amphibious_ReViews

Pokémon X was a big deal for me. I had just gotten my hands on a 3DS when the game was announced, and having already pumped hundreds of hours into FireRed , my only mainline Pokémon  game at the time, I was absolutely ready for something new. I easily could have picked up any game from the DS era to satisfy that itch, but watching the teaser trailers advertising mega evolution and the gorgeous 3d everything, I knew that wasn't really an option. Once I got my hands on the game, I knew I had made the right choice. From the moment I first heard the opening theme to the day I completed the national dex, I was absolutely enamored. I consider Pokémon X and Y to be the start of a major transition for the series. While most of the traditions and tropes from the previous five generations are still present here, there are some important changes and additions that mark a new direction for the mainline series. Obviously, the game is in 3d instead of 2d, but there was a waterfall of changes

With Minecraft being the marketing juggernaut that it is, there's a lot of crap that gets sold just because it's associated with the brand. Kids love the stuff, and I'm glad they can have fun with it, I just find myself disappointed that such an original game is represented by crappy plastic toys and endless varieties of low-quality apparel. Minecraft Dungeons seems to be a product of that same marketing titan, slapping a coat of Minecraft paint on something completely unrelated to the original work just to sell some units. However, quite unexpectedly, Dungeons manages to stand on its own as a fun little adventure. It's definitely not without its flaws, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. Unfortunately, my first impression wasn't great. Minecraft Dungeons is a fairly straightforward dungeon-crawler, tasking you with exploring a set of fairly linear maps while defeating enemies in order to reach a boss or an exit at their end. However, before you can

While arcade-style games have always had a huge presence in the mobile-phone videogame market, most attempts at bringing classic arcade IPs to the platform left something to be desired. With those kinds of games originally built with joysticks and buttons in mind, the touch screen just can't match the precision they require. However, attempts at making new games in recognizable franchises could be successful if they were designed with the platform in mind. Bandai-Namco seemed to pick up on this when they hired the studio behind the immensely popular Frogger clone, Crossy Roads . The result of this partnership was a PAC-MAN game that actually feels like it belongs on the platform. Adopting Crossy Road 's blocky aesthetic by default, and adjusting the camera from overhead to an isometric view, PAC-MAN 256 allows its titular protagonist to move the same as he always has, but in a world that's much more akin to a mid-twenty-tens mobile game. Dropping stages in favor of an i

Trials and Tribulations is easily the best game in the original Ace Attorney  trilogy. In addition to restructuring the formula established in the first two titles, this game brought back the overarching plot that Justice for All   was sorely lacking. Trials and Tribulations managed not only to have its own fantastic, self-contained story but also to unify all three games with a concluding chapter that completely blew me away. It was because of that story that I got sucked into this game, and sucked in quickly. Now you likely aren't, and shouldn't be, playing this before you have played its two predecessors, so you should be pretty familiar with the mechanics the moment you pick it up. Nothing new has been added since Justice for All , and the investigating, court battling, and psych-lock breaking feels the same as it always did. It's the story where Trials and Tribulations really shakes things up. Where the previous games were chronologically linear, this one actually b

I used to watch my dad play Joust a lot when I was a kid, but a large majority of my gaming experience from that time in my life was Nintendo -centric. That trend continues even today, although to a much lesser degree, and those experiences really shape the lenses through which I view the games that I play. It's because of this that I had two prevailing thoughts while playing Joust . Those being, it's a lot like Balloon Fight , and Balloon Fight is better. This isn't to say that Joust is a bad game, just that I found the NES classic feels like a more refined iteration of the same formula. Both games provide you control over a character that can really only move by flapping through the air (although Joust does let you run while on the ground). Repeated button presses help you gain elevation, with steering requiring both patience and good timing while in flight. This system of navigation was a real sticking point for me in Joust , thanks to how floaty it is. In Balloon F

When I first picked up Animal Crossing: New Leaf , I had no idea what to expect. It was my first encounter with the series, and I only decided to get it because I had seen it mentioned positively in articles and videos about separate games. My hopes were high when I first booted it up, and I was completely done within an hour. The slow pace and general lack of direction just didn't mesh with whatever expectations I had formed, and it wasn't until a whole year later that I decided to give it a second chance. Luckily, entering with an open mind that second time gave me the opportunity I needed to truly appreciate what was on offer in this charming little game, and I ended up putting a few dozen more hours into it after that. As with the rest of the series, New Leaf acts as a "life-simulator," letting you do plain, real-life things like furnishing your home, going shopping, planting flowers, or interacting with your neighbors. The big change here is that you are no long

When I first heard about Crash Bandicoot: On the Run , I was excited about the prospect of playing a Crash game on my phone, especially one built with the platform in mind. The pre-release screenshots inspired most of my hopefulness, making the game out to be a safe but enjoyable combination of Subway Surfers and the N. Sane Trilogy . The developer's history didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the potential player-friendliness of the game, but I stayed hopeful nonetheless. Upon release, I found that everything played out generally as expected, if not a little worse. It all looks and feels pretty great, but the execution is a total disaster. The primary goal in On the Run is to defeat interdimensional bosses and their henchmen, thereby returning them to their home dimension. You do this by avoiding obstacles and attacks in three-track auto-runner levels until you are close enough to hit your opponent with a portal weapon. If that was the whole game, I would be happy. Unfort