Tag Archives: Nintendo

F-Zero Climax Review

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It’s time for a classic F-Zero title although I would say this one feels a little more barebones next to GP Legend. It jumps you right into the game but really the only thing to do is play through the stages for a little while before you start to get bored. Now the racing gameplay is good but for F-Zero you are expecting a little more. Perhaps that is unreasonable since a number of the games are just purely racing titles without a big story in-game but it would have been cool to have had a little more depth. Either way it’s a fun time though.

I figured I would switch things up here a bit so I played Captain Falcon for the first tournament and then started switching it up. Only problem is I don’t remember who I played after him. Pico maybe? I know I looked for Skull and didn’t see him so I had to pivot quickly. The game itself is definitely very short though. After you play through the 3 tournaments, the credits start rolling so that’s about it. I have to assume that there are more secret stages out there though. I remember how in F-Zero GX about half of the cups were hidden and as a kid it was a blast unlocking them all. I have to assume that Climax probably functions in a very similar way with that although I suppose I don’t really know that for sure.

You still have the iconic spin move that the series is famous for so I had a blast knocking opponents off the ring. Boosting was very risky in this title though because you move so quickly that you can easily just fall off the stage entirely. Definitely something you should be careful of if you can help it. At the same time, you won’t reach the top spot without it so just try and learn the stages. I didn’t play long enough to truly master any of the levels but I imagine you could definitely do that before long. My average placings weren’t great here.

It definitely continues to be the harder alternative to Mario Kart. The stages really take time to master and of course the opponents also just keep coming. There are plenty of places to fall off the stage and you can also be directly blown up by the opponents which instantly takes you to last place. It’s a very unrelenting game in every respect so you must not take it lightly at all. There is also time attack mode so I should mention that as another way to have some fun. Try and beat your existing records to really see just how good you are. In a lot of ways this is really the right mode to start with as you hone your skills before getting into the battles.

Once you have a full grasp on exactly how the controls work, then you will really be in shape to do well. At least that’s the way I see it and while it may feel a little weird at first, racing games are the kind where you very quickly adapt. It may feel hard but after a few races you unconsciously start to turn with the right timing. So don’t give up and you will be leaving the CPU in the dust before long. I would also say as tempting as the spinning is, you should keep it to a minimum. It’s very hard to actually destroy an enemy vehicle and it takes up time to spin so every time you miss it’s rather rough. It’s probably not something that you should be completely spamming. Wait until you’re super good at the timing and then use it strategically.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about the game because it’s so basic though. This is exactly why you want to have a story mode since that is the ultimate cover up for any title. It can mask just about anything because the story will end up being memorable. It will end up being something that pushes you forward and you will have more incentive to clear every race if it takes you to the next stage. Even a super lazy text box only story will give you incentive that you just wouldn’t have otherwise and that’s why it can be a game changer.

Overall, F-Zero Climax is a good game. I think it could have been better but I suppose for its time it wasn’t bad. I cut it a little less slack though because by the GBA days I feel like games were advanced enough to really have full stories and such like that. I don’t think it would end up being an unreasonable ask at that point right? The character roster is rather small and likewise for the stage count although I assume there are more out there. It just doesn’t feel like you get a ton of bang for your buck with this title, especially when Mario Kart is also on the GBA with all of the usual bells and whistles. If you have the Switch Online then you should check this out but otherwise give it a skip.

Overall 6/10

A Little to the Left Review

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It’s time for a puzzle game and you know those can be very hit or miss for me. For these types of games I either want a good story or I want something that’s just a lot of fun and really addictive like gem matching. That’s where it’s at but this game unfortunately doesn’t seem to have either. There are a lot of levels so I can’t knock the game in terms of content but the puzzles themselves really aren’t very fun to play and that’s really a big deal. Ultimately I would even say that it’s a game breaking deal.

There isn’t really any kind of preview of build up when you start the game. You are thrown right into the mix. The puzzles are divided into around 5 chapters. Each chapter has over 20 puzzles and you try to solve them until you win. If you are totally stuck you can ask for a hint or skip the puzzle and return to it for later. The puzzles are generally about organizing things. For example, putting everything into a basket, lining up books from smallest to largest, etc. You’re mainly going things like this until you get to the end of the game. As you go on, the puzzles naturally get a lot tougher to figure out.

The toughest part here is that outside of asking for a hint, you are given no context to the puzzles whatsoever. You have to try and use deductive reasoning here which is an interesting idea in concept, but I don’t think it really works. I would like to at least have a basic idea of what I’m doing here. Some are self explanatory like with the books as you try to sort them from smallest to largest. Others are a lot trickier like where you have 3 paintings. It seem like you have to try and tilt them a little but I don’t get the logic of that one and the tilts didn’t seem to stick. I should mention now that there is also no tutorial on how the controls work.

You are just thrown into the mix and have to try and work it out. Again this could work depending on how the puzzle goes but this game was definitely not up to the task. I think one of the reasons for this is also how silent the game is. It could have really used a hype soundtrack. Even just 4-5 different songs that cycle through would add a whole lot of life to the game. Without that, it just ends up being completely forgotten and you will have soon left it in the dust. The fact that it’s not free by default was also a bit surprising for me.

Sometimes games just don’t click though and that’s just how it goes. Believe it or not I’ve still played worse games than this one. As negative as this one sounds, at least it is a very basic title that manages your expectations right from the jump. It could absolutely be wayyyyy worse than that. I guess if there was ever a sequel to this one, I would say it should add some kind of a basic plot even if it’s only through text. Maybe every puzzle you complete lets you learn about 2 paragraphs worth of new information. Some kind of hook right?

I’m not sure if there’s a post game here but with the large amount of puzzles the game has, it is already plenty long. It’s hard to picture anyone just flying by the game because of how varied the puzzles are. There will surely be some of them mixed in there that will give you a little trouble here and there. Those are the ones that you will definitely need to watch out for and while you can skip them, I assume you need to complete all puzzles to truly complete the game. Not that there is likely to be any kind of story ending though but maybe they did sneak a secret cutscene in at the end. Technically speaking, there’s no reason to assume that would be impossible right?

Overall, A Little to the Left is not a game I would recommend. There’s just not enough detail to it so it really ends up holding itself back. The controls are pretty simple yet sometimes not very intuitive. I could see this working as a mobile game between subway stations to buy yourself some time but as a full fledged video game I don’t see there being many reasons to pick this over something else. At least for people who really do enjoy the game, there is a lot to do here. For everyone else, yeah it’s time to go back to Professor Layton or something like that instead for the quality puzzle gameplay. That also has the added benefit of having a full fledged story mode with it as well. How do you top that?

Overall 3/10

The Legendary Starfy 2 Review

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Starfy 2 is one of those games that really understands the mission of a sequel. It is better than the first game in every single way. That shouldn’t be seen as a diss either, but just showing that the company understood what didn’t work perfectly and corrected it for this one. The game has more levels, tighter graphics, more story, etc. It’s just a super impressive game that has 11 whole worlds and each one is quite long. You don’t even see that with modern platformers.

Unfortunately they did not translate the game as always. That’s definitely annoying and still a massive fumble from Nintendo. What can I say? They messed up on this one big time I’m afraid. There are so many cutscenes that you have to click through which tells me that the game really took the whole thing seriously. They built up the best plot they could think of and now I only get to experience a fraction of it. Now granted, what I gathered from it was pretty hype. We have a cool DBZ fight, a bunch of new villains, interesting bosses, etc. I just know the game would be even cooler if I knew the specifics.

The gameplay is pretty close to the first one. You can spin, jump, and get even more abilities as you go through the worlds. Most levels will have you go through to the end but sometimes you need to gather different keys and relics. Some of the puzzles can be a little tricky without the translation but fortunately the game design is really good so you can use intuition to know what the next thing to do is. That’s definitely not something you could say about just any old title right? So the puzzles here actually didn’t hold the game back which is important. The levels are also a lot more streamlined than the original.

In the first one, there was a bigger emphasis on going back to grab different items in order to proceed. It would often shut down the momentum as you couldn’t just go full speed. Here, the levels are much more linear. I won’t say 1005 so, but for the most part you won’t be getting lost or anything like that. Then like I said, the game is quite a bit longer. On average the worlds have 4 levels but then towards the end they have 6. 8 worlds is the standard for a platformer and this one has 11. Now that’s pretty impressive. So you can expect to be here for a very long time trying to clear them all.

The game took me hours and hours to complete. Some of the levels could even be a little on the difficult side. It’s definitely nothing like most of the platformers that you will have come across before now. This one is a serious endeavor that is not for the faint of heart. I’m not sure if there is a post game but I’d expect not since there were no collectibles. Even so, the main campaign is already long enough to justify the whole purchase so that doesn’t matter much in the end.

Then we have the graphics which are bright and colorful as always. I definitely had no issues there. It would hold up well with any modern game and that’s the beauty of having a very good artstyle. It will naturally hold up considerably better than most games which try to look modern and important in the now without understanding exactly what made it work. Games work because they are colorful and that’s one of those positions I’ll take with me to the grave. You want that cartoony vibe to a great degree and while realistic looks can work, you have to be very careful with them.

The soundtrack is a little less memorable. I can’t really recall any in particular that I liked a whole lot. I think they were pleasant enough though. They may not have been the kind of tunes that you would hum to yourself afterwards but they still worked well while playing through the levels. They certainly don’t shock you out of them or anything like that. It’s all well balanced as you would expect something like Starfy to be.

Overall, The Legendary Starfy 2 is definitely a really fun game. Even without a translation, you can at least appreciate the gameplay and dive right into it. This is what I would call a very high budget platformer. It’s clear that a ton of effort was put into all of the level designs and enemies. All of the bosses are quite unique as well and the final boss even has multiple phases which is always cool. These are the little things that really add up to make the game particularly epic and noteworthy. It will be difficult for Starfy 3 to really even try and keep up but I am eager to see if it can pull this off. In the meantime you should definitely check this one out asap!

Overall 7/10

Densetsu no Stafy Review

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Stafy is one of those classic platformers and now thanks to the Nintendo Switch Online I’ve gotten to play it on the big screen! Unfortunately they didn’t translate the game and I think this does hurt the title quite a bit because otherwise there is a whole lot of plot going on. There is a ton of cutscenes throughout the movie with text and animations running around. I would be really curious to know exactly what is going on here but I suppose in the end that’s not something I would really be able to figure out. I mean in broad strokes you get it but the details are what counts. Additionally this even has a gameplay factor to it.

See, Stafy’s not the most linear platformer out there. It’s got a lot of puzzle elements within it. Each world is made up of one massive stage that connects to various doors around the maze. When you go through a door, you will often be stopped by a character who is asking you for something but of course you don’t know what that is. So I had to brute force it by going to each door, eventually finding something that looked interactable, picking that up and trying each door until I gave it to the right person.

In that way, I would eventually get everyone everything they needed. Then I could proceed to the boss room and take him down. Doing this for each of the worlds aside from the 7th which is just a boss rush could be rather tough. With the translations it would have been real easy though. I’m not a big fan of mixing in puzzles and backtracking in my platformers either way though. Generally speaking I think the best thing to do is make things straight forward with optional collectibles for people who want them. I’d even recommend locking some secret ending and maybe even a bonus level or two behind that. It makes the serious players have to work for it while everyone else just dashes through. I think that’s a pretty reasonable way to go about things.

It might be a stretch to call this a full on collectathon of course but you definitely do have to back track a whole lot which is unfortunate. Again, it may not have been a big deal if I knew exactly what I was looking for though. The graphics are really good though, the game definitely stands out and the character models are all really good. The soundtrack is also solid enough, perhaps not a total masterpiece but it gets the job done. So on a technical level I don’t have any issues here. Mix that in with the game’s solid length and you’ve really got yourself a title here. I may not have been a big fan but I would still call it a good game.

If I was in the game stores back in the day and the game was licensed, I’d check it out. I still think the DS Stafy game I played was the best in the series and it’s going to be hard to beat that but of course I still have to get through the second and third games so it’ll be a minute before I’m done with the whole series. We’ll see how the next bosses go, this one had a lot of creative ones. They all would tend to be on the easier side but I liked that none of them were clones. They all had unique gimmicks and abilities and you had to find out how to hurt them. Once you figured that out then you were set.

There were also various minigames in the worlds. They were fun enough but didn’t help you progress in the level so I quickly stopped using them entirely. No point after a while right? If there is a minigame mode though, then that’s a pretty nice addition. the minigames were handled well and shakes up the normal gameplay so I definitely give that a thumbs up all the way around.

Overall, Stafy is a pretty classic title. It may not be on the same level as your average platformer where you get to race to the goal but it is a game where a lot of effort was put into it. The game’s length is also pretty solid for its time. You’re not going to just breeze through all of the levels in an instant or anything like that after all. If you have the Switch Online then you should definitely check this one. Do your best to just roll with the story and of course they also have the next two Stafy games on the system so you can bet that they will be having their time in the sun soon.

Overall 6/10

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

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As soon as they announced this game I knew it was going to be hype. It’s about time that Zelda got to carry her own adventure as well. Link had his fun but even Peach has already gotten 2 games to herself. This time Zelda got her first big budget title and it’s a whole lot of fun. I would even say it’s more well polished than any of the other overhead LoZ titles. It also has one of the best portrayals of Link to date which was pretty cool. He doesn’t get shortchanged just because it’s not his game this time.

The story starts with Link breaking into the villain base and taking names. This is Link from the end of the game so he has all of his weapons and abilities and man is it a blast. He just mows everybody down like it’s none of his business. We get a terrific opening boss and then something massive happens and we switch over to Zelda. It’s now her turn to save the world from the dangerous rifts that are befalling the land. She will have to use a legendary scepter that lets her create echos of any object or minion that she defeats with it. Will these abilities be enough to stop the legions of villains that are after her? Only time will tell.

Right away you could tell that there was a whole lot of passion and heart into this project. The levels look absolutely great with a lot of solid details the whole time. The colors are vibrant and everything’s really nice. The art style works really well and it’s also very expressive for both the heroes and the villains. The soundtrack is a little limited but fortunately I really enjoyed the tunes so I didn’t really care too much. When you give me a solid tune, I don’t really worry about the rest. I just know that now I have a very solid background bgm at the ready.

The gameplay is your classic Legend of Zelda overhead style but with one big twist. Instead of always having the sword, you have the scepter and you use that to summon objects and enemies in order to get through puzzles. It reminded me a lot of Scribblenauts where you have countless ways to get past each obstacle. It all comes down to how creative you are about the whole thing. I can tell you I made sure to really be as creative as possible in most areas to get the maximum amount of fun. My go to object was definitely the bed.

You can stack it up in a lot of different ways and jump over large gaps. You can also use it to balance other items or buy yourself a few seconds when you’re trying to get objects to land at the same time. You can also use spiders to soar up to a high level, etc. I’m pretty positive that there were several areas where I cleared the obstacles in a way other than how the devs really intended but the results are really what matter right? So long as you get to the end, that’s what counts.

On the whole I would say the game is fairly easy but this does make you have to use your head a little. I really appreciated the game having a good map the whole time and always telling you where to go though. If you die, the respawn point is always super close and so you have a lot of quality of life details here. Additionally, you can sleep in the beds to gain hearts at any point. You even get the super bed later on. It is possible to miss these things though so I highly recommend scanning every object you come across. There is literally no downside to doing so after all and you’re only hurting yourself if you skip an important one.

Likewise you want to beat every enemy type at least once so that you can summon him. I got a super powerful level 3 sword fighter armored type villain early on and he was perfect for every boss fight. He has a super powerful lunge attack when you first summon him and so the trick is to summon him, let him attack, then summon him again. It results in a nonstop barrage of powerful hits that can down just about any opponent in an instant. Yeah that was really good stuff. Surprisingly the big array of summons is the only part of the game that didn’t feel fully optimized.

Scrolling through all of your echos by the end of the game gets rough because there are so many. It almost makes you want to keep using the same ones so you don’t have to go too far back. I still had fun switching them around though and admittedly this is a fairly small issue to even think about. It just takes more time than you would expect. Now while I would say this is easily one of the least difficult Zelda titles, you can always get overconfident and still die once or twice if you aren’t careful. The enemies deal a whole lot of damage in an instant so you want to watch out for that.

Also, the puzzles get easier the more side quests you complete which is a pretty cool mechanic. For example, when you complete puzzles in the rifts then you get more energy which allows you to summon more things at once. Let me tell you, it’s way easier to make it past a series of gaps when you can summon 8 beds vs 4. So I encourage you to knock out all of the rifts and side quests on the way. Most of them just take under a minute anyway for civilian missions and maybe 2 minutes for rifts. In exchange you will have more hearts and power.

As a final note, this is also one of Link’s best portrayals and I have to give the game major props for keeping his reputation strong as the hero. He’s not suddenly powerless without his equipment or anything like that. He helps out a great deal and show really solid reaction times all the way. He’s an absolute game changer and definitely a fighter you are not likely to forget. The climax of the game is also an absolute blast and I’d like to see more of this in the future. Echoes of Wisdom had a ton of fantastic ideas here and it also had more of a story than I’m used to for the overhead games. In short, there is absolutely a ton to enjoy here!

Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is definitely a great game. It’s the kind of title that you never really forget about and it will go down as one of the best Zelda titles. I do wish it had more of a post came though. Not that I’d have the time to play it right now but it does feel like there’s not a ton of bonus content. I beat most of the side missions and got most of the stamps on the way to beating the game. It definitely added some solid hours into the game but even with 100% I wouldn’t say this is a super long title. It’s long enough though and at the end of the day if you’re high quality enough, then that can make up for sheet length. You really don’t want to miss this one.

Overall 8/10

Gargoyle’s Quest Review

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It’s time for a fairly reasonable game on the Game Boy. This one is trying to be a mini version of Legend of Zelda to an extent and it works in some ways but not as much in some others. Naturally it is missing some of the quality of life features that a modern title would have and so the game has to try and succeed in spite of that. I played through the whole thing but as a kid I don’t think I would have picked it off the shelves. This isn’t really a AAA title in the end.

You play as the Gargoyle himself although despite the cover showing him as green, the creature is fully red. You have fire blasts and can jump around although there isn’t really much flight. The demons are at war and you have to finish off all of the villains. It won’t be easy but Gargoyle is up to the task. He is really the only fighter around after all so if he doesn’t step up, then nobody else ever will.

The gameplay is an overhead style so that’s also why I throw in the Legend of Zelda comparisons. Typically you need to enter a town, talk to some folks and start up a quest. This will have you go into a cave/dungeon of sorts to beat up on an opponent and get whatever relic you needed in order to proceed further. Rinse and repeat as you go through all of the levels. It’s an easy enough formula but it isn’t always obvious where you need to go next. You will have to have a lot of creativity here as you figure out what item will get you past the next obstacle. If you mix it up then you will be in big trouble on all sides. Mainly you’ll just waste a lot of time but it also compounds the issue. Now you’re checking the whole world for a clue on where you need to go next and of course that’s not going to be easy.

The NPCs don’t give you great advice and the game doesn’t always explain the powers. You get several different
flame attacks as you go through the game but which ones do the most damage? You’ll just have to hope for the best. I found the second fire attack to be the easiest to use but for all I know I was holding myself back by sticking to that one. You just don’t really know one way or the other and that’s unfortunate.

Well, just keep at it and you’ll be fine. The game’s not all that long but it can still be a few hours. The final boss is also very difficult so get ready with the rewind techniques. Without that it would be very hard to hang in there for very long. A big part of this is because of the overall durability of the villains. They can take numerous hits over and over and over again. Meanwhile you can only survive a few hits and then you’re down for the count. Perhaps there are some upgrades or other things hidden in the game, that’s definitely possible.

The graphics aren’t bad here. I can give the game some credit there. Certainly nothing amazing or anything like that but it has some heart to it which is more than I can say for a lot of its competitors. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though, you won’t be thinking about that much while you try and get through the game. The technical aspects aren’t bad and at the very least they don’t hold the game back further.

In the end I would say the main thing holding the game back is the fact that there is no real reason to play through it. There are certainly many better games out there in basically every way. It’s not a poorly made game though and so I won’t give it a negative score. It does just enough where I can say that it balances out in the middle. I enjoyed one of the sequels a lot more than this one so at least I know that the series does get better as it goes on.

Overall, Gargoyle’s Quest is a reasonable game but one that can be annoying at times. You always have to be very careful with any game that has a big hub world and different puzzles to solve. When you mess up the balance then that is game over on a massive scale. I’ve played better and worse titles than this game though. At the very least I can commend it on having a real plot since that is something you can take for granted on older titles. A modern remake of this game on the PS5 or something like that could absolutely be a lot of fun though. The gameplay would be incredible and then you’d just need to add some more details to the story. It would be 100% feasible.

Overall 5/10

Cosmo Gang The Puzzle Review

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All right, it’s time for the Cosmo Gang! I tend to like puzzle type games like this where you match objects. Although personally I much prefer rearranging vs the style where the blocks are falling from the ceiling but it all comes down to execution in the end. Ultimately I didn’t think the execution here was all that good and the gimmick of needing arrow orbs to destroy the enemies fell flat for me. It should have been basic matching like match 3-4 of the aliens to destroy them. Then for the blocks you need to match 6 which I found to be super excessive. So in pretty much every way you could say that this game really did not meet my expectations.

There is a story mode of sorts with dialogue but it’s untranslated so that’s just how it goes. The main mode is about seeing how long you can survive as the blocks come down. Every minute or so you move up a level. You can start from level 0, 10, 50, and 100. Naturally the level 0 will be a lot easier than level 100 so that’s one thing to keep in mind. The main annoying thing though is that the score jumps up with you so there’s no point to choosing anything other than level 100. For example, if you start with level 0 you have a score of 0. If you manage to survive for a while, maybe you can get to 20,000 or so.

If you start at level 100, you begin with a score of 2 million so by default I shattered all the records. Even if you lose immediately you end up having a higher score which doesn’t really make sense. I suspect the developers didn’t think that through or perhaps originally this was something you had to unlock and the Switch Online just sped up the process. It’s hard to say for sure but either way it means the score is something you shouldn’t take very seriously. You’re going to have an extremely hard time beating that legitimately as you would need to be a real expert at this style of gameplay.

Even the gameplay feels a bit dated here. You can only move objects in a single direction so there is no going backwards or anything like that. You have to keep spinning until you get the right shape/formation that you want. I imagine you will eventually get really used to how the shapes interact but I would keep on getting confused and shift things to the wrong way. In a game like this that is naturally fatal though. A single misstep will set you back a great deal and there’s no real coming back from that. As it is, sometimes I felt like I was playing perfectly and I was still getting demolished.

I do consider these types of games to be among the harder ones out there though so that definitely tracks. You really need to have a long term plan at the ready in addition to just making matches as soon as possible. Because of how the arrow orb works, you even want to line up the enemies in a way where they can all be hit in a row. Of course, that also lowers the chance of getting a 6 way match so now you have conflicting goals. Good luck on survival, I will say while there is a good amount of RNG, there is also a lot of skill here as well. I don’t want to sell the big players short, it clearly does take talent to win here.

As far as the graphics go, the game looks pretty decent. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing or anything like that but it definitely gets the job done. Then for the soundtrack it’s more on the subdued side. Not exactly something that you will be humming in the shower but it doesn’t distract from the game either. So it won’t hold the gameplay back but it won’t take things to the next level either. In terms of replay value, I suppose it is endless here as you can keep on playing for as long as you find the gameplay fun. Due to the way the game operates, no two matches will be exactly the same anyway so that’s why it never ends. I just don’t find it quite so fun and since that’s the only real gameplay that the title has to offer, this ultimately dooms it in the end.

Overall, Cosmo Gang really wasn’t my cup of tea. I think the main problem is that there are just way better puzzle games of this style out there. Why play this when you can play the original Dr. Mario or Eggman’s Mean Bean Machine? Cosmo Gang just doesn’t beat those in any tangible way and when you have a game that is super basic like this, it helps to at least have some franchise appeal. Without a legendary character like Mario or Sonic around to help out, it meant that the game was really doomed from the jump. Great gameplay could have helped to bridge the divide but we didn’t get that. I would say to skip this one personally.

Overall 4/10

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

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After all these years I have finally gotten to play one of the legendary Legend of Zelda games from the Gamecube era. I remember reading through the user guide for this one so many times back in the day. I think it was a double pack with Wind Waker’s or something but it was always cool reading up on it. The manga was also fantastic so I had high hopes for the game. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! I can safely say that it is the definitive title for the main Link, even if Wind Waker will always be the head honcho.

Everything was going good for a while until Link and his village are attacked by a bunch of creatures. They quickly overwhelm the heroes and curse Link into being a wolf. Fortunately Midna shows up and agrees to help Link. She will help him save the world and protect his friends. In exchange he will help her gather all of the dark power so that she can crush the evil Zant who has taken over the world. Many lives hang in the balance but Link is ready to save the world. He is just the guy for the job.

It was pretty interesting to have a new villain in the mix here. Usually Ganondorf is the one running around so having Zant in here was cool. The guy actually makes for a great villain for most of his screen time. He talks really tough and is constantly in control. Unfortunately the mask starts to weaken later on and he loses a ton of hype. While he does sink pretty drastically from where he started, I can safely say that he is still one of the higher Legend of Zelda villains. He may not be head honcho material like Ganondorf but he can fight. I also thought he had the hardest boss fight in the game, even harder than ole Ganon himself.

The game takes everything very seriously as you journey through the realms. Outside of Majora’s Mask it would be fair to say that this may be the darkest game. The atmosphere is always intense and it’s nice to see all of the characters in their latest incarnation. The games do tend to recycle the same regions over and over again like the Gorons and the Zora so I would like to see that changed at some point though. Lets just have a true fresh start since it is a new adventure every time anyway.

While the game is darkly lit because of all the shadows, I would say the graphics are still pretty good. The art style doesn’t hold up as well as Ocarina of Time or Skyward Sword but it is still strong. The soundtrack is also good as well. The technical aspects don’t miss here and of course the gameplay is also on point. I always like a good 3D action game and you have so many different weapons and gadgets to choose from. It definitely allows you to play in a rather free way. For bosses you will have to fight them as the developers intended but for minions you can mix things dup a whole lot.

There are also several different gameplay styles here like being on foot, on horse, and as a wolf. The wolf gimmick is the main one that is new to the game. I can’t say that it’s my favorite but it doesn’t bring the game down or anything like that. I just tend to miss playing as Link himself whenever I’m in the Wolf form which is probably not the intent. It’s just that using the wolf’s sense abilities would usually feel like i was slowing down the game.

Meanwhile as Link, you really can’t go wrong with the fundamentals. Even the puzzles feel pretty smooth in this one. There were some puzzles that I couldn’t solve, but fortunately a good deal of them are optional. Even in the final dungeon, I couldn’t figure out why some of the doors wouldn’t open but I could just keep going. I definitely appreciated that, it’s a good balance of how these things ought to be.

One mild quality of life change I would like would be for you to be able to open chests even when your wallet is filled though. My wallet was always filled up so when a chest would have a rupee it would automatically close. The annoying thing about this is that the chest will still appear on the map so I would have to keep track of that while looking for the one item that I missed. They should let me take the rupees even if I’m at my limit. Also as another mild thing, Midna is often not helpful at all with the hints. They should have given her more things to say because half the time when you ask her for advice, she just reminds you of the plot. That’s not exactly what I was hoping for after all.

The game is quite long so you will definitely be getting a lot of bang for your buck. Nintendo is always delivering quite a lot with the Zelda series there. There is a ton of replay value as well. This is a game that you can stick with for quite the long time. As a final note, I like that most of the bosses have weaknesses that make practical sense. Zant is the one exception because I don’t get why arrows literally go through him but the others play their way around the items that the game doesn’t want you to use. It’s fairly creative as opposed to the game just making the weapons do 0 damage for no reason. Having actual explanations and everything is always the way to go.

Overall, Twilight Princess is great stuff. It is absolutely a title that all Nintendo fans should play at least once in their gaming careers. The boss fights are creative, the technical aspects are on point, and the characters are likable. You can’t really ask for much more than that in the end. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of and it’s why Twilight Princess is a game that can be enjoyed by any generation. There is also a ton of side content and dungeons to be tackled. I mainly just sped through the game and it still took me 30 hours which shows you just how long the game is. They did not cheap out in any area.

Overall 8/10

Big Run: The Supreme 4WD Challenge Review

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This one had some really long sub titles in there so I wasn’t sure how deep to in with this one. Either way I have to say that it is a very sub par racing game and one of the worst that I’ve played. This may sound harsh but they went way too far with the realism aspects that come at the expense of the actual fun. When I step into the car I want to feel the wind behind me as I go all out on the speed. I don’t want to be changing tires and things like that. This isn’t supposed to be a real world simulation!

The game starts off with you having to choose a sponsor which was the first red flag. Each sponsor has different amounts of money and starter equipment. For example the cheapest sponsor starts you off with the most spare tires while the most expensive one leaves you to your own devices. After that you can select who you want to hire to be on your crew for pit stops and emergency repairs. You can also go to the shop to buy engines and wheels. You have to balance out all of your cash here and be very economical because you don’t get any more money for the remainder of the game. The game is 9 levels long by the way and a single loss sends you back to the first level.

Another trope I don’t like. Never send me back to the first level. If I lose then I want you to send me back to the start of the level that I lost at, but sending me back to the first level is really overdoing it here. It’s a game that is so difficult, even the access points may not help you much because you will be absolutely stuck once you are out of inventory. I’m also not exactly sure how the pressure system works. It seems like the faster you go, the more you really burn out the tires but at the same time if you go slow then you’re not going to beat out the aggressive timer. The right speed is somewhere in the middle and it’s a very difficult tight rope to walk.

I suppose at the end of the day you really just have to try your best and keep on fighting. I do like the actual gameplay of driving through the roads, but it’s just overwhelmed by these other aspects. Even when I tune that out and just drive, I’m reminded of the system because my car’s engine suddenly gives out and I’m stranded on the road. No matter how quick you send the emergency crew out, you can bet that you will have just lost the race. So you have to make sure to repair really well after each race but I couldn’t figure out how to have enough money left over. The farthest I made it to was level 6 out of 9 and even that took me a lot of tries.

I imagine truly big fans of the inner workings of a car will get a kick out of this but it definitely didn’t do anything for me. I will say that the graphics are pretty good though. Everything is very bright and colorful which is always a positive. The levels may not have a whole lot to them in terms of details but at least while driving the car I can focus on that. There’s not much of a soundtrack but I’ll give it a bit of a pass there. I wasn’t really expecting one. I suppose there is a lot of replay value in trying to beat the game because that will take a long time. Don’t expect that you will be able to just turn this game on and win because that’s not happening.

I also think it would have been better if you could have seen other drivers to add some more competitiveness to this. For the most part it feels more like a time trial game as you try to beat the clock rather than fighting other drivers. So that also starts to miss the mark on why you’re playing a racing game. Sure, there are obstacles like signs and trucks that you can bump into but there are no scores or anything like that. In a way it’s like you’re all isolated here or you’re an illegal driver messing around on the highways.

Overall, Big Run falls into the trap of trying to be too realistic the whole time. The more realistic you get, often times the more you will just end up biting off more than you can chew. Games are fun because you get the end product without having to worry about the stuff in the middle. It’s very rare that I like a game that goes as far into the weeds as this one does. It just feels like a misplaced goal to me, at least that’s the way that I see it. Perhaps I am just missing the appeal here but the driving takes a back seat and in a racing game that is never the way to go. Go and play Need for Speed instead, you won’t miss out by skipping this game.

Overall 4/10

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs Review

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It’s time to look at the Battletoads, one of the big SNES titles of legend! This game is known for being super tough and after playing through I can definitely confirm this. The levels absolutely go hard and in particular the second last level is insane. That one took me tons of tries and you gotta appreciate how anyone was able to do it back in the day. You do get a good amount of continues but it’s not unlimited or it didn’t seem that way. Imagine getting a full game over and going to the start? Would be brutal unless I’m mistaken there.

The basic plot involves a girl getting kidnapped and even one of the toads ends up going down for the count. The rest of them quickly get ready to save the day but they will have to take out powerful opponents and get past a lot of dangerous obstacles. It won’t be easy but hey they are ready for this. They’re no strangers to danger after all.

So the basic gameplay here is that of a 2D platformer/beat ’em up. You punch away at opponents and move forward to the goal. Some levels are standard beat em ups while others shake up the gameplay style a bit. For example one of them has you in a ship blasting away at enemies. It’s the easiest one for sure though. The beat em ups are also pretty easy for the most part at least relatively speaking. Nothing about the game is downright easy but it’s not nearly as bad as the others. Let’s talk about that toughest level.

You’re on a scooter and you have this guy on a motorcycle after you. He is trying to slice you in two and you have to stay ahead of him. It’s easily the most violent level because when you lose it really gets intense. Now the reason the level is tough is because you have to hold the control stick in the direction of the road at all times and there are a ton of twists and turns. If you are late to switch by half a second then it’s all over. The screen also doesn’t show you a full view for most of it so you have to just react very quickly. The level itself is only around 2 minutes but let me tell you that trying to not make any mistakes for 2 minutes with so many twists and turns is incredibly difficult.

It’s all about the timing and the interesting thing is that the way the momentum works, you actually get penalized for using the rewind feature because it completely stops your momentum. So you have to even time your access points just right like during a jump where you can recover really quickly. It took me so many tries but when I finally beat the level it felt really satisfying.

Then while not quite as tough, this next one was also a real doozy. This time it’s a vertical race as you are starting at the top of a tower and heading all the way down. You are chasing the villain as he runs down and you have to really move perfectly because he is faster than you. You can hit him to slow the guy down for a moment but if you miss the hit then you will have just dug an even deeper hole for yourself. So that definitely makes things tricky as well. Stay strong and just keep on going but good luck on memorizing the spots. This one didn’t take me nearly as long but was also a really crazy level.

I’ve already said this several times but the game is definitely insanely difficult and lives up to the reputation. The fact that it could be difficult with different gameplay styles like this is definitely impressive. It may make for a high barrier of entry but at least it isn’t artificial difficulty. They’re just making a fun game that is really hard but you always have a chance to win. You could argue that the two chases are the only ones that break this mold as there are obstacles you could never possibly anticipate on your first run.

The graphics look pretty good and the artstyle in general has aged pretty well. It’s definitely the kind of game that really leaps off the screen. The levels also have a whole lot of variety throughout with different backgrounds in addition to the gameplay styles. They put in a good amount of effort here without a doubt. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also good. Battletoads definitely delivers on these fronts without any real issues. Mix that in with the fun gameplay and it’s easy to see why this is a solid title.

Overall, Battletoads is a pretty fun game. I’m not sure if I would have had as much fun without the switch online enhancements but it’s definitely a game that had a good amount of effort and creativity behind it. You can see why the series definitely got so well known over the years. If you have the switch online then I would definitely recommend checking it out. It’s one of the better ones on the console.

Overall 7/10