amphibious_ReViews

My return to Fantasy Life did not end up going how I expected it to. I first got this game for Christmas in 2014 and it quickly became one of my absolute favorite games for the 3ds. I only played the paladin life, but I loved the gameplay, the story, the characters, and pretty much everything else about it. With nearly a decade separating me from that initial playthrough, I thought I'd try the game again, but go through all twelve lives this time, and maybe even try out the DLC that I never bought as a kid. All the same magic from my first playthrough came back for a little while, but trying to play through all twelve lives soon transformed one of my favorite 3ds games into a mundane chore. I still love Fantasy Life, but when I get the sequel on Switch, I won't be repeating the mistakes I made here. I would describe Fantasy Life as a cross between a life simulator and an action RPG. The gameplay has a good, albeit a bit generic, foundation of combat and exploration, but the tru

Circa 2012, I had purchased every Angry Birds game to date. I loved the series, and only really fell off after Angry Birds Star Wars II. Since then, every single mainline game I loved so much has been delisted, but only after being stuffed with ads and micro-transactions. I, like many other classic Angry Birds fans, longed for a return to form, and Rovio finally obliged in 2022 with a full remake of the original game as it was in 2012, before any of the money-hungry updates. It turns out that those updates happened for a reason, as Rovio Classics: Angry Birds was delisted from the Play Store less than a year after its release with Rovio citing a major loss of revenue in all of its other Angry Birds titles due to the remake's popularity. Thankfully, like half of the original games, I bought this one on release day, so I still have access to it. For someone as familiar with the modern mobile gaming landscape as I am, a return to classic Angry Birds was a breath of fresh air. Off the

After finishing a year with Daily Dadish , I wasn't ready to quit, but I didn't particularly want to replay any levels, so I went straight into Dadish 2. I was a little surprised by how much lengthier and more difficult the levels could be than the average Daily Dadish stage, but I was happy not to be locked to just one a day anymore. In fact, I would often find myself beating three or four in a row whenever I would pick the game up. There wasn't much more to the game than in either of the ones I had played previously, but more of a good thing is still a good thing! Dadish 2 runs on the same engine as before, and while it introduces a slew of new enemy types beyond that of the first game , I had already encountered them all multiple times in Daily Dadish. However, there was one unexpected new feature that stood out and will likely be what I most remember about the game. The first boss of the original game, Burgurgular, returns as an ally that Dadish can ride on, creating br

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.

When I first learned about Ori, I was thoroughly impressed by its art style, but was actively disinterested in playing it for a couple of reasons. First, it was only on Xbox, a platform I had no access to at the time. Second, I knew it was a Metroidvania and my only experience with the genre thus far was a frustrating DNF of the NES original Metroid. Neither of those original roadblocks persist today, and I suddenly found myself very excited to give this series a try. After talking about it with my brother, he scrounged up a copy of the two-game collection for me to borrow, and I ended up buying both games within the next few days. While I wasn't head over heels for it like I was with other big-name Metroidvanias, I had a lot of fun with Ori and the Blind Forest and I was a big fan of its unique approach to genre staples like upgrading your character. Starting with a semi-interactive cinematic, Ori and the Blind Forest puts you in control of a little light spirit named Ori as he gr

I hadn't even finished the first Dadish before I started playing Daily Dadish. The allure of a new level every day preyed on my FOMO in the nicest way possible. Instead of time-limited events designed to push micro-transactions, every day of the year has its own unique level to conquer. While its nature necessitates the absence of even the bare-bones narrative structure of the series' numbered entries, the rest of the game makes up for the shortcoming in spades. Having more than double the number of levels as the previous three games combined, Daily Dadish is a huge adventure and makes for an excellent year-long advent calendar. Daily Dadish plays similarly to its trilogy of predecessors, presenting you with handcrafted platforming levels that challenge you to think quick and move with precision. Stages are filled with hazards and enemies to keep you on your toes while you run, jump, and bounce toward Dadish's truant children. All of the components used in the stages are d

I bought Hollow Knight shortly after it was released on Switch because I had heard good things about it, and the screenshots all looked beautiful. I don't think I actually knew it was a Metroidvania at the time, and I never got around to playing it anyway. I'm glad I waited though, because my experience with the Metroid series helped me to appreciate it way more than I would have back in 2018. I've developed a patience for difficult boss fights and backtracking that I didn't have seven years ago, and now I'm excitedly exploring a vast and rewarding array of Metroidvania games. I would consider Hollow Knight the hardest I've played yet, further convincing me that I wouldn't have liked it very much when I bought it, but the payoff for my dedication to mastering its combat and traversal mechanics is enormous. Hollow Knight starts by dropping you on the very edge of its world, controlling a little bug warrior known only as "the knight." Like any good s