amphibious_ReViews

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

For the longest time, I had thought Metroid Prime would be the first Metroid game I would beat. The trilogy mocked my empty wallet from its pedestal in the WiiU eShop until I got distracted by the Switch and left it behind. I would still look back on it with longing every once in a while, but one day I felt compelled to try Zero Mission and 2D Metroid consumed me. Now, having beaten at least one iteration of every game in the mainline saga, Metroid Prime once again entered my sights. Easily the definitive version, Metroid Prime Remastered graced the Switch and showed me what I've been missing after all these years. I was honestly a bit worried after having played Dread so recently because I wasn't sure how well the search action formula would translate to 3D. I had heard that the backtracking had turned a lot of people off, which was never much of an issue for me in the mainline games, but I still felt a bit anxious about it. I quickly learned that those fears were entirely u

It took just two rogue headlines in my newsfeed mentioning a "one-dimensional PAC-MAN " for me to be overwhelmed by curiosity. I could only see simplifying the arcade classic as a way to make it less engaging, and yet multiple people considered it exciting enough to write an entire article about. Upon giving it a try, I realized that the new one-dimensional form factor actually made the game much easier to pick up and play, leading me to pull it up a lot more frequently than I ever did its inspiration, albeit for much shorter play sessions. PAKU PAKU follows the explosive trend, pioneered by the likes of Flappy Bird, of trimming down gameplay to its barest bones for the raw dopamine-generating power of quick restarts and high-score chasing. Just like in PAC-MAN, you'll control a gluttonous monochrome circle as it attempts to eat as many dots as possible while avoiding instant death at the hands of an ever-pursuing ghost. While said ghost moves faster than you, there are a

I was born late enough that all the discourse I heard about EarthBound described it as a hidden gem, so much so that I wouldn't even consider it "hidden" anymore. Fueled by these discussions and a curiosity about the enigmatic psychic kids in Smash Bros., I was excited to give the series a try. However, being who I am, I couldn't start with the sequel when there's a whole NES predecessor I still hadn't played. After multiple attempts over the past few years, I realized that was a losing battle and ended up playing EarthBound without finishing Mother (EarthBound Beginnings). While I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't maintain my motivation in the NES original, I'm ultimately glad I gave up because EarthBound is just so much better. The SNES is an absolute juggernaut when it comes to RPGs, but this game is genuinely unique amongst its peers, truly standing out amongst the crowd. EarthBound is obviously a JRPG, and it doesn't hide that fact f

When The Skywalker Saga was announced, I was excited, but I was a little wary of the possibility of going back through the same levels I've played dozens of times already in The Complete Saga and the original two LEGO Star Wars games. As soon as screenshots and footage started appearing, all of those fears were gone. I still didn't know much about it at the time, but it certainly wasn't just an expanded version of the game I've played to death. Now that I've played it, I can gladly say that the spirit of those older classics remains but the play-experience carves out its own identity, creating something familiar, yet refreshingly independent. The Skywalker Saga marks a major evolution in the Traveller's Tales LEGO formula. The world is still highly destructible, studs are still the main currency, and there is still an intense focus on collectibles and unlockables, but the gameplay itself has experienced a significant shift from the previous twenty-or-so mainlin

Sometimes I'll jump on to bandwagon games, like Fortnite or Among Us , just to see what the fuss is all about, but even at just $2.99, I wasn't fully convinced to bite the bullet on Suika Game. When it arrived as a free trial on the Nintendo Switch Online service, I finally gave it a shot, and my first thought went to how much my wife would enjoy it! She has been thoroughly addicted to both Tetris and 2048 in the past, and Suika Game feels like a blend of the two with added physics. I actually ended up really having fun with it, but my wife liked it even more; so much so that we ended up buying it for her Switch after the trial ended. It may be iterative, but this is one of the freshest-feeling arcade puzzlers that I've played in a long time. Suika Game challenges you to earn a high score by dropping as much fruit as you can into a clear container before it overflows. The trick is that when two fruits of the same variety touch, they fuse into one larger fruit and earn you

I stopped playing Fire Emblem Heroes around the same time I stopped participating in the Microsoft Rewards program. Those two things were starting to take over all of my free time, and I needed some reprieve. While I have a history of gacha-style games latching themselves to my daily routines, I foolishly didn't expect this one to manage that. I've never been able to get into tactics games before, and I assumed the same would apply here. In fact, the only reason I started playing it was for the My Nintendo rewards points! However, the game's story and the greater Fire Emblem lore that it draws upon started drawing me in, and before I knew it, I was hooked. Now, while I'm shelving Heroes, I have a new, genuine interest in trying out some of the mainline games. For an aggressively monetized mobile game to be the thing that finally helped me enjoy the tactics genre, it must be doing something very right. Part of that may be its simplicity. In other tactics games that I'