amphibious_ReViews

I was heavily invested in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition when Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was formally announced. Even though I had been hearing the rumors for weeks, maybe months, at that point, the Nintendo Direct still had me giggling like a toddler on their birthday. Upon seeing a game that combined the worlds of the first two numbered entries, brought back old characters, and just looked excellent in its own right, I was sold before the trailer was half-finished. I was just wrapping up Future Connected when my pre-order arrived, but I was pretty quick about starting what would become one of my favorite video game experiences of all time. It was a slow journey, as I became a dad less than a month after the game was released, and a new Pokémon game came out in the middle of my playthrough, but oh boy was this the best thing I've played in a long time. It took a good while for me to understand my feelings about this game, but I can now confidently say that Xenoblade Chron

We had a plethora of Star Wars games on our Xbox when I was a kid. My dad, my younger brother, and I would play through most of them so many times that they literally had nothing left to discover, but then we'd just play them again! There was one exception to this phenomenon, but it wasn't due to disinterest. I loved watching my dad play Republic Commando, but as a kid, I couldn't get further than the first couple of chapters. The coordinated, team-based combat with surprisingly powerful enemies is incredibly intense and deserves a whole TV show on its own. Unfortunately, those surprisingly powerful enemies were too much for little old me to handle, and I was relegated to the audience. My appreciation for the game never dwindled though, and now that I have a little more experience with first-person shooters and games in general, I'm ready. Republic Commando introduces a new type of trooper in the clone army. Commandos have more training, better weapons, additional impla

When I was a kid, my dad scored a SNES and a pretty sizable collection of games for a price that would practically be illegal in today's market. He played that thing with me and my brother until we literally couldn't get it to work anymore. After that, even though I loved the games, they were just sitting around like paperweights. It wasn't until I was browsing GBA games at our local game shop that I learned there would still be a way to play all those SNES games again. Sitting on the top shelf behind the counter was the beautiful Yobo FC-16 Go. Allowing for both handheld and TV play (with wireless controllers included?!), our SNES library could be an option again! Needless to say, my GBA was not getting a new game that day, and I buckled down to save up the money for that shiny new handheld. As bulky as it was, that machine was one of my favorites for a very long time. I played Turtles in Time on the minivan TV with my brother, handheld Super Mario All-Stars in the living

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

Every once in a while, I'll come across a game that I know will be good, even without having virtually any background knowledge about it. A pixel-art platformer starring a radish that is a dad? Yeah, that's going to make the list. I would often see the Dadish games when browsing the Switch eShop, but for ten dollars a pop, I never looked any further than the listing. However, if we mosey on over to the Google Play store, every Dadish game is available (ad-supported) for free! How could I resist? With the Android port having full controller support and surprisingly infrequent ads, the experience is going to be identical between mobile and console for most players, and I had an excellent time with it. Dadish is a straightforward affair. In this precision platformer, you'll be playing as the titular radish himself and you'll need to track down all of your children. It's not like Dadish is an irresponsible father, he was just taking a well-deserved nap when all of his k

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