Tag Archives: Nintendo Switch Online

Fatal Fury Special Review

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Fatal Fury is one of those video game series that has done pretty well for itself. It has tons of games and remakes over the years and yet it has always struggled to reach the same heights as Street Fighter and Tekken. It’s tough for any fighting series to match those two though. Street Fighter has decades of legacy among the core fans and Tekken has its legendary story. Fury is sort of stuck in the middle of that and has to share a lot of screentime with King of Fighters. Still, this is a pretty fun game to check out on the Nintendo Switch Online. A true retro title that keeps you on your toes.

I jumped right into Arcade Mode and naturally picked Terry Bogard as my character. That guy is a whole lot of fun to play and he’s also a good all around fighter. So I couldn’t really ask for much more than that. The arcade mode is quite a bit longer than the average one. Usually you have around 8 fights in this mode but this game went closer to 15. Not bad eh? It really makes you work for this and you fight all kinds of secret bosses.

It was a good decision because it does make you feel like you are playing the special version here. The gameplay is very smooth and you will have fun mixing up your combos. The game does a good job of not letting it feel like the villains know all of your moves ahead of time. You can actually “trick” them with a mixup every once in a while which was definitely a good thing. It helps make the whole thing feel more realistic.

Naturally the graphics are fun with the retro sprite look. It will feel like you were playing the game right at the arcade. The soundtrack is also very old school and fast paced to match the action. There are a good amount of levels for the game considering how old it is. There isn’t an abundance of content here so the value is really going to be in the multiplayer. That’s true for most fighting games to be honest. I’d say the ones with a robust story mode are outnumbered by the multiplayer ones, certainly back in these days that was even more true.

So compared to newer games in the series this one won’t be able to compete but if you look at it in a vacuum, this is a good game. It’s very basic but delivers what you are looking for in a fighting game. The characters all have distinct movesets and the combat is executed well. The gameplay is smooth and the game doesn’t seem overly unbalanced. I’m sure it probably would be in the hands of an expert but for the most part on a casual level it feels like the devs did a really good job here.

At this point I own most of the Fatal Fury games. I’m certainly not caught up but I’m always glad to play a fun fighter like this one. The Switch Online has been a great way to play through a lot of retro games so I look forward to seeing which ones come up next. There is certainly still room for quite a lot more titles in the future especially if they keep on adding more consoles.

You probably won’t need rewind a whole lot for this one compared to some of the other old games but of course it can never really hurt. Some of the secret bosses at the end can really hit like a tank and the game’s sped is just fast enough where it can be difficult to react to their attacks at times. You have to absolutely bring your A game at all times and also have to be careful not throwing out too many big hits. They deal a lot of damage but naturally leave you open for quite a while as well.

Overall, Fatal Fury Special is a really good game. It’s one of those titles that reminds you of the fundamentals the whole time. You can’t just close your eyes and start spamming specials. Instead you have to slowly close the gap and win. Also I couldn’t figure out how to use most of the special attacks even if I wanted to do them. So I did a lot of sweeps and throws which is a fun and balanced way to play anyway. I would definitely recommend checking this game out.

Overall 7/10

Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind Review

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Uncle Bubsy has returned! It’s always fun to play another title in the franchise, even if this one does end up feeling a little more dated than the last few. The game doesn’t have the best gimmicks and is a reminder of why sometimes the platformers should really play it straight. When you start to get into all of these gimmicks, it distracts from what could have been a better game. Ah well, that’s just how it goes sometimes though.

The general format here is that of a 2D platformer. You are trying to get to the yarn ball at the end of the level but along the way you will have to dodge several obstacles and take on enemies. Bubsy himself is very fragile so a single hit will take out his life. Yes, there are no rings to protect you or a bigger form to absorb one hit. If you get hit at all then it’s curtains and it is very difficult not to get hit here. I’m afraid that puts you in a rough spot because there are a ton of obstacles here.

The game does not hold back in terms of difficulty. This is the kind of game where you really have to concentrate at all times because if your concentration slips at any moment, then it is curtains for you. There will be no coming back from all of that. Of course that is where the rewind feature comes in handy. Without that, it would be incredibly difficult to defeat this game. You would certainly have to be going slow which is what the developers intended. My problem is that this goes against the genre.

Now this might just be me, but I like to be zooming through levels. I don’t want to have to be going really slow and watching out for things at all times. I want to be having fun going through the levels. This is hardly the only game to do that though so it’s really just a debate between me and the genre itself. If you can get past that, then the game is fundamentally sound. I can’t really give any big negatives against it.

The graphics are also pretty solid and that’s in large part because they have a really fun artstyle here. It’s the kind of artstyle that will continue to look really good even 20 years from now. So Bubsy did good there and the soundtrack is decent although I will say it is a lot more forgettable. I couldn’t recall any of the tunes for you right here but during the gameplay they certainly sounded good enough.

There isn’t a lot of replay value because the game itself is fairly short. Not like there is an extended postgame here or anything like that. Of course that is fairly par for the course when it comes to platformers. Ultimately it’s a game that I would recommend checking out but only because it’s on the Switch Online. If you had to buy it, then I’d say to make sure you could get it for around $10-$15. Purely because you won’t be playing it for very long and you want to make sure not to overdo it.

One of the ways I’d improve this game aside from removing the maze like structure would be to fix the jumping. The mechanics here are way too floaty and it makes things difficult for you when it comes to momentum. The jumps are harder than they should be and naturally that just results in more deaths. Seeing as how platforming is all about jumping and crisp movements, this ends up hurting the game as a whole and should be a top priority to tighten up. I would also say you should be able to endure at least one hit and adding more checkpoints would be a nice addition as well.

Overall, Bubsy is a good game but definitely not a great one. There are too many obstacles to have to run around and the mazes can get rather old. The bosses are also a bit glitchy with one of them just dying and nothing happened so I had to restart the battle. If they had stuck to pure platforming then this would have probably worked but the back tracking and dying to every obstacle really takes its toll here. I will still be hyped for a more modern adventure though because you can see the potential here. It’s just a little dated in multiple ways.

Overall 6/10

Mr. Driller 2 Review

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I’m not really familiar with the Mr. Driller series so it was pretty interesting to be getting into this one. It’s a very short game but does have voice acting which is pretty cool. Basically an alien race has shown up and is causing trouble with their weird blocks. The hero has apparently had to give them a talking to once before. He will have to do so again before the entire planet is crushed by all of these blocks. Fortunately the aliens are not directly malicious, they are just ultra careless. So finding them is the only challenge.

The hero is nice enough. I like how he did not hesitate when deciding to go over there to talk to the aliens. He talks about saving the world in a very nonchalant manner so from the very start you know that he is the real deal. The game reminds me a little of DK Bonanza in that you are going through a bunch of layers and can see what level you are on as you play through the game. There are 3 main levels here and in each of them you have to keep going as far as you can. One level goes down to 2500 feet, then the others are 5,000 and 10,000.

The graphics for the game are pretty solid. It feels like a modern take on Dig Dug and the various blocks all look solid. Think of the intensity from Tetris and that’s what you’ve got here. You are always at the edge of your seat and the game never holds anything back. Additionally the soundtrack isn’t bad so the technical elements are good. A mild game design choice that didn’t work was how it is very easy to start the game on the second level rather than the first. I accidentally beat America first because that’s where your cursor starts. Level one is all the way at the end of the map for some reason.

Odd choice there but it’s not a big deal. The game is definitely hard because you have to continually dig deeper underground while dodging the falling blocks. In a way you have to be calculating a whole lot of things at once. You want to grab the air bottles which restore 20 points to your life bar which is constantly draining. Breaking through any wood blocks automatically takes away 20 points and the air is constantly surrounded by those. So you have to cause a bunch of matches below those in order to get the blocks to fall just right. It’s a really involved process.

I died a bunch of times and the rough part here is with how long the levels are. So if you die, that’s a lot of replaying that you have to do. Perhaps that is why there are only 3 levels but in that case the game would have been better off increasing the level count and just making each individual one smaller. That is always better game design to me because then there isn’t too much disappointment in defeat and you can continue to hone your skills until you are finally a match to go all the way. That’s the best way to improve if you ask me.

What keeps the game from going any further is ultimately that length so hopefully it’s something that can improve with a sequel. There’s a lot to like here, like having the actual story mode and the fun gameplay. It’s just that I would have absolutely not been thrilled if I had spent any money on the game. That would have really felt like a waste. Since I played it for free, that’s a different story but I still couldn’t give the game a higher score. It’s worth about an hour’s worth of content and you’ll have fun for that hour but that’s it.

Overall, Mr. Driller is a pretty fun game but it could have used more content. Once you have beaten the 3 levels, there isn’t a whole lot to do. You can try to beat them quicker and with a high score but the amount of replay value here is ultimately low. The story had a little charm to it but mainly this is something that is content to be aimed at kids. So ultimately this won’t be changing your life, not nearly as much as you might be hoping that it would. Still, the game is free if you have the Nintendo Switch Online so you should check it out. The gameplay is original and I can’t stop giving it props for the fact that they actually got voice acting in here. That was really cool.

Overall 5/10

Mario & Wario Review

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It is always a shame when you have a pretty solid game that is really ruined by a single aspect of it. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened here. The game has solid graphics and an interesting level system but alas the controls are just dreadful. They actually make the Wii Remote look good in comparison! Trust me, you’re going to be feeling rather down about the whole thing by the time you’re done. Still, this was the first new Mario game I’ve played in quite a while so that was pretty cool.

The game lets you choose between Mario, Yoshi, and Peach. Naturally I had to go with Peach because she doesn’t get many chances to shine, but also because her walking speed is slower. That is actually very important in this game because the character is always moving. How it works is that Wario has thrown a bucket over the hero’s head and so you play as a fairy who has to keep the road clear. You will tap on blocks to summon them in front of the player or attack enemies who would have been in the way otherwise. This takes a lot of precision timing and you have to react quickly. So when the player is slower, it ends up helping out a lot.

There isn’t really a plot beyond that unfortunately. There are 10 worlds here and each world has around 10 levels in it So that’s a lot of levels but they tend to be very quick. Most levels you can beat in around 2 minutes or so. The levels start to become more like puzzles once you get deeper into them though. In World 10 there were several times where I just didn’t know where to go. That’s rather impressive in a game like this where there are only a limited amount of actions you can take.

You really have to memorize how high the springs will send you here for example. Otherwise you won’t reach the target or you will go way past it. So it’s definitely something to chew on a bit there. You can use the fairy to reverse Peach’s direction as well which will be key in the final levels. You have to do this a whole lot and with quick timing to avoid the various traps. I can tell you this, without the rewind feature this would have really been a very difficult game to complete.

The artstyle is pretty fun and has definitely aged well. It’s something that Nintendo in particular has done really well over the years. The soundtrack also isn’t bad. It’s not extremely good or anything like that but the main tune doesn’t get too tiring even after hearing it for a large chunk of the game. It’s clear that some real thought was put into the game and that’s why it is a shame that the controls are no good. The gameplay itself is fine. It’s all about pointing and clicking but I have no problems with that.

No, where the problem lies is in the controller itself. To play this game on the Switch Online you need to use the Joypad and then convert it into mouse mode. Nobody wants to use mouse mode. I don’t even know why this is a thing in the first place. Sometimes Nintendo just develops new gimmicks for no real reason. It has really hurt this game and it will hurt others if it continues to be a mandatory style of playing.

There is some replay value here as you don’t have to clear every level to get to the final one. If you go back and do them all, you unlock a final boss level. So you may want to do that to see how the story really ends. Ultimately I just couldn’t get past the controls to do that though. They are really draining the whole time and so you don’t get a whole lot of enjoyment out of them. You’ll die quite a few times even when you know exactly what to do because the controller just isn’t listening to you. Those are always the worst ways to go out and you’ll be left just shaking your head.

Overall, Mario & Wario may have finally arrived on modern consoles but unfortunately it should have been left to history rather than return in this form. It tarnishes the Mario brand and ends up being a waste even with Wario being the big villain. This is the kind of game that could desperately use some kind of high budget remake. I think there are many ways they could improve upon the source material without drastically changing things. It could be a worthy puzzle rival to Mario vs DK. In the meantime though, this is the kind of game you’ll want to skip. If you have the Switch Online then you may as well check it out for free but otherwise I certainly wouldn’t spend any money on it.

Overall 3/10

Shining Force II Review

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You may remember my review for Shining Force I a while back, well I’ve been playing this one ever since and finally completed it. The game is definitely a long one so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I also appreciate that it really followed the template of what a sequel should be. It improved upon all of the weaknesses of the first game like long loading times and making it difficult to swap out party members. Everything has been streamlined quite a lot here which I really appreciate.

The general plot involves a group of devils trying to resurrect the ultimate evil once more. These beings can possess people which makes them rather difficult to stop. The main character’s kingdom is blown up so they are forced to relocate but now they are surrounded by enemies. The King dispatches him to make some alliances and take down the villains along the way but time is not on their side. With every step, he gets closer to danger.

The gameplay is a tactical RPG like the first one. You will have a squad of around 11 fighters and your opponent gets around 30. You have to maneuver around the map in a turn based system to wipe them all out or wipe out the captain of their forces. That means your strategy will often either be about winning slow and methodically or be rushing their king right off the gate. The latter will rarely work to be honest but there are usually a few minions you can skip if you play your cards right. Stay far enough away and you won’t activate their attention.

As you play through the game you will quickly get a feel for which units are strong and which ones are basically just meat shields. Sometimes you will even want to opt for launching into battle with a smaller group as a result. I would just bench the ones who weren’t contributing at all because then there are less turns to go through and that makes the battles go by a lot faster. Sure you could eventually get them strong enough with enough level ups but their growth rate was so bad that it didn’t seem worth it.

Meanwhile like I mentioned before, the game did a great job of really speeding everything up. The turns go by wayyyy faster than in the first game. The menus have also been simplified. You can also revive people with one click when at the priest’s house since it is the default option rather than having to select another option each time. So these were all pretty good quality of life features.

It goes without saying that the graphics here are definitely pretty good. The colors have aged really well and I like all of the various attack animations. It’s clear that the game spared no expense here and that’s really what you like to see as a player. The game did not hold back at all. The soundtrack is also good, although I would say it’s less memorable than some other titles I’ve played. They probably could have had a little more fun with that.

Outside of the battles, the game also has a pretty big hub world with a lot of towns to explore. You’re really rewarded for checking these places out as you can recruit more folks to your army and find rare weapons. The only downside is that the game added random encounters for some reason and these can be annoying since each battle in this game is rather long. You have to try and walk around the encounter zones but there is no way to tell which area will trigger a battle. This felt pretty unnecessary since the game already has a built in exp grinding mechanic with the main character’s teleport ability.

Maybe they just felt it would be easier to level up this way. It’s the only reason I can think of at least. It’s still a rather small detail though. The game’s story will hit you with a lot of different twists and turns as you go through the journey which is also fun. You will really have a hard time guessing exactly how things will turn out. Also if you stay on the credits long enough, you’re rewarded with a boss rush. I’m assuming this is still around on the Switch Online version but after waiting for a while I eventually exited. It’s a cool easter egg for those who wait though.

My main advice here is to make sure to always have the Phoenix in your party. He is by far the best party member and has absolute crazy range. Anytime he would die to a critical hit, I’d have to back up and try again. He is absolutely necessary for winning. Also, you will need to keep in mind that the RNG in the game can really change the flow of battle in an instant. Enemies will randomly hit you twice or paralyze you sometimes or you’ll flat out miss. That means no fight is really a sure thing. I wouldn’t mind if they dialed that down a bit, although of course it’s a lot of fun when it’s your side getting the lucky blows.

Overall, Shining Force II is a pretty fun sequel. I had a good time with it and the game is definitely very well balanced. The wild spawn mechanic may have been unnecessary but at least with rewind you can dodge that most of the time. Without that it would have absolutely been 10x as annoying. I can see why this game has such a strong reputation, it was really well made and I look forward to getting to play the third game someday. What other quality of life updates will they be able to add in there?

Overall 7/10

Shining Force Review

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Shining Force is a game that I was never really familiar with back in the day. In fact, it was so unknown that I didn’t even realize it was a tactics game until I played it. I can definitely say that this is a long adventure though so it’s the kind where you really get your money’s worth. The game also gets quite difficult towards the end. There are a number of areas where the game has not aged particularly well but all in all you will have a fun time here.

The game starts with a lot of turmoil between the kingdoms as always, but this is all spurned on by a group of villains who seek to resurrect an ancient evil. Once this evil is let loose, the world will be in great peril. The main character has to band a lot of allies together in order to save the day. They will be known as the Shining Force and will be travelling across the planet in order to take on all challengers. Will they be enough?

The game’s story is pretty solid. It seamlessly mixes in some humor at good points but is otherwise a pretty serious story. There is a body count here to be sure and the villains tend to always be one step ahead. It’s really not until the very end that the heroes really seem to even stand a small chance. The ending is pretty fun and so you have a real complete journey here.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, tactics style will always take a while. It’s almost self explanatory since you need to come up with plans to win and then manipulate all of your fighters into the right spots. That won’t be an easy task because you will often be outnumbered and have to keep track of a lot of fighters. Your team caps out at 12 active fighters at once while the enemy forces can have around 30 or so. Next up is the RNG to account for. Each enemy has a standard attack which does almost no damage, and then a power attack which can wipe the health bar of even an experienced fighter.

The final boss even has an instant KO attack which feels incredibly cheesy. While the A.I. is dangerous, at least I won’t say that it is completely unstoppable. I was able to exploit it a few times like attacking from an area where the boss would refuse to move. The final boss and his lack of speed also make him easier to exploit which might be why the developers gave him a one hit KO move. Still a bit cheesy if you ask me but that’s how it goes.

Where the game’s age shows is in how the menus work. Each character can only hold 3 items in addition to their weapon. There are a lot of chests everywhere with items but when your main character is full, he can’t pick it up. So you have to go through 4 menus to remove one item and give to someone else. Rinse and repeat every single time you come up to a treasure chest. Trust me when I say that this absolutely gets old quicker than you might expect.

Additionally, there is no way to easily gauge where your units are and their stats. You have to look them up one by one as you navigate the field. You also can’t skip animations so all of the turns tend to take forever. I also think they went a bit too far when increasing the dodge rate for the enemies later on. It gets to the point where they are really dodging everything and that just feels like a really cheap way to lose. I want to lose because their units are more powerful, not because I missed at a critical juncture.

The length also makes field effects feel tricky. For example, there are a few levels where you are in a forest. In those levels, each character’s mobility is cut in half so that immediately doubles the amount of turns to win. It can be seen as a difficulty thing but I’d prefer adding more enemies to just making everything slower. So there are a few times in the game where things can drag a little bit because of that. I generally enjoy tactics gameplay but a smooth interface is absolutely necessary. It’s part of why Fire Emblem is so popular nowadays, they have really done a great job of optimizing the gameplay.

I do like how the game handles EXP grinding though. In some games like Fire Emblem you can effectively get permanently stuck because there is no area to grind. In this game, you can grind forever. The main character has a magic spell that works as a guaranteed escape from battle. You keep all EXP when doing this so all you have to do is keep on defeating enemies without ending the level and you will watch the EXP really rack up in no time. Trust me, it feels really satisfying to pile that up.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can promote a unit to its evolved form as soon as they hit level 10 but you get much better stat boosts if you wait until 20. Personally I decided to wait for my heavy hitters and then the others I did around level 13-15. It’s just hard to wait for some of these fighters who take a while to level up. It’s almost inevitable in a tactics game that you will have some favorite units who will soak up the EXP and that definitely happened here. At the end of the game I had a swordfighter, archer, and a mage. That was about all that I needed, I just left the other units for dead and marched through to the end. Probably not the recommended way to fight but it worked for me.

The graphics are pretty good and definitely benefit from a colorful artstyle. The game has really aged well and I also liked the combat effects like the energy moves and such. The soundtrack is good but a little limited. You’ll probably be tired of the combat theme by the end because you will have heard it hundreds of times. There’s probably no way around that except to set up multiple battle themes that play randomly for encounters.

Overall, Shining Force is a pretty good game. I definitely had fun with it and am looking forward to seeing how the sequel stacks up. If you like a good tactics game then I think you’ll enjoy this one as well. While there are quality of life features that keep me from calling this a great game, it still holds its own when it counts. At the end of the day that’s the important part and all first games in a series will end up having some lessons to learn.

Overall 7/10

StarTropics Review

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StarTropics is one of those games that definitely comes off as real strange and different. It’s certainly not your average title but at the same time this also means that it can often times be a little too ambitious for its own good. There are a whole lot of puzzles here after all and they tend to break up the gameplay. The gameplay itself isn’t bad for the most part but some of the bosses can randomly get annoying. It’s the type of game that you probably would not have had a whole lot of fun with if you had played it without the rewind feature.

The story is at least pretty crazy in a way you wouldn’t see in newer games. You have gods and monsters, robots and aliens. All kinds of different lores smashing together here where a kid has to basically contend with all of them as he travels across the world trying to find his uncle who went missing very suddenly. You’d think a boy and his yoyo would not go far but that would just mean you never played Earthbound. This main character is as tough as they get and even knows how to pilot a submarine.

The game is wacky and fast paced so if the gameplay could keep up then we would be all set. Mainly it uses a top down style like Legend of Zelda although some of the fights become more turn based. It’s a game that desperately needed more quality of life features though. For starters the game isn’t always very clear on where you are supposed to go next. It is extremely easy to get lost and the NPCs don’t tend to offer very clear advice.

It’s not as if the world is huge so you will eventually get unlost but it isn’t always even about the location. Sometimes you have to talk to people more than once in order to get them to open up and really talk to you. It puts you in a paranoid state where you have to keep on talking to people over and over again just in case something is different. I got stuck early on because I didn’t realize you had to talk to the chief twice in a row. Yes, you heard me right “Twice in a row”.

So if you talked to him and left the hut, when you got back he would still start with the first line. You had to click twice and I don’t understand how anyone is expected to reasonably know this. The game has a lot of moments like this where it feels like the rational move just wasn’t thought of. The game design just shouldn’t work like that as nobody normally talks to NPCs twice. At the very least, I can say that I don’t tend to go out of my way to do anything like that.

It’s why the best kind of puzzles are found in games like Professor Layton. You use clues and logical deduction to put the pieces together. It’s a puzzle that has a concrete beginning and ending. You aren’t just told to go find something in the distance. You have a puzzle in front of you to solve and then you solve it as smoothly as possible. It’s why puzzle games stick to their lane and you shouldn’t mix the genre with platforming. That just doesn’t tend to work.

The graphics aren’t all that bad. Yeah they definitely look super old but the game itself is very old. The art direction for it was about what you would expect and there’s nothing wrong with that. The soundtrack is on the forgettable side as well. In short, it’s not the kind of game you would generally pay money to play nowadays. I’m not sure if I would have paid much money to play it back in the day either to be honest but the times were different.

Overall, I want to emphasize that this isn’t a bad game. It’s just not a good one either. It’s the perfect example of a game that would end up falling right in the middle because it just goes through a lot of stretches where it isn’t very fun. It really can feel like work to solve those puzzles but at least the story was good and it could have been worse. The technical details don’t really help it either. So right in the middle makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe some tropical music could have helped the game at least be more memorable in the long run.

Overall 5/10

Mario Paint Review

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Mario Paint is one of those games that you never forget because it’s just so bad. The game had some real potential initially but unfortunately it could not live up to that. The biggest issue here are the controls which are some of the worst that I’ve played with. It decides to turn your controller into a mouse and so you have to click on things as if you’re playing on the computer. It takes away all the potential for a smooth gameplay experience and turns it all upside down. A massive mistake if you ask me.

The game has 3 main modes, the paint, the music, and the fly swatter game. The painting part lets you make fun little pictures with a lot of tools that the game presents you with. There are a good amount of options to be sure but good luck using them without clicking on the wrong things multiple times. No matter how many times you try to grab something, the mouse will fail you. In a way it’s like the original version of motion controls so it is every bit as clunky as you might have expected.

Then you have the fly swatter minigame which is an interesting concept. I’d rather be swatting robots or something but it does take a lot of skill here. Thanks to the controls, I would even say that it is ultra hard. It’s going to take you a long while to take down all 100 flies and odds are that you will die before beating 30 of them. Conquering this mode would really be a feather in your cap.

Finally you have the music mode which was my personal favorite one. Basically you get to put different icons onto the music sheet and Mario will play them out for you. It’s pretty fun and gets you used to composing your own music. You can slow down and speed up the tempo as well to really get the exact sound that you want. So it all works out pretty well but I will say that you will still run out of content very quickly.

That’s probably the second biggest problem with the game after the lack of a good control setup. Even if you did really enjoy the game, there just isn’t a whole lot to keep you busy for very long here. The game will really only serve as a brief distraction and then after that it is time for the next title. So that will keep this game in the backseat for quite a while until they ever announce an update with more content.

The soundtrack isn’t bad at least. There isn’t much in the way of music but in the music portion all of the sounds are very familiar. That part feels very inviting at least. Meanwhile the graphics are good as well. It’s the Mario that you remember and it’s not like it suddenly looks low quality. So I have no negatives on that front but at the same time, it would be hard to mess up on a small game like this.

No replay value will also end up hurting this game bigtime as well. There just isn’t a whole lot for you to do here. I’m not even sure that this game would be something you could use to distract your kids since they would get bored too. I have high hopes that Mario Teaches Typing will not disappoint me the way that this one did. It’s no stretch to say that this is one of the weakest Mario games that I have ever played and that’s saying something!

Overall, Mario Paint is not quite the experience that I thought it would be. It is okay at best and unfortunately never manages to get beyond that. It’s not the kind of game that you will likely play for more than one hour unless you’re on a dare. If you have the Switch Online then you should definitely check it out since you will have access to this title. That said, you can really do a lot better with virtually any other Mario game. It’s no wonder why this one is so unknown. It just doesn’t have that usual 5 star seal of quality from Nintendo.

Overall 3/10

Fire Emblem Review

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It’s time to return to the world of Fire Emblem. I had a pretty good time with the first game and I can tell you that this one keeps going on the same level. The gameplay is missing a few quality of life updates that the first one I played had, but this one ultimately wins on the story and characters. You really get attached to the characters by the end and won’t be forgetting this title anytime soon.

The game starts off with a lengthy 10 chapter “tutorial story” where you play as Lyn and save her kingdom from a corrupt guy who tried to poison the King. You then play as Eliwood and get to the meat of the game. A war has suddenly broken out as usually is the case in Fire Emblem titles and a bunch of Kings are being manipulated by the man in the shadows. This has caused a lot of tensions and so they need to shut this group down. Eliwood is assisted by the noble prince Hector, as well as the return of Lyn. Together the three of them are considerably powerful and will meet a lot of other characters along the way to strength their forces. The stakes are high because if a character dies in a match, they die within the story!

That’s a mechanic that is famous in Fire Emblem and rightfully so. It added a whole lot of danger to the game because if you mistimed your action at all then you will end up being in a lot of trouble. Even the strongest of warriors can go down quickly if he walk into a trap and the same is true of the other side. You can bump off a powerful enemy with a “weak” fighter as long as the weapon and range are right. This s a true strategy game in every sense of the word.

Even inside of the levels there is always a constant strategy of protecting your forces vs going on the offensive. If you stay defensive for too long, then the villains will send in reinforcements to destroy you. Of course if you go too aggressive then you will leave your back row fighters vulnerable or will suffer heavy casualties. You don’t know where the reinforcements will come from or when either. It’s like a true war where surprise is always on the table. A single misstep and you are really toast.

Fortunately to make you feel okay even as you have to retry the mission over and over again, the game has a great soundtrack. You will recognize quite a few tunes from Super Smash Bros. I would say this might be the best Fire Emblem soundtrack so far as the tunes are all so good. You can easily bop to the kind of music that is being played here. Meanwhile the graphics are also really good. I loved the attack animations that would appear and the stages are really clear. They put a lot of effort into this one and it looks better than the average GBA title. The art style has aged really well.

One tip I’d give is to make sure you play the final side mission right before the final battle. Turns out that it is a restock mission to let you get new weapons and such. Without that you could find yourself soft locked on the final level. This is one thing that is annoying about the game. There are no shops in between levels anymore. So you have to really find the shops within levels in order to get new equipment or you are going to be in trouble. It’s tough to do this though because it does cost a turn each time and those are usually hard to come across in the story.

You definitely have to pay extra attention to your formations as a result so you don’t waste one of your stronger ones searching for shops. Then investigating homes will sometimes get you extra items and even new characters but they can also be empty so it’s a gamble. In an easier game this would be no problem, but again this game is actually rather difficult. So every action is just time away from your main objective of defeating opponents. Above all else, just remember to protect your healers. They are incredibly useful in this game. Your main fighters may get potions but it’s not the same since they have to use their turn up for that.

Also, don’t underestimate the bosses of each level. These guys can chew through all of your fighter’s health with ease. Sometimes they only need one turn to do the job and they tend to have massive range. At least their are counter strategies. The cheesiest enemy though is the long range red mage because I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about him. He can hit you from anywhere on the map which mind controls you for 3 turns and forces an ally to murder you or get murdered. Without rewinding and constantly changing formations, it just feels like this is a super cheesy “you lose” button that can happen in the last levels. Maybe there is a solution to this but otherwise I thought that was the only time the game wasn’t being a good sport. Ah well, the game is so long so only having one kind of really cheesy villain isn’t so bad I suppose. The final level’s boss rush felt more fair in comparison.

Overall, Fire Emblem is a pretty good game. The story is considerably long and I will also say that the game can be very difficult. Underestimate it at your own risk! All it takes is one well placed move by the villains to destroy one of your pieces. The Nintendo Switch Online allows you to rewind, without that you would really be in a tough predicament. I look forward to Nintendo adding the Gamecube Fire Emblem soon! That’ll be a really fun day but until then this is a title I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Overall 7/10

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Review

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I’ve been a huge fan of Fire Emblem for a long time now but I actually hadn’t played many of the mainline games. I always ended up playing spinoffs and such instead. Well, now I’m getting a look inside and it’s all super nostalgic since Fire Emblem Heroes was one of the first big mobile games that I spent a lot of time on. I played that for hours and hours for 3 whole seasons before I finally stopped. The series has a lot of gimmicks and mechanics that have not really changed so I was able to jump in there. Only one mechanic was not present in the mobile game and unfortunately it’s a rough one. Weapon durability….

So the story starts by introducing us to a princess and prince who proudly serve their kingdom alongside their King. Unfortunately the neighboring country suddenly launches an invasion and the king is murdered. Our heroes must now find out why an allied kingdom would turn traitor so suddenly and see what they can do about all of this. It won’t be an easy fight and they will need to make a lot of allies along the way. One wrong move and the whole world will be lot. The forces of darkness have been prepping for this day for a long time and have the element of surprise on their side after all.

The core gameplay is that of a typical strategy title. You move your units around the board either to get to the capture area or to defeat all opposing fighters. There are 3 main types of weapons, swords beat hammers, spears beat swords, and hammers beat spears. Aside from that you have weapon sub types as well to deal with. Additionally the characters also have different types which factor in as well. So there is a whole lot to consider and like chess, each type has a different amount of movement options. A big deal for the series is also that if any unit dies in the level, they cannot be revived.

They are permanently gone along with any items and equipment they were holding. So you will definitely want to restart the level or rewind when that happens. The equipment actually breaking also ends up hurting quite a lot because it means that you always have to remember to buy more weapons. The problem? It is incredibly hard to earn money in the game and I ended up being broke for a good chunk of it. By the end I got more money and was able to buy weapons for the end but I can easily picture a scenario where I was completely out of funds for the final boss. Now that would have been real ugly.

It also means you can’t just grind EXP the way you normally would because every fight uses more of the durability. So if you get too powerful then you won’t even be able to fight. It’s not like Pokemon where your character will still use struggle to deal some damage. In this game if you run out of weapon durability then you will be dealing exactly 0 damage. So you definitely need to keep that in mind. The menus for switching weapons and all can be a bit clunky too. Takes longer than you would expect.

Ah well, these are technical elements that could be better but on the whole the game does a good job. I do like the gameplay and how tactical everything is. The fact that your allies die forever is also a big one since it forces you to play the game very carefully. A single misstep would really make it game over for you. The game also has some nice quality of life features like being able to turn off the combat animations and speed up the text. I ended up beating the game much quicker than the average completion time online and I think this is the reason why. You are fighting hundreds and hundreds of battles in the game so completely skipping all of those animations is a really big deal.

The graphics are fun though so you’ll want to play a round or two with the animations on. It’s cool how every character gets animations and it also makes the whole war feel a lot more real. Anytime someone lands a critical hit it is also a really big deal for that reason. It can completely change the flow. Additionally the RNG for the turn is decided at the beginning so if someone is going to miss, it doesn’t matter how many times you rewind. That character will still end up missing in the end.

The soundtrack is also solid. Little did I know that the soundtrack would get to be even better for the next one. Fire Emblem has always managed to deliver excellent tracks in its games though so I can’t say that I was surprised at all. The amount of polish and hard work that went into this game is really impressive. It’s no wonder that this ended up becoming a really big franchise. It really did all of the right things. There is also a good amount of replay value in tackling the maps in different ways or trying to win with everyone alive in order to get their epilogues in. It’s not something that would end up tempting me back in but it’s a nice thing to have.

Overall, The Sacred Stones is definitely a fun game. It was really satisfying to finally play through one of these adventures and I do like all of the strategy involved. It really makes you feel like a tactician. The characters were really likable and the story was good. I can see how people would find these games addicting. I do really wish that the game could have just removed the weapon durability concept though. It’s my only issue with the game since I’m the kind of guy who likes to grind early and put myself in an incredible spot to win. Having to watch myself and not play too long just doesn’t feel right. Any game with a level up system should allow you to get as strong as you want if you ask me.

Overall 7/10