amphibious_ReViews

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

Brought to us by the talent behind World of Goo , Little Inferno manages to capture the same demented, yet emotionally complex, style of entertainment again. I'll be honest, it was because of that pedigree that I first bought the game for my iPod Touch , and despite going into it blind, I had a great time from start to finish! Fast forward nearly a decade and I'm starting to crave the games of my childhood again, with Little Inferno at the forefront of that nostalgia. While I could say it was to be as true to my original experience as possible, I actually whipped out an old iPhone 4S to play this because I was too cheap to buy the game again. I'll need to repurchase it eventually so I can play that awesome new Christmas DLC, but the iPhone was good enough for now. Little Inferno is a game about burning your stuff, buying new stuff, and burning that too. In an effort to throw a rug over the constantly worsening climate crisis right outside your door, you receive a Little

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

In 2012, as a spectacular advertising campaign for their new movie,  Wreck-It Ralph , Disney released a few different takes on Ralph's fictional home game. Each based on the clips from the film, they offer similar aesthetics and gameplay, but their different development teams and target platforms meant they wouldn't exactly match each other. Of the different versions, the only one I have played myself is the iOS release that came both as a free standalone and in a dollar combo pack alongside mobile interpretations of all of the fictional arcade games featured in the film. I downloaded both immediately after seeing the movie and absolutely loved the fact that I was actually playing Wreck-It Ralph 's game! However, it was only after replaying it now that I was able to appreciate all of the features the developers managed to pack in to make it feel like a real arcade release. Fix-It Felix Jr! sees you playing as the titular character as you attempt to repair an apartment bu

Most of the mobile games I played during my youth have since been delisted or updated beyond recognition. As technology evolves and people's interests shift, it often just isn't worth it for developers to maintain their older apps anymore. That's what makes something like Pocket Frogs so special. From the moment I started playing again, everything was immediately familiar. I may have started a fresh save, but it still somehow felt like it was just how I left it on my iPod Touch in 2012. Pocket Frogs is somewhat unique in the virtual-pet space thanks to its mechanical implementation of rampant capitalism. Starting off with just a few terrariums, only one of which that can act as a nursery for incubating eggs, you'll quickly realize how much buying and selling of your hoppy little friends you'll need to do if you hope to expand your frog capacity or fill out your froggydex. The main gameplay loop consists of getting a bunch of new frogs, running out of space for th

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 was beyond excited for TCG Live when it was announced. Modernizing the official Pokémon Trading Card Game client, easing access to competitive cards, and finally bringing it to mobile checked all of my boxes! I wasn't able to join the beta immediately, but eventually caved and started playing via VPN. At the start, I really enjoyed it! It was no longer the same chore it was in TCGO to try and get the deck you want, and the battle pass provided a lot of incentive to keep playing. Unfortunately, the cracks started to show pretty quickly, and after only a few weeks, I couldn't convince myself to keep playing. I actually wanted to wait for the official release before I wrote my review, because I know there's a game I want to play in there somewhere. However, after waiting for almost a year, I couldn't keep it in anymore. The Pokémon TCG Live client is The Pokemon Company International 's attempt to translate the physical Pokémon Trading Card Game for online play