amphibious_ReViews

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

Throughout my childhood, I played a lot on the Wii. My family had a couple dozen physical games, but sometimes that didn't feel like enough. That's when I would browse the Wii Shop Channel. I never actually had any points cards, but I'd download a demo now and again and had some staples I always returned to. BIT.TRIP RUNNER and MotoHeroz come to mind, but if I had ever bought a game based on its demo, it would've been Pokémon Rumble. That demo lodged itself so deep in my brain that I have become a fan of the series for life. Now that I've finally played through the whole game, I can see its flaws; yet somehow, it's still as amazing as I had always dreamed it to be. Pokémon Rumble is a simplistic beat-'em-up-style adventure focused on collecting and battling toy Pokémon. Unlike the 3DS entries, there isn't much of a story here, but that just helps to keep it focused, and the game isn't long enough for the omission to really stand out. Instead, your go

As the biggest multimedia franchise in the world, Pokémon has a lot riding on the timely release of its mainline games. Everything from cartoons to cards relies on the characters, locations, and pocket monsters introduced in these titles, so a delay of a game would mean the delay of everything else in the pipeline. Obviously, that can't be allowed to happen, so no matter what state a game is in when the release date rolls around, it's gotta come out. In the past, that hasn't been much of an issue for our pals at Game Freak. However, they took a huge gamble on their latest release by switching out the series' familiar linear structure for a brand new open world, and they paid the price. Pokémon Violet is riddled with performance bugs and graphical glitches that gave it a pretty bad name in the video game community. I experienced many of these issues myself and was disappointed by them, but I was far too impressed and engrossed by the rest of the game to really care that

As a loyal Club Nintendo member, I received a special download code for the Tomodachi Life "Move-In Version" in my email before the game launched, giving me an exclusive, early taste of the eclectic social simulator and securing my loyalty in an instant. It felt so special to have that opportunity, and I actually genuinely enjoyed the demo, so I ended up pre-ordering the game and becoming massively invested in it for a few months. There was something about watching those little Miis live their lives and form relationships with each other that felt so fulfilling, and I loved the uncanny humor that tied it all together. Eventually, I squeezed just about as much as I could out of the game a few times over, but for a long while, I was having a blast. Tomodachi Life offers an island full of amenities and asks you to populate it with Miis, giving you the means to create a new islander at any time. You can customize a Mii's appearance, voice, and personality, allowing you to

Four years ago, Nintendo debuted a brand new IP as a part of their mobile game initiative. In less than a month from the writing of this review, that IP will be shelved alongside the likes of F-Zero and Kid Icarus . As someone who just picked up the game for the first time a couple months ago (just before in-app purchases were suspended), I'm disappointed that the franchise seems to be ending already, but I recognize that I didn't really do anything to encourage Nintendo to keep it alive. Nonetheless, I'm glad to have had a chance to play it, and I genuinely enjoyed it far more than I had expected to. As it turns out, playing a game in its end-of-life has its perks too. Dragalia Lost presents a very familiar gacha-RPG structure, but with fairly unique g for what it is. The summoning, team-building, upgrading, and just about everything else you do while you aren't playing through the stages, is ripped straight from the genre playbook. I actually had to double-check th

I've never been very good at fighting games. On more than one occasion, I've tried playing the likes of Mortal Kombat and Injustice , but quickly get put off by the immense learning curve exacerbated by my general lack of talent. I like playing games to have fun, not to "get good," so it's not always easy for me to find my place in the fighting game genre. However, I've been known to try a little harder at learning something new if Pokémon are involved, and I finally experienced firsthand the value of fighting games thanks to the Pokémon -themed Tekken game, Pokkén Tournament .  While I haven't actually played a true Tekken game yet, my understanding is that Pokkén plays the same way, so those familiar with Tekken should feel comfortable jumping in here. For those unfamiliar, combat in Pokkén is one-on-one, with each round of a fight broken into two phases, beginning with the "field phase." The field phase gives the Pokémon access to the

Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected has a reputation for being short, skippable, and simply not as good as Torna: The Golden Country . While I agree that it can't quite stand up to  Xenoblade Chronicles 2 's special episode, which felt far more like a standalone game, I think Future Connected has way more to offer than people tend to give it credit for. It may not have the longest runtime or the deepest game systems, but it still felt like a complete and well-rounded adventure, and I was thoroughly satisfied with it. Future Connected acts as an epilogue to the original Xenoblade Chronicles , but focuses on bringing closure to Melia's study, which was easily the most tragic of the main cast. The focus on Melia led to some creative decisions that, frankly, I loved! The most obvious of which is the playable party of characters. Instead of reintroducing the whole cast of the original game and finding some way to explain what each of them has been doing between games, your

I remember my mind being blown when Pokémon Shuffle was announced. It didn't look like anything super special, especially since I already owned Battle Trozei , which seemed very similar. However, this was the first major free title that I had heard of from the franchise, and getting a Pokémon game for free was more than enough to get me hyped. Upon release, I played the 3DS version of Shuffle until I was sick of it. I had a lot of fun at first, but it eventually got to the point that it seemed nearly impossible to progress without caving to the microtransactions, so I moved on. Now, over half a decade later, I was ready to play it again, but I took advantage of the convenience of the mobile phone version this time. Pokémon Shuffle is a pretty vanilla match-3 puzzle game. There are Pokémon elements implemented that tie it especially well to the sixth-generation games, but nothing that particularly makes it stand out. The general structure of the game is built around defeating

Super Mario Run came out when Nintendo was still testing the waters with their mobile offerings, and it shows. The game is entirely without microtransactions, but to play more than the first couple of levels, you'll need to pay a solid $10. That purchase price does net you a full Mario game that was intentionally designed for one-handed play during bite-sized sessions, but it feels grossly out of place on a platform largely dominated by free-to-play titles. I'm used to seeing console ports like the Final Fantasy series having relatively staggering price tags, but games designed exclusively for mobile rarely require purchases as large as that, at least at one time. Fortunately, once you jump that hurdle, the product you receive is actually pretty good. Super Mario Run is built on the familiar New Super Mario Bros. engine but has a few control alterations to make it feel more at home on mobile. As its title implies, this is a "runner" style game, with Mario consta

After I beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , I immediately bought Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and, just as immediately, proceeded to never play it. I definitely wanted to, but with it stuck on my 3DS , I felt more inclined to play my growing library of Switch games instead. Luckily, the game made the leap a few years later with some pretty impressive quality-of-life and graphical upgrades. Now that I have finished it, I'm glad I got to play the Definitive Edition, but I know this game is a fantastic experience regardless of the platform you choose to play it on. The premise for Xenoblade Chronicles starts out pretty simple. Playing as a young man named Shulk and his growing group of companions, you must try to save the giant titan on which you live from an onslaught of autonomous war machines known as the Mechon. However, no small part of what makes the Xenoblade series so good is the fact that the is so much more going on than you understand at first, and you won't fully understand i

When I learned the DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 came with an entire standalone prequel game, I was ecstatic! I was already loving the base game, and this was the most ambitious DLC I had ever seen, so there was a lot for me to get excited about. I didn't play it right away after beating XC2 since I figured it would be better to pace myself with the series, but it wasn't until I started hearing rumors of Xenoblade Chronicles 3  years later that I actually made it around to it. While the game is short and the story lacks a lot of the depth that the series is known for, I still think that Torna has earned its place as a recognized entry in the Xenoblade series. While I believe it to be a standalone game, I highly recommend only playing this after beating Xenoblade Chronicles 2 . Mechanically, I really enjoyed contrasting how the two games approached combat and sidequests; having obviously been cut from the same cloth, they still both have something unique to offer. Plot-wise

I only seriously played Donkey Kong Jr. for the first time very recently. I have been returning to the original Donkey Kong  for years, and the idea of making Mario the antagonist in the sequel was definitely interesting, I just wasn't ever drawn to the climbing-style platforming. After giving it a real chance, I definitely think that it's fun, but it doesn't hold a candle to the series' progenitor. I can't help but think that  Nintendo made a serious gamble with this game. It probably would've been easier to follow up Donkey Kong by simply using the same skeleton and building new levels. Instead, they propelled the story by creating a new protagonist and implementing brand new platforming mechanics. While I personally would have enjoyed something that felt a little more like the first game, I appreciate the introduction of climbing as a way to shake up the formula, and I'm definitely not mad with how it turned out. Taking control of the titular Donkey K

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

Over the past 25 years, Pokémon's pop-culture dominance has grown astronomically, making it the highest-grossing media franchise of all time by a pretty significant margin. At the start of it all was a humble pair of monster-collecting RPGs that encouraged collaboration and competition between real-life friends, classmates, and coworkers. Now, over two decades later, we have received seven more "generations" of Pokémon games, each leaving that classic formula virtually untouched. Each of them saw massive success, showing just how strong the foundation is, but with repetition often comes boredom. Because the competitive side of Pokémon is so important, major adjustments can't really happen without running the risk of inadvertently damaging a huge draw to the franchise. However, with each successive release that avoids altering the formula, players' interest in retreading old ground fades a little more. Pokémon Legends: Arceus singlehandedly destroys that compla

Back in August of 2021, I reviewed the arcade classic, Joust , essentially just by saying that it was just an inferior version of Balloon Fight . After replaying Balloon Fight to make sure I wasn't full of crap, I stand by what I said. The maps have more variety, the controls are more straightforward, and the additional modes mean there's even more to do. Though, even without the comparison to Joust , Balloon Fight  can stand on its own, whether you play alone or with a friend. The goal of  Balloon Fight  is to flap around, popping your opponents' balloons while keeping your own intact. However, its most impressive feat isn't the gameplay, but rather how remarkably responsive the whole experience feels. Thanks to the intuitive physics of flapping around while attached to a pair of balloons, I feel like I'm in full control of my character, despite not actually having perfect control. The system of building momentum combined with the collision and bouncing effects fe

Undoubtedly Nintendo 's MVP of COVID-19, Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out at the perfect time. While the whole Animal Crossing series is delightful, with cute aesthetics, essentially endless gameplay, and solid life-stimulator gameplay, only this entry released when the closest thing people had to real life was a simulation. The pandemic opened up the perfect little niche for New Horizons to fit into, and helped it to become the second-best-selling game on the Switch practically overnight. I only got around to playing it once people actually started going outside again, but New Horizons still manages to be one of the most fulfilling experiences on the Switch . I found the game's biggest strength to be its heavy dosage (and healthy balance) of both freedom and structure. Instead of starting the game with an existing village like you do in the previous entries, your new home in New Horizons is an overgrown desert island. There's no infrastructure, and the only oth