late-game content, something just wasn't clicking, and I put it down for almost two years. Revitalized by all the time I need to fill in the middle of the night with my hungry newborn daughter, I went and tackled the rest of the game. It took me a while to realize it, but after finally beating FFV , I concluded that it managed to combine an upgraded version of FFIII 's class system and a lighter version of FFIV 's story and structure to make a near-perfect sequel. I was just too grinding-averse at the time to finish it in one go. Following Final Fantasy IV 's direction, FFV begins the game by introducing you to the party members one by one,

I wasn't always a fan of falling-block puzzle games like I am now. The stress of simultaneously planning and acting really put me off from the experience. I eventually warmed up to Tetris and its contemporaries, but I was still wary of Dr. Mario . I'm not sure what held me back, but I just had no interest in giving the game a chance. I have since come around to find that it offers a truly unique experience, and now I have a lot of fun with it. Contrary to the typical structure of a falling-block puzzle game, Dr. Mario is not endless. When you start playing, your screen already has viruses scattered around, giving you a pre-determined playing field, rather than one you make for yourself like you would in Tetris . Viruses are cleared by connecting them with pills. Four or more units (viruses or pills) of the same color in a horizontal or vertical line will automatically be cleared. If only half of a pill is cleared, the unused portion will remain on the screen and fall down if

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

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

From the moment you pick up Doom , you're in the action. Actually, you don't even get any sort of exposition or context until you complete the entire first episode. Normally this kind of disregard for storytelling and world-building would disappoint me, but it feels perfect here. I'm definitely a sucker for a good story and an engrossing world, but Doom taught me that sometimes getting in the zone and wrecking house can be pretty good too. On paper, Doom really isn't my kind of shooter. When playing an FPS, I prefer to play smart and deliberate, making all of my choices cautiously, or based on well-planned strategies. Doom instead requires quick thinking and on-the-fly reactions, punishing you for moving too slow or playing it too safe with your resources, especially later in the game. That's why I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the whole thing. I would occasionally fall back into my habit of planning and risk management, fail, and remember how to play again.

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

There isn't much to the pink puffball's first outing. Don't get me wrong, the game is beautifully designed with a unique system of movement and combat, a cute cast of characters, and impressive graphics for the humble Game Boy . It's just that the whole adventure is shorter than Super Mario Land , and Kirby himself is completely lacking the copy ability that made him so famous.  In this little five-stage romp, you play as Kirby on his quest to get back all of the food that King Dedede stole from Dream Land, although that plot isn't really clear until after you beat the game. Rather than being long, continuous pathways, each stage on your journey to the penguin's castle is broken into rooms connected by doors. They each end in a unique boss fight, with all of the fights repeated in a gauntlet style before the game's final confrontation. While all of the locales looked nice and offered something minimally different in the way of platforming, the magic of Kir

Tricking new players into thinking it's just a port of the classic arcade game , Donkey Kong turns out to be an impressive puzzle platformer, perfectly suited for the Gameboy . Pitting Mario against his original rival in the hopes of saving his first girlfriend, Donkey Kong offers a challenge so satisfying that it actually spawned an entire spin-off series of Mario games. However, the formula is already so refined here that I have little doubt you'll be fully satisfied after this game alone. Throughout your experience, you'll encounter three types of levels. The most common has you finding a key and carrying it back to a locked door in order to pursue Donkey Kong and Pauline. Beating a few of those will lead up to an encounter with the ape, where just reaching the same platform as Pauline is enough to scare him away and end the stage. However, at the end of each world, he's gutsy enough to try and fight, requiring you to throw his projectiles back at him until he&#

Originally released in the West with a massive redesign as  Tetris Attack , Panel de Pon was destined to be ignored by me for quite a while. Drop-block puzzle games that weren't actually Tetris didn't really interest me for a long time. It wasn't until I played the Puyo Puyo Tetris demo with my wife that I realized playing Puyo Puyo  (or other similar titles) could be fun too. I still wouldn't actually play Panel de Pon for years after that, but it's thanks to Puyo Puyo that I opted to give this game a chance in the first place. Plus, I can be a sucker for games that only released in Japan. Panel de Pon is pretty straightforward. The board follows the typical rules of a match-3 game, clearing any blocks that match in color and form a contiguous line of three or more, with the game ending if any blocks make it to the top of the screen. As expected, the required block matches don't tend to happen naturally. You are provided with a cursor that is two tiles wid

Donkey Kong Country 2 was actually the only game from the original trilogy that I didn't grow up playing. My brothers and I passed around the first game on GBA all the time, and I played Double Trouble on the SNES to completion with my dad. We did briefly try out Diddy's Kong Quest on Wii Virtual Console , but paying coins to save just did not jive with me at the time, so much so that I didn't come back to it until now. Because of my general lack of exposure, I was pretty surprised to learn that this is popularly regarded as the best game of the three. However, even without being able to play as the series' titular ape, I now fully understand that consensus. The basic structure of this game, compared to its predecessor, is pretty much the same. You'll platform your way through linear levels, jumping on enemies, blasting out of barrels, riding animal buddies, and collecting items. On the surface, it may even seem like the developers just swapped out one of the K

As it has always been exclusive to Japan, when I first picked up this game, I had no idea what to expect. After I started the story mode just for kicks, I realized that this was a full-fledged fighting game on the NES ! There are multiple fighters, unique movesets, destructive combos, and detailed backgrounds. None of this seemed like it belongs on the 8-bit machine, but some very clever programming made it not only possible, but also playable, and actually really enjoyable. I'm definitely not the only person impressed by this game though. It's clearly made some kind of impression in it's home country, as evidenced by Sukapon' s presence as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . As I still can't read Japanese, the story was a little difficult to follow. Thankfully, it's not really that important. Playing as the cute-and-simple Sukapon , you have to take down other fighting robots one by one. Those robots are also playable outside of story mode if you j