Tag Archives: Nintendo

Fire Emblem Shadows Review

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I finally got around to trying out the new Fire Emblem game that Nintendo launched for mobile. On one hand I applaud them for finally bringing a new mobile title into the fray. It feels like it has certainly been a while. On the other hand….did they really have to force in more gimmicks? This would have been such a fun title if it was traditional Fire Emblem and instead they try to make it like Among Us and it doesn’t really work with this style. Ultimately this one won’t be a keeper for me.

The general story is pretty par for the course when it comes to Fire Emblem. A kingdom is overthrown and so the prince has to escape along with his trusty bodyguard. He meets up with two girls who seem nice enough, but then they find out that one of the 4 of them is an imposter. Who can it be? Well, the first time it’s the chipper girl with red hair, the next time it’s the other girl with black hair, and then it’s the main character! The last one ends up being a dream though and now you’re back to a full party. The prince needs to gather a lot of powerful allies and then bring his kingdom back to power. Can he pull this off?

To be clear, while the plot is rather straight forward, I still enjoyed it. Mainly due to the character designs being nice and colorful and the game having good presentation. The audio is good, the soundtrack is solid, and the writing is on point. So the story isn’t the problem here, its the gameplay. Think of this as a semi auto tactical game. The characters move on their own and attack on their own. You control the special abilities like healing and energy blasts. In any matchup there are 3 heroes, only one of those 3 is actually a villain.

If you’re playing as the hero, you want to hurry up and beat the enemies and then afterwards there is a guessing round to see who the villain is. So you’ve got a 50/50 shot no matter what. If you guess right, you gain 1 auto revive for when the battle with the traitor starts. Then if you win that battle, you win. The immediate problem here is that the deck is stacked in favor of the traitor. The traitor can destroy you with around 2 moves as soon as the battle begins.

All attacks are anonymous but you can probably guess who the traitor is based on who isn’t hit right? Wrong! The main strategy is for the traitor to knock everyone out, then there is no way to tell who it was. Then in the second round, you can get a revive but it won’t stack since you just died. So you will die to the traitor anyway. I’m told that as you progress through the game you will get power ups and armor that prevent the game from being so one sided but the gameplay design itself feels flawed to me.

On one hand, I like how quick the rounds are. You can play a few rounds very quickly. On the other hand, it’s just too automated for me. I’d rather move the character myself and then set up the traps as I go. Having the system do the movement for me just takes away the fun out of a whole chunk here. It’s just barely Fire Emblem at that point. Nintendo really can’t resist going along with gimmicks here and unfortunately it did not land. I feel like Nintendo has been missing a whole lot more than usual lately.

Outside of the gameplay, the title is really strong in the other areas. It just doesn’t matter enough because at the end of the day, you’re here for the gameplay right? That will always be the most important part of a gaming experience after all because without that, you won’t be able to continue. In very extreme circumstances the story might be so good you can force your way through bad gameplay but that is exceptionally rare. The flip side of that is certainly way more common.

Overall, Fire Emblem Shadows is certainly a fresh experiment by Nintendo and I wish it the best but this game is just not for me. Sometimes you can tell right away if the game fits your style and the opposite is true as well. I feel like the series is big enough where I can see this one being really successful so maybe they can use some of the revenue to make a movie r something. It’s long past due for Fire Emblem to really get more kinds of media. The game is free on the app store so you should probably give it a shot. It certainly can’t hurt and maybe you’ll like it more than I did.

Overall 4/10

Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle: Another Beginning Review

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Whenever you decide to do a Pokemon adventure that takes place in Ash’s world without a whole lot of screentime for the kid, you better be real sure that you have an absolutely spectacular plot at the ready. Why? Well because now you’re making fans think about the famous champion of Pallet Town and his replacement is going to have a hard time. That happens to poor Koko here. There’s nothing particularly bad about him but he just feels a bit average, maybe even a little boring here. The adventure isn’t one of the most interesting ones but it’s not bad.

The story takes place before the movie as we see Koko growing up. He was a kid who was raised by Zarude. Zarude’s tribe did not like this and so they were banished but Zarude refused to abandon the kid. So he did his best in a dangerous world to raise Koko and make sure that he was okay. The one mistake he made was telling Koko that they were both Zarude and now that the kid is 7, he’s wondering why he doesn’t have any powers. Koko and his friends are then attacked by some Pokemon. Can a mere human defeat them?

It is nice to see how well Koko communicated with the Pokemon at least. I’m glad that you can just pick up that language if you are familiar enough with it. It certainly can’t be an easy task but then you’d also think that one of the Pokemon would have also spoken up and said this couldn’t be true. I guess maybe the Pokemon generally aren’t super smart so none of them could be sure that Zarude was lying? Maybe they’re all basically like kids or I’m digging too deep into a mild plot element.

The main villains here are a bunch of fire type worm Pokemon which pick a fight with the heroes. They are no friends of the Zarude but they don’t mind being bullies against the Pokemon that can’t fight back. It’s one of those Pokemon that are more on the recent side so I can’t say that I’m too familiar with them but they have a pretty good design. I can say right now that you will be a little skeptical about the Pokemon and Koko doing so well against them and I can’t say that I blame you. These guys are huge and really pack a punch. One of them even plays dead to land a cheap shot but ultimately Koko shows why he has a lot of guts.

Then Zarude cleans things up from there. Zarude is not my favorite Pokemon but I will say that he looks pretty good here. He’s nice and loyal and constantly makes sure to look after Koko. I won’t say he did a perfect job as a parent but his heart’s always in the right place. Meanwhile Koko isn’t as annoying as the average kid. He is actually proactive and doesn’t just run away when the going gets tough. That automatically puts him well ahead of where my expectations would normally be.

Of course Ash doesn’t appear much but I do like how he looks very confident the whole time. Technically he’s more the humble sort nowadays but at least from the cameo you would definitely be thinking that he is ready for action. It makes you wish he could have gotten more screentime. Just one more chapter to adapt the beginning of the movie or something. Either way the manga achieves its goal of making you want to go and watch the movie to see how everything played out. It’s exactly what a prequel should always be aiming to do.

The art is okay. It’s what I would call a very basic style. It’s trying to be as easy to read as possible which is nice since you’re going to have a younger audience for this one. The battles look good enough, but it’s never going to be the kind of story where you pause to admire the art. It’s just not detailed or exhilarating enough for that.

It does mean that you will be able to read through the story exceptionally fast. Keep in mind that this is already a short manga so that really compounds the effect. There are no negatives to be found here so I’d say the story also succeeds on being an extremely safe one for kids. It could use a few more strengths but it does have that mass market appeal. If you enjoy Pokemon, then you will be able to appreciate this as something that stays on brand. It’s also rare to be seeing a whole lot of the Pokemon in their natural habitats as opposed to the cities.

The jungle may not be my favorite backdrop but it works well in that context. The story also works almost like a what if with the humans and Pokémon talking to each other like something out of a Digimon adventure. You just don’t see that a whole lot with Pokemon. If more Pokemon could completely talk like Zarude, I think that’d be a really cool thing. It’s probably too late in the franchise to make that a truly regular thing but it would certainly be awesome if that were to be the case.

Overall, This was a fun little story. There isn’t a ton of stakes or memorable moments compared to the average Pokemon adventure but I guess a prologue is going to be a little more limited in what it can do. On the whole it’s still interesting and you can’t have an end of the world plot every time. I would have just asked for more fights to help the story turn the corner into the next level. Now that would have really been perfect. Still, whether you’ve seen the movie or not, you should check this one out.

Overall 6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Review

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This is one of those games that is so obscure I hadn’t even heard of it before. They really should have added some kind of a subtitle to this one so it wouldn’t just blend in with every other game. Shouldn’t that be lesson 1 for any form of media? If you ask me it feels like a pretty obvious thing to do at least. Ah well….it is what it is.

The game starts off with Splinter being kidnapped so the Turtles have to grab their gear and find him. It won’t be easy though as the Shredder and his henchmen may be involved. The Turtles are used to being able to rely on their sensei and now that isn’t going to be an option. They haven’t had to deal with a crisis like this before but fortunately all 4 of them are really big talkers. You can expect a whole lot of smack talk throughout the game as the Turtles make their voices known.

This title very clearly does not have a high budget. Each character has 2-3 lines that they continue to spam at every point. The lines don’t usually make sense within the context of the scene but the game isn’t really worried about that. I guess I’ll take this over not having voice acting. The actual plot is fairly barebones but the bigger issue is the length. This is an extremely short game. You can knock out the main story out as well as most of the side missions in under 4 hours. You unlock a few more side missions after completing the game but that won’t buy you much time. So you better hope the game is fun at least.

Fortunately, I actually did enjoy the gameplay. It’s very unpolished but there was a good amount of combat here. Basically it’s styled as an overhead beat em up. You use your main attacks to take down the enemies and as you level up, you can buy new moves and passive power ups. Essentially you will continue to grow stronger and stronger as you play through the game. You may wonder what the point of these power ups are for most of the game but then the final level hits you like an absolute truck! The difficulty spike there is absolutely insane.

You have to defeat 8 bosses in a row with no save points or check points of any nature. Ultimately I did have to go back and grind exp for about 2 hours so I guess that did inflate the playtime quite a bit. I also used all of the money to buy a bunch of food packs and invincibility items. In a sense you could say I cheesed things a bit since each invincibility item protects you for 3 seconds and I bought 100 of those. I also bought 100 potions and I unlocked Raphael’s ability which gives him another 3 seconds of invincibility. You will need all of this to win.

While you can seamlessly switch between all 4 turtles and they all have their own health bars, if one of them dies then all 4 do. So that’s something to really keep in mind here. You could easily get a game over just because you got a little too overconfident. That happened to me a few times. Fortunately the game is pretty good about having constant save points at regular intervals. If I had to back track a lot then that would have been rough.

I wonder if the game was originally planned to be longer though. There are still new mechanics being introduced when you are in the final 5 levels after all. They’re also rather pointless with how unnecessary they were, like being able to break a store or climbing a ladder. Why even have those features in the game when they are only going to be used once or twice? I dunno, I guess that’s a little over my head.

The graphics are fine. Nothing noteworthy but you can always tell what is happening and fortunately the game isn’t laggy. The soundtrack is virtually nonexistent though, I would have liked some kind of a catchy song to listen to instead. That would have been pretty cool. So the gameplay is really on its own here. I like the style and of course having an EXP system is always cool since you actually have a reason to fight against the enemies. So the game did something right there. The power up system also means there are many different ways for you to fight as you try and figure out what the best combinations are.

By the end of the game, Michelangelo felt like the strongest since he was the only one with long range options that were spammable and dealt a whole lot of damage. You could beat anyone with him even if the battles would take longer. I definitely took advantage of that for the EXP grinding. Raphael also got really strong by the end and I think the final two would have followed suit. I’m sure if the game was popular you would see a lot of debates on who has the best build since the game did a good job of making them all very different but still powerful.

If this were a game boy title I’d be a bit more lenient with the length but on the 3DS? I think they definitely could have done better there so I really can’t hold its hand here. Ultimately the Ninja Turtles still have many more games for me to try out so eventually I’ll get to see how the others stack up. In the meantime, it’s difficult to take down the classic Gamecube titles. That was really the eras of TMNT.

Overall, This is one of those games that is fun but I probably would have felt differently if I had bought it day 1 for full price. Since I got it for around $10, it makes sense that I didn’t feel too bad about it. It’s a whole different situation at this point. With a little more polish and content I even think it could have been pretty good. Alas, this just was not in the cards. If you do see this game in stores I would pick it up but it is far from being the best Ninja Turtles game.

Overall 6/10

Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition Review

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This game is one that I’ve been playing for a long time. Both games in this collection are quite long and the game is also no walk in the park. You’d better be prepared to train and grind for a long while to get your fighters to a level that is needed to clear the game. By the end of its run, I had put more play time in this title than any 3DS game except for Super Smash Bros. That is not an easy feat so this is a game with a ton of bang for your buck.

For the Mario game, you’ve got a classic story with Bowser causing some trouble. You will go through a bunch of worlds and have to go through the Koopa Kids and Jr. The story is pretty barebones and you will go for large chunks of time with no cutscenes. The appeal here is clearly just about having fun with the gameplay and seeing the Mario characters. I can’t really complain, you’re never going to be playing Mario for the plot. I’m just glad there was some kind of a story here.

The other game has you starting off as a junior monster tamer. You are part of the defense force stopping dragon from running wild. Unfortunately there is a villain group on the rise which have decided to awaken the dragon gods and bring the world to ruin. You will have to stop them along with a mysterious little dragon that popped up. It won’t be easy but you can never count out basic friendship. You also have some allies at the ready, but the burden of saving the world is squarely on the main character’s shoulders. The story is definitely a lot better than the Mario one although a very questionable choice for a villain’s musical theme does take the edge off.

The gameplay is about matching orbs of different colors to create combos. In a lot of ways it’s like Candy Crush and I have to admit that I always wanted them to come out with a story based game using this gameplay style. I got my wish so that was really satisfying. The game could definitely use some solid quality of life updates though. Gathering minerals to evolve monsters is incredibly tedious and everything takes way too much energy. Getting energy back is difficult since it seemed like back when the game had online access you could farm it better. Apparently the mobile version fixes all of these issues but on the 3DS you’re stuck.

When you’re allowed to just play the game it’s a bunch of fun. That said, the level up system does mean this will be impossible eventually. You will need to evolve your fighters in order to raise their level caps to level 99. The final boss has absolutely deadly attacks and can regenerate all of the health bars his parts have in a single turn. If you have your initial fighters who cap out at level 30, you are simply not winning. I ultimately had to complete every side quest and 100% the initial game in order to win. It still took me a lot of tries to actually get through.

I can only imagine how difficult the post game is. Each game has a post game that literally doubles the amount of levels in it. So that would make this a 100+ hour game which is extremely impressive. I tip my hat off to the developer because delivering that much content without paid dlc is always welcome. I’m tempted to bump the score up for that but to me the tedious parts of grinding so ultimately hurt the gameplay just enough for me to drag it down a star. It’s still a pretty good game but quality of life is always a big factor for me.

The graphics are definitely solid. I like the monster designs and the energy effects in combat. The Mario side is especially striking with the way the artstyle works in the game. Then for the soundtrack, well it’s pretty good. I just don’t like the bad guy theme in the Z story. It’s way too happy for the tone that the game was trying to go with. I don’t need to go into replay value here since I already mentioned the 100+ hour runtime. If you like this gameplay style, you should absolutely pick the game up because it is worth the price.

I would say as a gameplay tip, be careful not to hatch or power up anyone when you start the Z story. Save the resources for when you’re really stuck and then figure out who you want to use. Make sure to keep track of their new abilities because sometimes one evolution path will lock you onto truly terrible special moves which will make it way harder to win the game. There are just so many factors to keep track of and of course RNG does play a role here. Sometimes you just don’t get a good role on the colors and have to play again. Just try, try again each time. Eventually you’ll win and since you know ahead of time that it will be 50+ hours, that may help you be patient with the game. It’s not the kind of game you can beat while on auto pilot. When you feel burnt out, just put the game down for a bit and do something else. Getting combos requires a lot of concentration so if you aren’t feeling it, then you’re not going to do as well as you’d like.

Overall, Puzzles & Dragons is a pretty fun game. I really do like the gameplay style and I’d be down to play more games in the style. Amp up the story a bit while cutting down on the grinding for materials and we’ll really be in business. There are a few cheesy bosses near the end like the guy with the one hit KO and pure RNG but at least they’re rare. I didn’t know much about the game series back in the day and really just got it for Mario. It’s impressive that Mario got a game with this style in the first place. Maybe one day we’ll get another Nintendo title like it. In the meantime, this one is usually cheaply priced online.

Overall 7/10

Pokémon Concierge Part 2 Review

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Pokemon Concierge has returned for another hurrah. Now this may not be my favorite Pokemon title to put it mildly but I’m always glad to have more Pokemon content. In a sense, it’s admirable that this does not have a negative score since just about every factor is working against it. Concierge has a very short runtime and not a lot of episodes but still does its best to capture the spirit of the franchise here. It’s all about coexistence between Pokemon and humans.

Following up on part 1, Haru has become a tiny bit more confident in herself at the Pokemon resort. She helps the others out in taking care of the Pokemon and making sure they all had a good time. Unfortunately, this also means she has more responsibilities such as taking care of the place when everyone else is out. Additionally, an old man shows up who wants them to take care of his Sealeo and this will be difficult for the resort. Can Haru really hold her own?

I guess we should get the big stuff out of the way first. The main problem with the show is the animation style. It doesn’t really look good. It’s a super old claymation/stop motion kind of approach that was already getting outpaced back in the 60s. Nowadays it really can’t beat any of the mainstream styles. Even simple things like the characters sweating doesn’t look as convincing as in the other titles. Since TV shows are a visual medium, this is already presenting a rather massive hurdle to overcome.

The soundtrack tends to be nonexistent but at one point they do play a classic battle theme. The battle on screen is of course not much of a fight and ends up resolving in a comedic manner, but I was at least glad the show was going for some action there. This is ultimately aimed at a pretty young audience so you can’t be expecting too much here. That’s why I’ll take every breadcrumb that I can.

As the main character, Haru does suffer from this a little bit as she has to keep on learning things that she should already know by this point. The first episode had her getting nervous and feeling a lot of self doubt again. After the first part, she should not have any doubts anymore. I would have liked her to have been more consistently confident the whole time. Maybe glancing around and directing the others on what to do at some points. Instead, even near the end she is thinking that she isn’t ready for this. Even going as far as to storm into the meeting room and start apologizing because she assumed an old guy was complaining about her.

Haru needs to value her own abilities far more than she does currently. Alas, it feels like she is always taking a step back when the going gets tough. Hopefully she will change this if we get a part 3. The cast of characters is still fairly small here and that’s probably for the best since there isn’t a lot of time for them all to appear. The owner, Ms. Watanabe for example just shows up for a few key scenes. I like how she called out the new guy for running away from his Pokemon and generally runs a tight ship. You need to be decisive like that when you’re in this position.

Alisa really doesn’t do much here but she had a bit more of a focus in part 1 so that makes sense. Tyler gets what I would call the main subplot here when his uncle Dan shows up. Dan is a tough guy who used to be real intimidating back in the day. He has mellowed out but still has a tendency to just do his own thing without really talking to anybody else. This does result in some pretty big mistakes here.

I definitely lost a lot of respect for the guy when he just flat out abandoned his Sealeo. He tried to immediately walk this back and explain how that wasn’t what was going on but Ms. Watanabe definitely had him to rights on that. It’s a hard situation to really walk back from. Dan does his best to help out after that and is okay I guess but there isn’t anything really compelling about the guy.

In a sense, that’s the problem with the cast in general. They’re all pleasant enough characters but none of them are super interesting. You’ll end up forgetting about them almost immediately after you have finished the adventure. That’s the real problem here. Well, one of them anyway. I do want to underscore that the show doesn’t really have any strong negatives. I could recommend it to anyone to watch.

There just isn’t much of a hook to watching it. It can be a little boring in a sense which is why it’s good that these are not full length episodes or that it didn’t launch with 13. Now, there’s a chance that the long run time could end up making things more interesting so that might be a gamble that would be worth taking. At the very least, you could give more screentime to her ex boyfriend who shows up but mainly just seems like a nice dude. We could have had a whole character arc for the guy and a lot of build up to his big appearance. If you ask me, that would have been a really interesting direction to go in.

Overall, Pokemon Concierge just adds 4 new episodes to this saga and each one is short so it’s more like 2 episodes or a little shorter than that. I fear that it won’t be able to make much progress into being really strong unless it ends up switching the animation style. It’s not impossible to succeed with this method of animation but it certainly isn’t easy. With Pokemon you’re always used to a lot of vibrant colors and really expressive designs. You don’t end up getting any of that with this title and you don’t have the fight scenes to compensate for that. So as it stands, I’m going to need them to announce a new online Pokemon series soon.

Overall 5/10

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

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It’s time for the last of the big Metroid Prime titles before the new one comes out. I was pleasantly surprised that they added way more story to this one than to any of the previous installments. I finally felt like I was playing a true sci-fi epic here so that was a lot of fun. The Wii controls do hold the game back to an extent as that type of gameplay system never quite caught on. Still, I definitely had a real good time here and hopefully Prime 4 is able to keep up with this one.

The story has Samus returning to the Federation to catch up when they are all attacked by an army of Ridley’s men. Oddly they seem to be infected by some kind of dark energy and then Dark Samus herself shows up. She easily conquers the team and then proceeds with her invasion of the whole universe. The only way to stop her will be for Samus to liberate a few key planets and then open a wormhole to stop Dark Samus at the source. This won’t be easy, but Samus will do whatever she has to in order to win.

Like I said before, the plot doesn’t just vanish after the first few cutscenes like in the other games. Here we have actual dialogue and story for the whole adventure. It’s such a novel concept to actually see the federation in action this time and all of the players making their moves. Samus actually having some reliable allies is pretty cool even if you have a good feeling on how the story is about to play out.

The soundtrack is really ominous the whole time with some new tunes for Dark Samus and general tension themes throughout the game. I really enjoyed hearing Ridley’s theme as well. The Metroid saga has definitely done an absolutely incredible job with this and so you will not be surprised at how good it sounds. Additionally the graphics are really solid. Nintendo never cuts any corners here and that definitely shows.

The gameplay may be a bit rough with the motion sensors but the core gameplay itself is still solid. You will have a good time blasting away at enemies. One area where it is far superior to the previous two is that you actually level up your main blaster as you play through the game. So you can easily destroy older enemies as you backtrack through the worlds. The only catch is that the missiles have never been weaker. They are utterly useless in this game since they are weaker than your normal gun so you probably are not going to want to use them for very long. Except for puzzles, I completely stopped using mine.

This game also completely bypasses the end of game collectathon that the first two games had. In this case you would have already gotten most of the batteries just by playing the game naturally. It makes the whole thing feel much more organic and the quick travel here is also much better than in the first two games. So that helps a great deal as well.

It feels like they prioritized having fun this time much more than in the first two games and I appreciated that. After all, you are playing these games in order to have fun right? Having to go back and forth too many times takes away from that and so this area has been greatly improved. I even got over 80% of all collectables while playing through the game which is easily my highest score. The quality of life improvements were off the charts here. It’s why I am hopeful that Prime 4 will keep this up. Additionally I’d love another great story like this but I suppose I shouldn’t get my hopes that high.

In terms of replay value, you can naturally try to go for 100% in order to get the true ending. You can also try beating the game on the new hard mode that you unlock upon completing the game the first time. I can definitely see that being a real challenge with how the gameplay works. FPS titles like this were absolutely made for high difficulties. Hopefully it’s not just that the A.I. become damage sponges and they just get a lot smarter. Part of what made this game a lot easier is that they heavily nerfed how much damage you take from attacks. So I’ll be curious to see what hard mode does to that one.

The length of the base game is long enough to be satisfying though. Even without playing through it a second time, you’ll have gotten your money’s worth. Unless you’re buying an out of print copy, then you may want to hold ff on that. The prices online can get tricky but I got a good price on this one. Guess my main advice while playing the game is to try and just follow the map directions as often as you can and only backtrack when you need to. The longer you wait, the more power ups you will have so it minimizes the amount of times you have to go back and forth. Makes the whole thing far less tedious, especially since this game easily has the longest loading times for opening doors. Villains got a whole lot of cheap shots on me that way.

Overall, Metroid Prime 3 is definitely a pretty good game. On almost any other console it probably would have been a great game since the only thing holding it back are those motion controls. Without those things would be a whole lot easier right out of the gate. Ah well, that’s just how it goes. I would still recommend picking this one up when you have the chance. Get those batteries out of the closet and power up a wii remote. While this isn’t an ideal gameplay setup, the game is much easier than either of the first two Metroid Primes so you should still be just fine.

Overall 7/10

Metroid Prime: Hunters Review

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It’s time for a portable Metroid Prime. This definitely changes things up since the DS is a very different console than the Gamecube or Wii. In some ways the most tragic thing is that this would have been amazing for the home consoles but alas the DS does begin to show the cracks in its armor here. The main drawback is absolutely the fact that the game is extremely painful. You can feel it breaking your wrists as you try to move the screen and fight the enemies. By the end you will have had a true workout but not one that was really intentional from the game design.

The Federation calls on Samus to stop yet another alien infection across the universe but this time there will be competition. A bunch of other hunters have decided to step in for a grand prize that is said to be present on one of these planets. Samus must crush all of these guys but they are professionals as well so it won’t be so easy. She will have to really focus up and may have to use new abilities that she never had before.

At this point it is a running gag that Samus absorbs just about every kind of creature and energy that she can over the course of the series. She has had the powers of darkness, the dread, and other mysterious energies in each game. They just never stop and yet she is still around so Samu is made of sterner stuff. This game decides to leverage that in a different way but letting her have elemental abilities. Yes, in this game you have around 6 different powers like ice, electricity, fire, and other attacks.

It makes for some really fun variety as you keep on blasting away at all the opponents. The vania aspect is naturally still around but the worlds are much smaller and bite sized so you won’t get lost as much. To counteract that, the game doesn’t actually display the map so you have to pause every time you want to look at it. A most regrettable game design choice if you ask me. You want to be able to see where you’re going even in a smaller world.

Still, the main issue here is the gameplay itself. You have to use your stylus in order to move the screen and attack the monsters. This results in a whole lot of moving but it’s clearly geared towards someone who is right handed. As a leftie myself, this was really tough. You have to tilt your hand in an unnatural way in order to get to the enemies. There is a whole lot of combat here like the constant mandatory minibosses so your hand will be sweating it out during that.

Additionally, these minibosses will re spawn every time you enter their room so if you get lost or just have to backtrack because of a mandatory power up, you will have to face them again. This makes for a pretty rough amount of tedious gameplay because you aren’t getting anything from these battles. At least if it was an RPG you would be getting stronger and stronger but that’s not the case here.

The graphics are pretty good. We have actual cutscenes here which is nice and of course the gameplay is sharp. The soundtrack is also good even if it isn’t nearly at the level of the main primes. It’s just hard to make it through without the big Ridley or Dark Samus themes. It still gets the job done and as a whole it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into this one. It’s quite advanced for a portable game and plays like the real home console versions.

As always Prime just needs to tone down some of the weaker gameplay design elements and then this would be a more fun adventure. The stylus controls were naturally a terrible decision right from the start but also the forced mini bosses doesn’t make sense. I’d also argue for more quick travel points in general but it seems like the Prime games just tend to avoid that for all of the titles. This is still a third person shooter though so at the end of the day it will be satisfying to shoot down the opponents. The large variety of weapons is fun after all and some of them are super broken like the electricity. That one is definitely a lot of fun to spam at enemies.

You do have to use the stylus to switch abilities so that can get a bit tedious but on the whole it works out well enough. Just slow down when you need to and that can make a world of difference. Pure difficulty-wise it is definitely tougher than Prime 3 but not quite as hard as Prime 2 so it’s somewhere in the middle there. Not exactly a walk in the park but you’ll get enough power ups through the course of the game to claim victory in the end. If you die, there are restart points so you don’t have to run to the boss. You just restart the fight which is a great quality of life update.

Overall, Metroid Prime: Hunters is a good game. It would have been a very good one but unfortunately the pain is just too much for me to put it any higher. I suppose if you are right handed then you can add an extra star to this game and have a blast. Otherwise I can’t say that I would fully recommend it though. You’re better off skipping ahead and getting Prime 3 or going back and playing Metroid Fusion. In either case you are getting a much stronger experience there. Prime Hunters does add some fun characters to the mix like actually getting other opponent hunters but that just isn’t enough to overcome that gameplay.

Overall 6/10

Madden 26 Review

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Madden is one of those games that I had been waiting for many years to go back to Nintendo. Back on the Gamecube these games were always so exciting and I got to play them many times. Unfortunately Nintendo and EA had a falling out and these vanished for many years. Well, now for the first time in over 10 years, Madden is back on Nintendo and it’s better than ever. It’s a real blast playing through the game and there’s a ton of content here for you to enjoy. Whether this is your first Madden or you are a veteran, you are bound to have a lot of fun.

I decided to jump right into the online head to head mode because that’s the main incentive of why I got it on the Switch 2 in the first place. I always wanted to be able to fight other people online and not have to worry about a free PS+ weekend. Well, I started off pretty strong and got off to a 8-2 record. Not too shabby considering how long it’s been. I only got to actually finish maybe 2 games tops though as opponents tend to quit midway when they are losing. I get it in that if you know you’re gonna lose, then you may as well hop out but it’s all about your own dignity. You need to see this through to the end as quitting midway is an extremely weak move.

You need to show that you are made of sterner stuff! It’s a bit hard to describe the gameplay but just think of it like actually playing football. You get a fairly good birds eye view of the game and you have your team decide to run or pass. You always play as the player with the ball when you’re on offense and when you’re on defense then you can play as whoever you want. For me it can be a little tough playing defense since I haven’t done that much in years.

When I’m playing offline, I generally pick to go offense only since that side is a lot more fun as it is. When against a real opponent, you are doing everything though. I mainly stuck to the d-line and focused on trying to get a lot of sacks. That’s where I’m the most comfortable at least. On offense, I’ve found that it works really well to run the ball a lot compared to the old days when you would only pass. The way the A.I. has improved means that passing the ball is always going to be a risk unless your guy is wide open.

It’s also why I would say this is a game of reaction times because you have to choose who to throw it to very quickly or you will be absolutely squashed by the incoming defenders. Always have some kind of a gameplan at the ready in order to deal with this. Of course the same is true for running as you want to find a hole and go through that way or you will be stuffed at the line.

Kicking has become a little more difficult in recent years as they’ve tried to make it more realistic. Instead of one meter like the old days you now have to worry about two meters. They have different speeds depending on the difficulty as well as the distance of the kick or punt. It also makes this a game of reaction times and for now I miss more kicks than I make so I really need to work on this. It’ll be fun to improve on it though.

Meanwhile there are plenty of other modes here like offline franchise and minigames. I used to like the minigames a lot on Madden 2004 so it’s fun to see them here as well. To an extent I don’t think the minigames are quite as solid when the game is this realistic but they are still pretty good to go through. I tried out about half of them but then I was ready to go back into the full games. Right now I am at Rank Silver so maybe I can shoot my way to gold with enough wins at some point.

Naturally the graphics are really solid. Yeah they may be better on the PS5 but they are definitely good enough for me. Additionally the soundtrack is solid with a pretty large assortment of tunes in there. Most of the time you’re going to be way too focused to notice much of anything though. When you’re inside of a game, it’s just you and the other team. It’s a big reason why Madden never gets boring even though it comes out every year. The core gameplay is just too good to pass up and you are always guaranteed a dynamic experience.

With online that means every game will always be different. The game has unlimited replay value and now they even have level ups and season tracks to earn rewards. I’m confident that this game will stay fully supported at least until we get Madden 27 so you don’t have to worry about them giving up midway. No, this is definitely a game that is worth every dollar for as long as you’ve got it. I aim to keep on playing this one at least a bit each week to keep my skills fresh and if you don’t have the game yet then you should definitely check it out. It’s a real game changer.

Overall, Madden 26 is a super fun game. Football is the best sport in the world so it’s only fitting that the games match that kind of energy. At this point it’s so lifelike that someone taking a glance might even think you are watching highlights. The attention to detail is scary but most importantly, the sport just lends itself well to being a video game. We’ll see if Madden 27 is able to match up to this one but I can tell you that it will definitely be a real uphill battle.

Overall 9/10

Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes Review

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It’s time to finally check out the second Metroid Prime. It’s been many years since I played the original so it’s about time that I get onto the sequel right? Prime 2 does a great job of getting a more intense atmosphere than the first game but still does deal with a lot of the big issues you’d expect from a Metroidvania. Additionally, the game is lacking in quite a few of the quality of life updates you would hope for.

The story starts off with Samus landing on a planet where all federation staff were wiped out by some odd zombie creatures. As she goes deeper into the planet, she really sees just how vicious the massacre was. Now she needs to eliminate this threat before she leaves the planet or it could spread across the solar system. Will she be able to fight off all of the aliens…even Dark Samus?

One thing I can say for the game right away is that it starts off with a very memorable beginning. Getting to see how the aliens took over through the flashbacks was really good. I also enjoyed all of Dark Samus’ appearances and fights throughout the game. That villain was an absolute standout and I can see why even Ridley had some competition in terms of popularity. Dark Samus is the big mastermind here and is one step ahead for most of the game.

Unfortunately the game is very front loaded when it comes to the cutscenes. The story really starts to taper off after the initial levels to the point where there will be large gaps in time where there is no big story updates. So for the most part it is just about you solving the puzzles. The puzzles can also range from being reasonably fun to incredibly tedious.

The biggest issue that plagued the game was how you had the light and dark modes. This gimmick meant that you would have to look for a portal to take you to the other side. Each side is a complete duplication except that each one has different power ups. So you will be going through the same rooms over and over again as you switch back and forth. It would have been nice to have been able to have just stuck to one side since it would have been less repetitious.

This also meant if you used up your light or dark energy, you would have to go around looking for enemies or crates to smash in order to replenish. I can tell you that this wasn’t always easy. Sometimes you would have to go through several rooms in order to find what you’re looking for. These are small things that would really begin to add up.

Aside from that there is also no quick travel until you reach the climax of the game. So you have to run a long way to get to a portal to go from world to world. Honestly even the quick travel we do get is incredibly limited so I suppose I shouldn’t give that too much credit either. It feels like a game where they did not prioritize the consumer as much as they should have.

The soundtrack is really good though. The Dark Samus theme is really quite incredible and I also liked several other themes that play during the game. There was definitely no effort spared on this one and it worked out very well. The graphics are solid throughout and that definitely helps to ramp up your enjoyment. Ultimately if the technical elements were not as good then this game could have been in real trouble.

As far as the gameplay goes, it’s not bad. The thing is, I’m still not a big fan of the FPS style of gameplay. It’s okay but the camera work just doesn’t do me any favors. I will always take a more zoomed out style where I can actually see the character. The combat works well enough but you spend more time running around rooms and trying to scan everything in order to trigger the next level.

Maybe in a way the game realized this and so there are mandatory mini boss battles every time you enter some specific rooms. Trust me when I say this gets old pretty fast. You don’t want to have to continue beating up the same opponents over and over again. That’s not really going to make things any more exciting. Especially since it’s not like there is an exp system here with level ups and everything. That would change things.

I’d say this is a game where the gimmicks really held it back. No switching between worlds and this would already be better. That said, it’s still not a bad game or anything. While getting lost for the 50th time will hurt, at the end of the day it is a game where you will gradually get stronger as you go on. The more you get used to the controls as well, the more you will be blowing your opponents away. So don’t lose heart and every 2 hours or so the game will even throw in a hint.

Overall, Metroid Prime 2 is a good game but it is carried a bit by the soundtrack and graphics. It’s a game where you could easily picture it being an amazing title if it was more of a classic 3D action brawler. Metroid should consider leaning more into that kind of gameplay someday if you ask me. Well either way if you played Metroid Prime 1 then you should play the sequel. It’s very similar in a lot of ways after all and you want to continue the saga. You will definitely be missing the daylight early on though as just about all of Prime 2 is indoors compared to 1 where you got to be outdoors at times. Hopefully Prime 2 is able to give us a little more balance there. All I need is at least some brighter level backgrounds.

Overall 6/10

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