amphibious_ReViews

The follow-up to the cult-classic EarthBound , Mother 3 never officially came to the West, but that didn't stop its fans from doing the work themselves. I'm so used to translation efforts for games that I care about petering out before anything playable comes from them, so I was shocked to learn that the fan translation for Mother 3 came out as soon as it did. With an initial Japanese release in 2006, the translation patch came out just two and a half years later and expertly replicated EarthBound's voice and tone. While an official translation would be amazing to see someday, there are certain elements to the game that I think will prevent that from ever happening, and other than a few Easter eggs, I can't see anything that Nintendo would need to change from the fans' amazing work anyway. However, the fan translation wouldn't be very exciting if the game itself wasn't as well-crafted as it was. I loved how Mother 3 approached its narrative. As an evolution ...

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...

Not only did I find Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble to be one of the most intriguing Kirby spinoffs, but also possibly the most intriguing Gameboy-era game in general. An 8-bit handheld game from the turn of the century that uses real motion controls and is actually playable? I absolutely had to try it for myself. Unfortunately, it wasn't very accessible for the longest time. With the secondhand price being way too much for me to consider, and the emulation options being subpar, I didn't really have much of an option to play it. When Nintendo announced it was coming to the NSO Gameboy app though, I was ecstatic! I would finally have the opportunity to emulate a motion-controlled game on a machine designed for motion controls in an official capacity, so I was confident this would be the best way to play outside of the original hardware. After playing, I'm confident that it's outright the best way to play this game. Kirby's Tilt'n'Tumble is a motion-controlled mar...

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...

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...