amphibious_ReViews

It took me ages to finally get to Sonic. I've been wanting to try his 2D games recently, but for the longest time before that, I just had no interest. My first Sonic game was Sonic Rush back on the DS, and I really wanted to like it back then, but the water stages put such a sour taste in my mouth that I pretty much gave up on the Blue Blur's mainline titles. I still enjoyed the Olympic crossover titles with Mario, and he was one of my favorite characters in Smash Bros , but it wasn't until Sonic Mania became such a phenomenon that I thought about giving his origins a second chance. Going into this Sega Genesis original, I was expecting "gotta go fast," but I ended up getting the much less exciting "gotta land precise jumps with slippery controls," and I'm a bit disappointed by the whole thing. Sonic's first outing sees you controlling the titular blue hedgehog as he races through increasingly mechanized locations in order to stop the evil Doctor

I feel like Samorost 2 flew right by me. I got a free trial for Google Play Pass (like Xbox Game Pass for Android apps) and most of Amanita Designs' games are available on it, so I thought I should probably try the sequel to Samorost 1 while I had the chance. Just like with the first game, the visuals were the star of the show. Unfortunately, they ended up being the only real draw for me this time. I liked the game well enough, but I feel like it could have been more than it was. Samorost 2 follows the familiar little gnome on his journey to save his dog that got kidnapped by a group of aliens. You'll have to solve puzzles and interact with a surprising variety of characters to help him rescue his dog and get home safely. Some of those puzzles are neat, and there were a few that made me feel pretty smart for figuring them out, but there were plenty of others that didn't quite land for me. They didn't sour the experience though, as the good puzzles and bad puzzles alike

Not only did I find Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble to be one of the most intriguing Kirby spinoffs, but also possibly the most intriguing Gameboy-era game in general. An 8-bit handheld game from the turn of the century that uses real motion controls and is actually playable? I absolutely had to try it for myself. Unfortunately, it wasn't very accessible for the longest time. With the secondhand price being way too much for me to consider, and the emulation options being subpar, I didn't really have much of an option to play it. When Nintendo announced it was coming to the NSO Gameboy app though, I was ecstatic! I would finally have the opportunity to emulate a motion-controlled game on a machine designed for motion controls in an official capacity, so I was confident this would be the best way to play outside of the original hardware. After playing, I'm confident that it's outright the best way to play this game. Kirby's Tilt'n'Tumble is a motion-controlled mar

As a young kid playing Flash games on my grandparents' computer, I had a few staples I liked to return to. I loved the feel of the Fancy Pants games, and they earned their status as a staple in my catalog, but I was never any good at them. I could tell that there was something good there, but I never had the coordination to make it more than a couple levels into either of the first two games. Thankfully, I have gotten a little better since then, and with the entirety of the first three games available within The Fancy Pants Adventures package, I finally had a chance to redeem myself. The Fancy Pants games are what I like to call momentum platformers. Like the Sonic the Hedgehog series, much of the gameplay revolves around building and maintaining momentum in order to efficiently traverse the levels. There are plenty of times when the games force you to stop and act with a little more precision, especially when it comes to the combat, but most of the time, you'll just be going f

Capping off Professor Layton's original trilogy, I went into Unwound Future with expectations set higher than I ever had for the previous two entries. I anticipated there would be improvements to the puzzles and UI similar to the way Diabolical Box improved upon Curious Village , but I was more excited about the story. I had heard that this was a game that could really tug at your heartstrings, and I love it when media makes me feel, so I was more than ready. However, I was surprised when Unwound Future ended up delivering stronger-than-anticipated puzzles, but a cheesier-than-expected narrative. The result was still excellent, and it was definitely my favorite Layton game that I've played so far, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be. First off, Unwound Future easily had the best puzzle variety of the whole original trilogy. I think I could count on one hand how many times I noticed a puzzle repeat concepts within both Unwound Future itself and the series as a

After six long years, the sequel to Breath of the Wild finally came out. There was a gap of four years between the game's announcement and its release that saw the launch of a remake, a remaster, and two official spinoffs from the same franchise. In fact, there was less time between the launch of Breath of the Wild and the launches of either release of Skyward Sword than there was between the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. So, was it worth the wait? My answer would be a doubtless, unequivocal, resounding yes! When I finished Breath of the Wild, I thought "How are they possibly going to top that?" but when I first plummeted into the depths of Tears of the Kingdom, I realized "Oh, that's how." There's so much to say about this game. People who haven't played it complain that it's just a glorified DLC for Breath of the Wild, and while it may reuse assets, concepts, and much of the map, I think it's pretty clear that the two are sti

After finishing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Future Redeemed , I knew my next big commitment was going to be Tears of the Kingdom. However, there was still some empty time to fill before I actually got the game, so I needed to find something shorter to play for a bit. The Zelda itch was strong, and I didn't have time for something like Skyward Sword or Wind Waker, but the story mode of a Musou game? That was far more plausible. I had been clinging to a deep curiosity about the original Hyrule Warriors since it first released on WiiU, and with this short window of free time, I finally decided to play it. Taking so long to commit to trying it might have even have been to my benefit because I got to play the Definitive Edition. This came with all of the extra content from the previous two releases, plus a few QOL improvements that made the whole game a lot smoother of an experience. There is so much content in Hyrule Warriors that you could play for hundreds of hours without seeing eve