amphibious_ReViews

Flower Town was one of the few StreetPass Mii Plaza games that I actually wanted to keep playing after I had beaten it and along with Puzzle Swap , the relaxing, collection-focused structure of this game easily made it one of my top three in the plaza. I had originally hoped to get one of each flower variety in my journal before quitting, but the later stretch of the game slowed down significantly, and I decided to stop playing before my opinion soured. While I didn't finish as much as I wanted to, I still really enjoyed everything Flower Town had to offer. While the game's premise is simple, it's supplemented by a wide breadth of complementary mechanics. Each time you open the game with a new set of StreetPass tags, the Miis you bring along will water your current flower one by one. Watering will start by helping a seed to grow into a blooming flower, but will later grant the opportunity for your flower to cross-pollinate with those of your tags. When done correctly, you s...

Reusing game engines has proven to be pretty popular in the Zelda series. It offers developers a chance to craft more experimental and risky games, as the initial investment on the engine was covered by the previous, more traditional release. As a huge fan of A Link Between Worlds , I was ecstatic to learn it was getting a pseudo-follow-up. My excitement only grew when Nintendo sent me an early-access demo, and I somehow had no concerns that this was another multiplayer-focused game, despite my preference for solo play. Since the previous multiplayer Zelda games had pretty functional single-player modes, I anticipated that I could expect the same here. Unfortunately, that wasn't an entirely accurate assumption. Like its predecessors , Tri Force Heroes is level-based in order to accommodate its multiplayer focus. All of the stages are designed like dungeons, so they hold up really well for puzzle-solving challenges, but they lack a lot of the same charm you can find in Four Swor...

I couldn't tell you how excited I was to finally get my hands on this game. Four Swords Anniversary Edition was released as a free download on DSi and 3DS to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda , and once again to celebrate the critical success of A Link Between Worlds . However, it was removed from the shop shortly after release both times and has never been re-released since. I'm a huge fan of the Zelda series, but I completely missed the limited availability of this title. I could technically have played the GBA original, but then I would need a second player with their own hardware, and I would miss out on all of the extra content. Luckily, I did finally end up getting my hands on the game. When Four Swords originally came out on the GBA packed in with A Link to the Past , it was the first of its kind. While it still looks and feels like a Zelda game, with its engine even being reused for The Minish Cap ,  the series-staple sprawling solo adventu...

  Before Breath of the Wild , Ocarina of Time was arguable the definitive 3d Zelda adventure, and honestly, it might still be. It was a remarkable feat in video game development that Nintendo was able to translate the item-collecting, dungeon-exploring, world-saving structure to three dimensions almost perfectly on their first try. A Link to the Past set the series standards for decades to come, but Ocarina of Time showed, without a doubt, that those standards worked just as well outside of two dimensions. The game definitely had areas for improvement upon its first release, but practically everything I had an issue with on the N64 was fixed in the 3DS remake. Quality-of-life improvements, such as making the boots an item, or displaying the map on the screen at all times, made this adventure largely seamless. Plus, the graphics are leagues better than before, which is always a win. The story in Ocarina of Time is nothing exceptional, but it got the job done. Starting as a young ...

Starting its life on the Gameboy , Link's Awakening  offered a full Zelda  adventure on the go. Now, its remake for the Nintendo Switch  offers the same, and so much more! My first experience with the game was the DX  edition on the Gameboy Color . I had a lot of fun with it, and the introduction of Mario  characters to a canon Zelda  title felt impossibly delightful. However, the limitations of the console did cause the first two releases to suffer in a way that the remake remedied nicely. The Switch  version offers the same quirky atmosphere as the original, and it faithfully recreates the island of Koholint and its inhabitants, while also adding content that deepens the experience, making it worth the investment for new and returning players alike. The world that was (re)crafted in this game holds so much to enjoy. The interactions between characters range from heartwarming to comedic, the puzzles are never easy, but always rewarding, and the st...