Hi this is where I'm going to talk about the games I've played this year they're not all from this year but I played them this year and if I played them they're on this list. Thanks for reading my reviews if you are a game developer and you want me to play your game to review please email me at my email address and I will review your game
Currently Playing
Nothin
100%ed Games
New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe - Good game
This is alright. I don't think anyone reading this would be surprsied to hear that I'm a big Mario fan, but there wasn't anything about NSMBU that stood out to me. The levels were completely forgettable and I couldn't really tell you anything about any of them. It's fine. It's not a standout and it's not trash. It's just kinda there. I'm struggling to think of anything more to say about it so I won't.
Crash Bandicoot 3 - Great game
If you read this because it comes before the games below, this is definitely a better game than Crash 1 and 2. I went through and got all the crates in all the levels for it and there was only like one or two that was annoying. It was a good time. I think this is how I pictured Crash games in my Crash Bandicoot nostalgia. It's pretty fun, not a lot that's too obtuse, and just basically a decent playstation platformer. I can't think of many complaints I had for it and I even liked some of the "change up the gameplay" levels in this one. I'd recommend it
Mighty Switch Force - Great game
Technically this should be on the replay list but I bought the collection and I'm counting this as new. Mighty Switch Force is a fun game that I'm gonna say is a pseudo-speedrun game. There's not really any goals in the game other than get to the end and get to the end within a certain time. The levels are short enough that it's fun to learn how to do them quick, and then move on. Nothing really felt like it overstayed its welcome and just overall it was a good experience. I liked it just as much as I did originally and if you read Mighty Switch Force Hyper Drive Edition below you'll see I actually played through this "twice" so it tells you it's good. I don't understand why they put the same game on the same collection twice though!
Mighty Switch Force 2 - Great game
This one was new to me. I liked MSF enough that I wanted to try this one but I never got around to it. This one introduces ONE optional collectible on each level and the time limits are a bit stricter. It really does feel like more of the same as the first game, but better, so I'm not complaining. You have a fire hose instead of a gun in this game but yeah it really doesn't make too much of a difference because if you're going for time you're probably just gonna be tanking damage through fire anyway instead of putting them out. If you liked the first you'll like this one slightly better
Mighty Switch Force Adacemy - Good game
It's just Mighty Switch Force again, but you can see the entire level. That's both good and bad but overall I don't think I liked it as much as the other two games. It loses some of its charm with the fullscreen level choices and also being some kind of VR thing? Not that the latter part matters. But it really drive that point home when you play some of the classic levels and it's like "Oh, that's all this level is?" It does have a mildly interesting mechanic with screenwrapping but still, nothing to write home about. If you bought the collection I mean you're gonna play this one anyway so why not? Isn't worth it on its own over the other two
Spyro (Reignited Trilogy [Not all "Skill Points"]) - Alright game
I know several people who really like Spyro so I wanted to play this for a while and just never got around to it until this year. After playing the first one, I can definitely see why people like it. It's got a lot of makings of a good game in it, but this first game definitely has a lot of jank in it that holds it back. Most notably it seems to suffer from a lot of problems that early Crash Bandicoot games have in that it wants your jumps to be very precise, if you mess up a glide slightly you're just going to fall into a pit and die. Also some of the enemies have Crash's problem too, in that some of them will seemingly just hit you for no reason even though you've also killed them. The Tree Tops level. There's a couple minor gameplay things I didn't exactly care for either, but the rest is just nitpicking. Those are my major complaints.
The rest of it is fun, or at worst fine. When the game isn't asking you do something specific, it's fun to run around and collect all the gems. I also like how the game doesn't have arbitrary abilities or unlocks that gate you from getting 100% in each level until a later time (aside from one exception but it's not even an issue.) Nothing really stands out about it either, unfortunately. I mean, the remastered levels look very nice, there's nothing to complain about visually. And I guess that kind of sums up my whole feelings about the game. I can't really complain about it. It's fine, but, while writing this before playing the other games in the trilogy, I feel like it's one of those inoffensive games that you just never have a reason to ever go back to.
Spyro 2 (Reignited Trilogy [Not all "Skill Points"]) - Good game
I'm writing this way after the fact because I forgot to include it here, but Spyro 2 was definitely an improvement on the first. Most of the things I had an issue with were improved upon on the second game. I didn't really care for upgrading things in this game, which is weird becuase I generally don't mind that stuff, but it felt pointless in this game. There were so many times I was missing just one gem or something stupid in a level and that's pretty frustrating, I'm not sure if it's more of a game problem or a me problem, but it happened frequently enough that I would probably fault the game partially for it. It's okay though, I could see myself playing it again.
Beaten games
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - Great game
I didn't play the first Puyo Puyo Tetris but if I had to guess I'd say this is the exact same game as the first one. I went through the adventure mode and it was a pretty fun time. I didn't bother getting all of the stars in all of the levels or even doing all of the post game content becuase I'd had my fill when I made it to the end, but it's a solid game. I could see enjoying it while playing against real people but I didn't really delve too deep into that (though I totally would if someone asked me to.) The only thing I really didn't like about it was the levels where you had abilities and HP. They felt stupid and not really in the spirit of either puyo puyo or tetris, but yeah, it's both games so I guess if you like them then you'll like this. I will say the story was stupid and a lot of the dialogue went on longer than it should have, but surprisingly it didn't get on my nerves and I thought the art style was cute, so it gets a pass in that department
Crash Bandicoot 1 - Not good game
I don't really have much nostalgia for Crash. I remember playing this game at my brother's house and fighting Ripper Roo but I never actually owned the game or beat it as a kid. Going through it I kind of remembered a lot of parts about it so maybe I'd played it somewhere else or just watched too many lets plays that memories of things I've watched now posess the same brainspace as things I've actually played. Anyway, going into this one knowing what some of the other games do it felt like a first game to me. I definitely did not want to go through and do all the boxes for the "true ending" either even though it felt like it should have been an easy thing. I don't know, I think it just feels way too easy to die in this game and it almost feels like it wasn't designed with a playstation controller in mind. It just came off mildly clunkly to me and I didn't hate it but I wouldn't ever wanna go back to it again.
Crash Bandicoot 2 - Alright game
Pretty much everything I said about Crash 1 applies to this game except I played this one at my two cousins' house and the part I remember is the first polar bear section. This game is definitely more fun than the first one and it does a lot better, but there's still a lot of parts that feel like I just wanted to get by them. I almost 100%ed it despite that, though there were 2 levels in particulat that I didn't get all the gems for. I don't remember which two offhand but I think one's some factory level with splitting paths and difficult jumps. Or maybe I did that one? I don't remember! This game sort of exists in my mind but it's definitely an alright game. If you're wanting to play through old Crash games then this isnt the worst. That's Crash 1.
Link's Awakening (Hero Mode) - Fantastic Game
I've gone on record before stating that depending on when you ask me, Link's Awakening is my favorite Legend of Zelda game. Nostalgia plays a big part in that, I'll admit, but after playing through it again I can still say it's good. I will say I wasn't a big fan of the stylistic choice with this one, and I'd planned to just blow through the game as quick as I could. On Hero Mode. For some reason. That didn't work out so well, there were a few parts I'd gotten stuck on gameplay-wise that made me mildly regret it, but after getting over a few humps it was smooth sailing. But yeah, the stylistic choice, I didn't think I'd really give a crap about the story that I already liked but it sucked me back in. Again, I'm not sure if it's nostalgia but Link's Awakening was always weird with a bunch of unanswered questions. I do think the style takes away from that a bit but there's still some good points.
But yeah, the game itself is still fun and good. Everything I liked was still there, I don't recall them changing anything for the worse. The dungeon builder seemed like it would be neat but after making a few I decided it was really stupid and unneccessary especially with the way they've implemented but the good news is that you can completely ignore it and just play the game that I loved instead!
Yoshi's Crafted World - Ok game
IDK how to feel about this one. I'd heard the game was baby easy when I went into play it and just wanted something simple to go through, but there's so many collectibles in this game and if you're somehow obsessed with them like me it's not a baby easy game. There were definitely a few things I had to look up that felt really obtuse. I know this sort of factors into the original Yoshi's Island game but I wasn't having it with this one for some reason. That said, yeah, the game is pretty baby easy. I don't think it really gets tough until the postgame islands, which were really fun. I did like those levels. Except for Kamek. Kamek was an OK boss but there's a part at the very end of his long boss-rush-like battle that is very easy to mess up and make you start completely over. And I do mean very end as in final hit. But that's just one complaint I suppose. Overall it's fine. I could have seen myself in my earlier days looking for all the secret boxes and all the background items, but really right now I just don't want to play through the same level 10 times just to get all the stuff. Yeah I dunno, it's cute at least?
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (95% map completion) - Great game
People will probably give me shit for this one but I loved the first Hyrule Warriors and I think this one is definitely a better game. Compared to the first, the battles go way quicker - they're not "stand around and wait for the enemy to show you its weak point" like most of the larger enemy fights in the first one was. That still exists to an extent but there's ways to get around it. The characters are a lot better, too, there were a bunch in the first one I didn't care to play but there's a smaller amount in this one I would say that I never wanna touch. Plus, I really dug breath of the wild, too, so getting a supplemental(?) story to it was great. Other than that, you're just running around trashing enemies. It's fun. I thought about the first one constantly and I thought about this one a little bit but also significantly less. That said there's some bad things about it.
Once constant criticism I've seen about it is the performance and yes, it does run kinda bad. I'd had slowdown in some places, enemies will pop in right in front of you. It didn't really take away from my enjoyment though and didn't seem like a huge issue. There's also way too much stuff on the map to unlock. Beat the challenges, use the items to unlock the stuff. It's okay to have some unlocks like that but by the end of the game there's just way too much stuff on it. And I still did most of it. I wouldn't really recommend doing that - just play through the story mode and maybe do a couple of the challenges so you can power up Link. I don't really remember what other criticisms there were that I read, but a big one for me was that this game lets you jump off walls and paraglide. I did this a lot and not once did I ever intend to. It's supposed to be so you can get some hits on enemies to lower their stun meter, but there's usually way better ways to do it. Though, the issue is more that you can seemingly jump off anything. I've tried backing away from giant monsters' attacks only to hit a tiny bush and then find myself gliding lazily towards the enemy and get hit. So yeah not without its flaws. I still loved it.
Gal Gun Returns (2 campaigns) - It's a game
I forgot I bought and played this. It's okay I guess? It's not really that degenerate and it's not really a great lightgun game. It's surprisingly inoffensive for what I was afraid it would be and not as fun of a shooter as I hoped it was going to. I give no shits about the story, I just wanted to play House of the Dead but shooting anime girls. No, I didn't expect to be killing them or anything. It's just there's no challenge to it and if it was meant to be a porn game like there's nothing really bad that happens in it if that was the point either? I just don't get who this game is supposed to exist for yet here I am with the egg on my face having played through two of the campaigns. For the record I do kind of like Aoi Uno.
Freedom Planet(Lilac Story) - Not my kind of game game
I'm aware this was intended to be a Sonic fangame, but it feels like one in both good and bad ways. The characters and stories remind me of my days from when I was in middle school, writing dumb stories on the internet with friends that would probably make me feel embarrassed today if I read them. They look fine for whatever it is they're supposed to be (the main character is supposedly a dragon, but I don't buy it) but otherwise they look like something a middle schooler would've thought up. The game play is OKAY. I'm not a huge fan of the sonic style but I do think the early levels are fine. I would have said this game was innocent enough and fine up until the final levels which were just awful. I did not like the gameplay of the last levels of the game and the final boss, like most of thes bosses in this game, was trash. There's a lot of things it does well and a lot of thing it does not do well and I just don't really think I like it or have a desire to check out the other characters' campaigns. I know its got a bit of a cult following so I'm probably wrong. I just don't dig the characters or stories, and the final levels felt too enemy spammy for me where most of the others were fun platforming ones. The physics on some things just felt wonky too, sometimes I'd try to dash up a platform and instead bounce off of it, and any time it makes you go from left to right running up semi-circle platforms I just couldn't keep my speed up. I don't know, I think you're just better off replaying old sonic games if this is the kind of thing you're looking for? I don't feel like anything this game presents is that refreshing or even any better than the old games.
Tetris 99 - Still a fun game
Ok, this isn't really a game that you can "beat" but I've always liked Tetris since playing it on the original Game Boy. I'd dabbled in Tetris 99 back when it first came out but I never took anything really all that seriously. I decided this year that I wanted to play it and I wanted to get the #1 rank. I kept trying off and on but most importantly I wasn't letting myself get discouraged when something went wrong. And boy, did a lot of stuff go wrong. There were tons of stupid mistakes and a lot of panicking if I ever managed to make it into the top 10. I would say my average hovered in around the top 4th but there were still enough times that I didn't even get top 50 that it might actually be lower. I don't know if there's a way to check! In any case, my practicing paid off and eventually I did hit that #1 rank as you can see above, so I consider the game beaten. It was fun. I'm down for more Tetris, of course, but for now I'm leaving it be.
Skyward Sword - Low Tier Zelda but still Good game
I'm not really the biggest LoZ fan, but I'd had my eye on Skyward Sword for a while. I skipped the Wii generation so I never did play it, but then again there were a lot I'd missed out on anyway (I never played A Link to the Past despite being a super hard Nintendo kid.) I was happy to finally get a chance to play this on switch, the $60 price tag didn't really bother me though I do agree that it should not be a $60 game now.
I thought the game was okay. I used the stick controls to play the game and if I had any joycons that weren't drifting I think I would have preferred to play it with that. Not actually knowing if that's better or not? I imagine it's probably better. I had a little trouble with stick controls except for when I needed to time an attack in which case I could easily spam the same move over and over. Getting the right angle with the stick felt a little clunky at times and made me feel like I was having more difficulty with some enemies than I should have. It wasn't really a problem, I still beat everything just fine (it's a Zelda game) but it did cause enough of a hiccup that I didn't want to fight most enemies in the game. Once I got the bow, I started using it to take out enemies if I could. Arrows were never an issue (it's a Zelda game)
Evertything else was pretty rad, though> I liked the settings. Skyloft was cool and I liked just wandering around and exploring it, even if there wasn't much to it. The areas on the land beneath the clouds were all cool. The dungeons could be hit or miss, but that seems pretty par. I wasn't really a fan of flying around in the sky, though. Everything felt too far away and it was kind of pointless to just fly to the next area. I know Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time, for example, was big and pretty empty, but just something about big empty clouds made it felt like there was a lot less to do. At least in Hyrule field I could wander off to bomb a random rock and find 20 rupees without having to hit a cube first.
My list of things I disliked about it is probably as long as my list of things I loved about it, which means it's alright. As a game itself I'd say it's okay, if you wanted to play it and could get it for a bit cheap then go for it. In my personal ranking of Zelda games, I'd call it low-tier though. Doesn't mean it's bad, just there's better Zelda games to play.
Blaster Master Zero - Rad Game
This game felt great to me from the moment it started. Had a great NES nostalgic feel to it without feeling like it was just tacked on to appeal to that type of person. It hit the feeling just right. The game play was great too, definitely my kind of game from start to finish. It felt great to just run through blasting enemies. Maybe a bit on the easy side, but that didn't take anything away from it for me. Just all around my type of game!
Blaster Master Zero II - Still Rad Game
It's like the first BM0 but it does a little bit more. There's a little bit more story, and a little bit more to the gameplay. Pretty much if you liked the first one you'll probably like this one, too, if you don't mind a couple extra characters and cutscenes for a game that didn't really need something like that. Still, it's a sequel so it's nice to have more to it than just what's at face value like the first game was. Also there was one really annoying level with instant death parts that frustrated me, but I guess that's forgivable in the grand scheme of things
Blaster Master Zero III - More of the Same Rad Game
This is still more BM0. It adds a lot of QOL things to it like warping so it feels like it should be better, but I'm not sure if it is. If it's worse, it's barely any worse, so in no way is it bad. The main plot point of it is you searching for Eve who was with you from the first two games. Eve was kind of the "damsel in distress" in the second game, too, but it feels more significant here since they take her away from you almost completely. It definitely worked for me wanting to get her back, and wouldn't have worked if I hadn't played the othe two games, but it also had the unfortunate side effect of me waiting to get Eve back. The ending to it all also felt a little dumb. I am not sure if it really was all that satisfying for me (though I did like the little post credits scene thing) but I guess it's fine. Also I got a little confused at the end and I'm not sure which option I picked but I'm also not sure it really matters!
Speaking of which, a lot of this game just feels like they added on to the second game. They reuse a couple of bosses from those games, a few near the very end are the same bosses but in sort of a romhack way where they just added stuff to them to make them feel harder. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I think it would have made more sense if these boss fights were in the same game that they originated from, as it is it feels a little lazy but again I'm not really sure if I find it to be a negative thing. Is it a callback or did they just reuse stuff? I'm not sure how it feels for me.
If I had to rank, I'd probably say this is the worst in the series though, but worth playing if you've played the other two.
Unfinished games
The Witness - Bleh game
I'm not a puzzle gamer but I'd heard a bunch of people say they liked this. Even when talking about it I had a bunch of people come out of the woodwork to try to give me advice on it. I've concluded that it isn't for me. It's not a bad game by any means but there's just a couple weird things in it that I couldn't wrap my head around. I don't think it's necessarily the game's fault, but a lot of advice given to me was "come back to it later, you probably haven't been taught the solution yet" but that wasn't really good advice since everything I was stuck on when I finally figured it out I realized I did have all the information needed. That's not to say there weren't some werid things, like the town I still don't really get, but I was happy when I figured out some areas. I didn't really look anything up, though a while back I did watch Joseph Anderson's video on The Witness so I had some passing knowledge with that but that was moreso having some pieces and not the solutions to puzzles. I still didn't know everything and there were lots of areas that I just sorta stumbled through. The greenhouse or whatever I still don't fully get, but I made it through it somehow. I basically bruteforced the final puzzle on that one cause I knew there was something it wanted me to see but I just didn't see it. A bunch of the other puzzles don't even really stick with me, they were either simple enough for me to figure out once I knew what to do, or just so obtuse that I struggled with them forever and gave up. I found myself just wandering around a lot trying to find some place I hadn't been, but exploration didn't feel very rewarding in this game and I woulda loved to have some fast travel options. I'd say at least 25% of my playtime in this was just walking around trying to find something new to do.
I cannot even begin to comprehend the bird puzzle as I cannot discern the noises well enough. I know what it wants me to do. I am incapable of doing it.
I gave up on the "star" puzzles in the tree area because I missed a certain piece of information. I looked up what I was missing later and felt stupid for missing it, but I was definitely looking for some answers in the wrong spots too. Probably didn't help that I left the area and came back a few times. I still have no idea what the alternate solution to the exit puzzle is supposed to do
The monastery in the middle, or "the house" as I called it was neat. I knew what it wanted me to do but I had a hard time getting started. That area was probably the best one for me personally. I had to look at things a different way just to even get started, and I don't even mean the way you do the puzzles. I brute forced some of the things outsie which was kind of dumb on my part but hey it worked, but it wasn't very satisfying. Also the last puzzle there stumped me for a while, I was ready to give up on it and then halfway through walking around I had a hunch and it was the correct way to do it.
I did, however, look up how to do the tetris puzzles. I kept finding them but couldn't find my way into the area that taught you how to do it, and even when I did I somehow missed half of the tutorial? I'm not ashamed to say I looked it up becuase it was something I didn't understand, but once I did I think they were my favorite ones to solve.
I did manage to beat the "any%" of 7 areas and went into whatever the area in the mountain unlocks. I managed to beat the first room of puzzles but I couldn't figure out how to get out. There's either something I'm missing or my head is just so far up my own ass that I can't see the solution to the puzzle. It's probably the latter, but in any case the experience of the game as a whole had too many frustrating bits for me including parts where I just couldn't figure out the one thing it wanted me to find so I decided that was as far as I was going to get.
I really dislike it but I can understand why some people would. I'd recommend it to those types. I'd feel bad that I don't like it but I don't really get the impression that the game cares that I feel that way
God of War (2018) - IDK game
I'm not sure how to feel about this one. This type of game I'm either hit or miss on. I loved Astral Chain, but Metal Gear: Revengence I disliked. They're do or die for me but this one kinda fell somewhere in the middle. I dig the setting a lot and I'm interested in the plot a bit, but the gameplay just sort of has me falling flat I think. I'm not really sure how I should be doing upgrades and there's a lot of fights where I feel like I should be doing a lot better, both in my skill and in how well Kratos is fighting the enemies. I know these things take time but as of this writing I sort of fell off of it. I may go back to it at some point but despite not disliking it at all it's just not the fantastic game I've heard it was and I've got little desire to go back to it currently. I hope to one day though. Maybe the hype around it is what's killed it for me. Even this year I've heard people talking about it and its PS5 upgrade and talking about how they're jealous of people getting to experience it for the first time. Ok.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Mario Kart game
IDK how I'm supposed to rank this one, it's Mario Kart. I've not played 8 til this year but... yeah it's Mario Kart.
Mighty Switch Force Hyper Drive Edition - Same game from above
When I started the Mighty Switch Force Collection I didn't realize that this was just Mighty Switch Force 1 again with better graphics and a few more levels. I woulda just went straight to this if I knew. I was only going to do a few levels and skip it completely but I ended up beating all the normal and hyper levels again, so that probably says something about how fun those ones are. The HyperB levels fall into the "kaizo mario" territory in that they feel like an awful romhack and they're asking you to be wayyyy too precise for my liking. Everything is definitely doable but it'd just take too much of my time to finish it and I just don't have that kind of patience even though the levels are short. Trust me, I tried. I failed many many times and even though I beat a few levels I just don't want to invest any more into it.
Touhou Spell Bubble - Not bad but also not good game
I really don't know too much about Touhou, but I recognize most of the characters and can probably name a few of the more popular ones, but the fact that this is Touhou didn't affect the appeal to me at all. I wanted to try this purely for the gameplay. For the most part, it's fine. There's some special abilities throughout, but for the most part it's bust-a-move. Pretty standard stuff, presented well. I like it. What I don't like is how frustrating the game gets with some of it's later levels or the challenge levels. I'm not sure if somehow I never figured out how to play the game all through the entire story, but the game just seems to want to fart out so many garbage bubbles at yo uand there's nothing you can seemingly do to stop them. You'll get a couple popping up on your screen, and then when you shoot some bubbles to try to clear them (and don't clear them all because there's way too many) more pop up and instantly put you into counter mode with very little hope of getting back into the lead. Some of the challenge levels did this pretty instantantaneously and I'm not entirely sure if it's supposed to happen because it doesn't really say anywhere, but it happened consistently enough that it may be the case. That said, I didn't hate anything up until the near-end of the game, but the constant garbage bubble slog made me get frustrated enough that I just did not want to play it anymore and thus didn't even finish the story mode. I'd say it might be worth it if you're really into touhou and/or can get the game for cheap on sale, but I'd say away from it otherwise.
Replayed Games
Hades - Fantastic game
Have you heard of Hades? If not everyone else has played it so you're going to be left in the dust because this game is good and I'm someone who really likes roguelikes and I loved the shit out of Bastion so this was a good game for me. It's fun and I played through it a lot and I got the credits and I guess most of the story at this poing but it feels like it just keeps going. Almost everything unlocked in the shops but there's still tons of challenges and stuff to do and I could probably keep playing this game for a while. Seriously though if you're on the fence about it I'd say just give it a shot because it's very good and I usually don't give a shit about the story but this game has great story and great art and I love it and I don't even give a shit about roman or greek or whatever mythology that the game sets itself in. I played this a lot last year and have played it significantly less this year but I've still played it a lot so it goes on my 2021 list.
Donkey Kong Country - Good game
I played this game a lot when I was younger so I played it agian and the game is still good. DKC2 and even DKC3 are better IMO (even though I haven't played them recently as of this writing) but the game is solid and if you have Nintendo Switch Online or are an illegal pirate with thousands of roms on your computer then you probably owe it to yourself to give it a shot and if you've already played it then yeah it's a fun afternoon or whatever to replay through. I didn't bother getting all the secrets cause IIRC you don't get anything really for it and compared to the latter games this definitely feels like a first draft of the formula but again don't let that take anything away from this
Yoshi's Island (100%ed) - Good game
I also played this game a lot when I was younger and I went into it thinking I would still love it as much as I did as a child and I kind of didn't. It's still a solid game but I'm just not sure how much it holds up for me now. It's still fun to explore all the secrets but aside from a few fly guys holding red coins I pretty much remembered where everything was so that kind of took the fun out of it for me. "The looooooooong maze" was a level I remember struggling with a lot as a child but when I went into it now I was able to clearly go through it all without any difficulty (but the level still sucks.) I think if you were wanting to explore and discover things for yourself this ones worth a shot, but not something you really need to go back to. It's kind of the opposite of DKC though in that this game is way better than most of the stuff that they did with Yoshi later. So skip paying $60 for Crafted World and just spend the like $3 for Switch Online and play this instead
Mario 64 (120 star) - Good game
I played this on my original N64 with the same controllers from years ago instead of the 3D All-Stars version and I gotta say that this game feels like you're controlling a wet napkin. It's not really bad but after playing Galaxy and Odyssey and whatever eles more recently there's just something about this Mario that doesn't feel right. The game is still fun especially if you're trying to speedrun everything - I initially went in trying to see how fast I could beat it and I lost track. I'm no speedrunner and have no interest in being one, but it's fun to just go into a level and get a star in 2 seconds. It's solid for what it is, but yeah I don't see much need to go back to it other than nostalgia. There are much better Mario 64s to pick from now
Donkey Kong Country 2 (100%) - Fantastic game
This is also a game I played a bit when I was younger, but moreso when I was older and discovered emulation. If you'd asked me before my most recent replay, I probably would have told you this is easily one of my favorite games of all time. I still think it's in the list, but I probably would put it a little lower than previously. That's not to say it's a bad game at all, it's a lot of fun and the controls always felt great to me. Plenty of secrets to find, though I feel like once you know where all of them are then the game loses a little bit of it's charm. I don't remember looking anything up, but if I did it was probably one or two super obscure things, I did 99% of it all from memory or just remembering at least where to look. But yes, the level designs are fantastic, the music is great, and there's still a lot to love about it. Worth a first or another playthrough if you like platformers and finding secrets.
Donkey Kong Country 3 (Any%) - Okay game
I'm not really sure how to feel about DKC3. Even when it was new and I first played it I wasn't sure what I should be thinking about it. It felt different enough from the other DKC games that it almost seemed like an entirely different game to me. It still invokes that feeling, but all of the DKC flare is there. Good levels, good controls, secret levels to find. I just think it lacks something. I definitely don't like the new wasp designs in comparison to the old. The music just doesn't feel like it's there, I can't remember much of it. The bonus levels are BORING. A lot of them feel like "you found the bonus barrel that was sitting in the open, please get to the end of the level now" because they don't feel like they do much. I swear half of the green banana levels are just the same thing except sometimes there's an enemy in the way. I feel like I could write a decently worded paragraph or two on why I don't think the game is great based solely on the fact that the penultimate level's gimmick is just "your controls are reversed." I didn't really feel like going all in and by the time I beat K Rool or whatever he's called in this game I was done. I wasn't having fun at that point. It's still fine, I just don't think I like it as much as I want to think I like it.
Dumb Mobile Game Shit
Azur Lane - Good game
I do usually have one grindy mobile game I play because I'm an idiot. I've done Puzzle & Dragon for a while and Metal Slug Attack, even Pokemon Go. Azur Lane is the one that I've stuck to for a while and that screenshot above from the 2nd EN anniversary should tell you a little bit about it. I'm not really sure what it is, but since the pandemic hit I've been tapping on missions and such while working to keep me just distracted enough from my actual work task to want to keep working. I do genuinely like some of the characters, an yes, some of them are just big fan service stuff, but that doesn't define the game I don't feel. I do like the gameplay, though it does kind of run like shit on my tablet (I mostly do the autobattle.) It's nice to grind up to collecting everything you can and the daily missions are unobtrusive. You also don't have to spend any money on it, I not sure what doing that would get you to increase your power other than giving you more oil so you can do more battles and more cash so you can spend it on inconsequential things. I'm usually maxed out on oil and money anyway so I really wouldn't recommend it, there's only been a handful of times where I've run out of either. I mean I don't think this is the game you should be playing that much anyway.
I feel like I have to defend myself for liking this game as much as I do, but it's fine. It's not something I'd tell people they have to go out and download BUT IF YOU DO JOIN THE AVRORA SERVER AND JOIN THE GUILD I"M IN because we need more people as of this writing. Turn it on, get distracted, then turn it off.
Yes I have 7 boats women in my harem I love them all.
Pokemon Go - Ok game
I still fire this up sometimes and it's still Pokemon Go. I usually do it when I'm somewhere else or sometimes if I'm sitting there really bored. I mean there doesn't feel like there's much to it but yeah it's okay? I like Pokemon so I like this game and if it was any other IP I'd call it pointless and stupid so I guess you got me this time Niantic!