Animal Crossing is a series that's still somewhat new to me. For anyone not familiar, Animal Crossing is a game that can basically be boiled down to "neighbor simulator." It's sort of like The Sims, but you only control one character and don't have any basic needs to meet. You just go around decorating your home, talking to your neighbors, doing favors for them, catching bugs and fish for money, and quite a bit more. It takes place in real time, meaning a full day in-game is 24 hours. Once you get close to 10pm, the shops close, different bugs start to come out, and all your neighbors go to sleep for the day. Over the years, they've changed up the formula a little bit. Originally, it was a game where you just lived in a town, going day by day, just doing whatever. It's still pretty much the same, but nowadays, they give you complete control over the town. You can put in ordinances, you can build new monuments and buildings, and in this newest one, you can even terraform the environment. My first game was New Leaf from 2013, which I enjoyed thoroughly with my friends with all the new content and minigames to partake in. It kept us busy for a while, but Animal Crossing is a game that I tend to pick up and play for months at a time... and then never really touch it again. Once you get your town the way you like it, it feels like there isn't much left to do. That's just me though, many people seem like they could play this game forever. Though after 7 years and 2 console gens later, people were ready for a new Animal Crossing game. New Horizons was slated to release in 2019, but then was delayed to ensure the quality. The game came out in March of 2020 right at the start of the pandemic, giving a cozy game to quarantine with.

 At first people really liked this game. It was just more Animal Crossing. Although this time around, there was a bit of an annoying start. You and 2 villagers team up with Tom Nook to cultivate a large island into a paradise. While Tom Nook builds the houses, you can only do so much per day, since he needs a whole day to complete it. This was most likely a tutorial to ease people in, but it can take a few real-life days to get everything going. Once you get all the basics, it's classic Animal Crossing with a few small twists. There's a new crafting system that allows you to make tools, furniture, and other nice decorations. For the most part, the crafting system is cool. However, using your tools too much will cause them to break, meaning you have to craft them again. You can upgrade your tools to give them a longer lifespan, but even then, they still break pretty easily. You can customize your tools to counteract this, "resetting" the amount of times you've used them, but you have to pay in-game money to do that. Aside from that, there's also a new point system called "Nook Miles," which give you daily tasks to complete or just general achievments. With Nook Miles Points, there's a special catalog you can order from where you can get exclusive items to decorate your island or to get new crafting recipes. You can also buy "Nook Miles Tickets," which allow you to go to random little islands to gather resources or invite new villagers to live on your island. If you're artistic, you can design your own clothes as well. If you have Nintendo Online, you can also download custom clothes made by other players if making them isn't your thing. All of this leads to getting more out of the game than I feel you normally would with Animal Crossing.

 As time went on though, it was apparent that the game wasn't quite finished yet. It wasn't buggy or broken or anything, but it was missing a lot of core features that were present in most of the previous games. Either that, or there were a few confusing design choices that were really inconvenient and didn't make sense at the time. For example, everyday you get a traveling merchant that sells something different, like one that sells shoes, or one that sells rugs, and so on. Thing is, there seems to be no daily schedule or pattern to these merchants. This means it can be a looong time before you get a merchant you're looking for. Nintendo later added "free content updates," adding a lot of these missing features or fixing these design problems. Weirdly, they seemed to advertised it as though they were doing it out of the kindness of their hearts when it was stuff that should've been there to begin with. On top of that, they never brought back the multiplayer minigames from New Leaf, making the multiplayer experience a bit lacking. After a long while, they actually started adding some new content, like the ability to grow and harvest crops and cook food. There was also a paid DLC which let you design the houses of around 400 characters and adds boatloads of new decorations, keeping you busy for a while. It's possible (in fact, very likely) all of this was delayed by the pandemic, but at the end of everything, I feel they should've delayed it a bit more. If you buy the game now, you'll get a full, satisfying experience. If you bought it on day one though, it was a bit of an on-and-off slow crawl to gain access to features both old and new.

 This one took me a while to get to. As a kid, I never played Banjo simply because I didn’t have an N64. Many years later, I tried out Yooka-Laylee when it finally dropped and thought it was a bit underwhelming. Seeing as how everyone loved Banjo, I put down Yooka-Laylee I finally decided to give Banjo-Kazooie a try for the first time and I had a great time with it! Immediately upon completing the game, I decided to give Tooie a try as well. While it’s still very cool, I began to notice that this game is where most of Yooka-Laylee’s problems start to creep in.

 Tooie overall is a very fun game; after all, it’s just more Banjo-Kazooie! However, if you were to draw a line in the sand and label it as “tedious,” Tooie would not hesitate to cross that line. There are a few major issues with this game, but I think they all loop back into what I think is, fittingly, the biggest problem of all: the levels are simply too big. All the characters (minus solo Kazooie) move so slowly that it feels like it takes forever to get anywhere. Switching between all the playable characters and transformations is a process and a half. You’ll switch to a character, do everything they need to do, run all the way back, switch back, and then realize “oh! I missed something!,” then run to wherever you have to switch characters, switch back to the other character, do whatever it is you need to do, then run back, then switch again. There are lots of sub-areas which is fine, but there’s very little visual indication as to where they’ll take you meaning you’ll get lost quite a bit. Then you have the massive array of moves you can learn; sometimes the game tells you when you don’t have the proper move yet. Other times, you hit a roadbloack without any notice and your only choices are “am I being dumb or do I just not have what I need yet.” You combine all these factors and a good amount of your time will be dedicated to running back and forth in large, almost-empty landscapes while accomplishing barely anything. With that in mind, little things start to become more grating, like watching Banjo slowly transform into something or watching Chuffy the Train switch levels or getting sniped by an enemy off a cliff only to respawn a mile away from where you were. I’m grateful for the warp pads, because the whole thing could’ve been much worse, but it almost feels like a band-aid solution. Either making the characters faster, making the levels smaller, or even just giving some sort of map system could’ve gone a long way with Tooie.

 Those are the main issues I had with Tooie. I have a few minor ones listed below mainly because I feel they don’t need too much explanation:

Notes are no longer used as breadcrumbs. They’re grouped in bundles of 5 and almost feel unnecessary.

Many of the new moves feel underutilized or redundant.

Some of the most annoying enemies in the game respawn after like 10 seconds which defeats the purpose of killing them at all.

Upgrading your health is no longer automatic, you have to go to an NPC in the hub to do it.

There are many parts where Wonder Wing SHOULD be a viable solution but you end up taking damage anyway.

 To be fair to the game, I didn’t take note of just the bad things. Tons of people love this game and I wanted to see the good in it as well. While playing, I took note that there were quite a lot of nice changes from B-K to Tooie that were made, and just generally nice additions as well:

You start with all the moves from the first game.

No lives system. Hugely appreciated since many 3D platformers at the time were still using lives. Having no lives system lets players play recklessly, allowing them to have more fun AND you can use death-warps as a fast-travel in some scenarios.

You no longer lose your Notes upon death. I know this was removed in the Xbox versions, but it was still a general pain to lose Note progress if you died in B-K.

The bosses feel more like actual bosses with proper fights this time.

First person mode for shooting eggs. The aiming itself is finicky in Tooie, but trying to shoot eggs at an angle in B-K was downright awful. Having this option was a blessing.

Eggs and feathers are plentiful and you no longer pick 1 up at a time (minus the Clockwork eggs).

Grenade eggs are pretty fun to use and are arguably the most useful of the new moves.

I’d argue that Minjos are an objectively funny addition to the series. Jinjos are funny themselves, but to occasionally have an evil one chase after you while going “grr” is inherently hilarious.

The minigames are super simple and don’t last very long compared to Rextro’s in Yooka.

Playing as Banjo and Kazooie separately is a really cool idea in general, it just needed better execution.

The NPCs and writing are genuinely charming and funny.

Doing puzzles to unlock each world is a fun and clever idea.

You can do a weird double jump with Banjo by himself. I don’t think it was intended but it saves a lot of time.

The world themes are pretty creative this time around.

Grant Kirkhope is back at the helm again in the music department and delivers some of the most memorable tunes you’ll ever hear in a video game.

The sound design in this game is awesome, almost every single sound is so silly that you’ll find yourself repeating them without even thinking about it.

 Tooie is a testament to how bigger isn’t always better, which is a concept many games these days are still struggling to grasp. It’s a good game, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t feel like an absolute slog at some points (Grunty Industries, smile). Even when it comes to my most favorite video games of all time, some of them have sections that make me say "oh god, not this part," and this game is chock full of them. Though in the same vein that I ended my Yooka review with, I’m excited to see what this team does in the future. I think if they really take some of the criticisms to heart, they could make something amazing.

 I'm gonna rip the Band-Aid™ off this one: this game is a lot like Paper Mario. Whether that's a plus or a minus is completely up to you. I've seen people sing this game's praises and I've seen people bash this game quite viscerally. In my own opnion, I enjoyed this game a lot and would like to record my thoughts on it. But first, a bit of background.

 Paper Mario is a game that started on the Nintendo 64. It was a fun little RPG that seems to be the successor to Super Mario RPG, a highly praised RPG created by Nintendo and Square Enix. As the name might imply, the main spectacle of the game is the 2D graphics in a 3D environment; looking like as though you're playing with cutouts or paper puppets. It's fairly basic as RPGs go and it's considered a fan favorite. People loved it for the story, the battles, and the humongous supporting cast of original NPC characters: something Nintendo rarely dabbled in. They later followed up with Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on GameCube which people seem to LOVE and crown it as the best in the series, as it improved on the first one in every way. At around the same time, Nintendo made a hand-held RPG series on the Gameboy Advance called Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga which played very similar to Paper Mario but with different aesthetics. As time went on though, it seems Nintendo felt the series were a bit too similar. As a result, Nintendo changed up Paper Mario's gameplay completely. They then released Super Paper Mario on the Wii, which was was a 2D platformer with barely any RPG elements to speak of. People weren't thrilled, but the game was decent overall and people still enjoyed it. After that, Nintendo made Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS which was received horribly. The characters seemed lifeless, the story wasn't interesting, they brought back turn-based combat but attacks were limited consumables, and they replaced the wacky world of colorful NPCs from before with just 1 base character design. After that came Paper Mario: Color Splash for the WiiU, which was a console hardly anyone had to begin with. It was very similar to Sticker Star, though people say the writing was better overall. At this point, people were hopeless for a return-to-form for Paper Mario... which is usually where indie developers come in.

 Moon Sprout games was a collection of developers who met online. They formed their company around their love for Paper Mario and wanted a game that played like the first 2 in the series. After a Kickstarter campaign and a few years later, Bug Fables released to high praise. Paper Mario fans were enjoying a game that was finally in the same vein as the games they had played almost 20 years before. The game is an RPG with an interesting battle system, colorful environments and NPCs, and a decent story. You play as a trio of heroes: Kabbu, Vi, and Leif who are trying to prove themselves in the Explorer's Guild of the Ant Kingdom. Each member has their own unique personality, strengths, flaws, and their own unique moveset that can help out in different areas in combat and in the field. As the story progresses, you learn each member of the team has their own personal problems and even get to help each one sort them out by the end. Much similar to Paper Mario, the game features Badges which allow you to bestow different abilities to your party, but only to a certain extent. You can use them to build your team in order to approach battles in multiple different ways. I found this game very engaging through the whole way. The battle system always had me thinking, the story had me always wanting to progress, and there's a fun minigame/ side quest that I won't spoil that I can literally play for hours. I was also a fan of the music. I wouldn't say the writing in this game is a masterpiece, but I found it engaging enough. As for the art, I like it overall, but it does look a big jagged or too loose at times. It sometimes makes me want to import it to my drawing program so I can smooth it out.

 I see a lot of criticism of this game that I can understand and also can't. I've seen some people say that this game is too much like Paper Mario and doesn't have its own identity. I think it's valid to say that, but at the same time, there hasn't been a Paper Mario game in this style in almost 20 years; I think it's fair to throw a bone to a niche market like this, especially since more Paper Mario-inspired games that have more of their own identities are still in the works. Of course there are emulators, but Nintendo really, really hasn't made the first 2 games very accessible, especially TTYD. In summary though, I think this game is a very nice return-to-form that people have been waiting for.

 I feel when there's discussion on licensed games, the usual results are either "surprisingly great" or "absolute garbage." A Bug's Life is a movie-tie in game that hangs in the middle of the spectrum, sitting at a comfortable "it's okay." It's a 3D platformer with slight puzzle elements with a few optional collectibles to find. There are a few elements that make it a unique experience, though not one that will stick with you. The story follows the same structure as the movie and even fills in some small gaps that would otherwise be skipped with montages or transitions which I think is a good summation of what this game accomplishes: Flik doing mundane busywork.

 In the game, you play as Flik. He controls adequately enough. He attacks his enemies by ground pounding or throwing an infinite supply of berries at them. He also talks literally every 10 seconds and repeats many lines over and over. However, the most interesting ability that Flik possesses is the ability to manipulate seeds. By far the most engaging part of the game is the ability to perform different actions based on what sort of seed types you've collected. Each level has seeds sitting in certain spots. By jumping on a seed, you can plant and grow something, like a mushroom to bounce over a gap or a berry that spews health-pickups. You can pick up and throw away whatever you grow to get the seed back and plant something new. You can find Seed Tokens(?) to upgrade each plant type. Instead of growing a mushroom, you can upgrade to a helicopter plant that launches you much higher, and if need be, you have the ability to go back to the mushroom. Combine this with the very simple ability to lift and relocate most seeds to nearly anywhere and you now have a 3D platformer with a bit of light puzzle solving. You can mix and match different seeds, like using a dandelion with a helicopter seed to make Flik fly to far away platforms. It's not really brain-busting at all, but it's still fun and I could see an indie game being heavily inspired by this mechanic.

 Otherwise, all you'll be doing in this game is running to the end. There are 3 medals you can get, but they're all optional. One medal is for collecting all 50 grains in a level. Another medal is for collecting the letters F, L, I, and K, which is the only way to get an extra life. The third medal is for defeating every enemy in the level. Enemies respawn unless they're killed by a golden berry or by Flik's harvester which is found in specific spots. Collecting all 3 medals in a level rewards you with a 10-ish second clip of the movie, if you're into that. There are also some bonus levels that you will probably never find without looking it up; either way, they feel like beta test levels.

 In terms of the negatives, there's nothing too egregious really, mainly just standard gripes. The framerate dips quite dramatically if there are a lot of things on the screen, especially particles. A lot of the levels are designed like mazes and I'm not sure if this was intentional or not. Bosses are complete pushovers. There are 1 or 2 levels where when you beat enemies, they drop grains which disappear after 5 seconds, which means you have to restart the level if you're going for 100%. The saving/loading system feels archaic even for 1998 and it is extremely easy to accidentally load your save instead of overwriting it. It's also one of those old games where it's possible to save your progress with 0 lives, which can make it difficult to get anything done if you keep dying and getting thrown back to the main menu with 0 lives again.

 That's pretty much all there is to say about the game. It has nice music, some of the environments are pretty, and the gameplay is a notch above "Boring." When all is said and done, it's an okay, inoffensive experience. If you're not going for 100%, you can beat this game in maybe 2 to 3 hours at a casual pace. 100% maybe extends it to like 6 or 7 at a casual pace; easily beatable in an afternoon. If you're a massive 3D platformer fan and you're looking for something - anything to play, maybe give it a shot. Best case scenario, you'll have a fun time. Worst case scenario, you'll be mildly annoyed. This is a game that I played as a kid and as an adult, and my opinion has pretty much stayed the same over the past 20-ish years.

 Chibi-Robo is a series where you play as the titular 10 centimeter tall robot. As Chibi-Robo in the first game, it is your duty to go around tidying up houses, helping people solve problems, and spreading happiness. You can pick up and throw away trash, you can scrub floors, you can turn your arm into a cannon, you can glide with little propellers, and even more. Every time you clean something up, you get a little bit of money and you make the family a bit happier. Being a robot, you sometimes run low on battery and have to find the nearest outlet before you collapse. With that in mind, it's best to plan out your day sometimes. When it comes to problem solving, not only are you helping out a small family of people, but you can also help out some living toys littered throughout the house. The first game in the series was charming little experience that had a lot of surprising, yet emotional topics, such as financial struggles, grief, dysfunctional families, divorce, and then some. Despite this, it's a genuinely nice story that leaves you feeling great when all is said and done.

 Now this is a series that can never seem to catch a break. People loved the first game quite a bit, though it didn't sell very well. Over the years, Nintendo ordered more of these sequels, each of them usually having some sort of catch that didn't really help sales. The first sequel, Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol on the DS was a little too different from the first game. People thought it was okay, but the real kicker was the fact that it was a Walmart exclusive game in the US. Nintendo later made a small handful of games that were ported from the GameCube to the Wii. Chibi-Robo was one of these game, but out of the bunch, it was the only one that wasn't released in the US. The next sequel was Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji! for the DS, which Nintendo had no interest releasing in the US for some reason. This game goes back to the roots of the first one, being exactly like it while introducing loads of new and interesting things. Afterward, Nintendo made a tech demo for the 3DS showing off its camera, using Chibi-Robo in a little game called Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder. It wasn't bad, but there just wasn't much to it. Next, Nintendo ordered a sequel on the 3DS called Chibi-Robo: Zip-Lash, a painfully generic 3D platformer that is by far the least interesting entry in the series. Since then, Nintendo has put Chibi-Robo on the back burner, saying that if people didn't enjoy Zip Lash, then they didn't have much reason to continuing the series. At this point, it seemed like Chibi-Robo was in limbo... until somewhat recently.

 Going back to the Japanese DS exclusive Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, this game actually received an English fan translation not too long ago. The English title is dubbed Chibi-Robo: Clean Sweep. Clean Sweep is the sequel that fans in the US have been waiting for. It plays exactly like the first game: a 3D platformer where you go around cleaning up a dirty house and making a small family happy. It's a nice little game that feels surprisingly large for a DS game. Though I think most people would prefer the first game, I find this one more interesting. There are so many new and engaging ideas they bring to the table in this one. The developers did a great job building upon Chibi's existing moves as well as adding new ones, mainly those based around his plug. You can vaccuum up dust and ghosts, you can sift dust for golden nuggets, you can toss your plug into enemies or grapple to far away outlets, or you can make your assistant Telly fly up to higher ground while holding your plug so you can climb up the cable. On top of the old mechanic of recharging at an outlet before you collapse, you also have to pay attention to how much electricity you're using. The family in this game is so poor that they can't afford electricity, but they have a fancy system where they can turn trash into electricity. This gives picking up trash a whole new purpose, which didn't do too much in the original aside from earn you some points for upgrades. Once you get far enough into the game, there's a cool little mechanic where you can do over-the-phone shopping to buy nice things for the family or buy a new tool to making cleaning easier. It's always exciting whenever you order gets delivered and you get to see what each new thing looks like. In addition to helping the family, there are more living toys for you to help out, many of them being pretty funny and unique. Each of them has their own character arc, some of which intertwine with each other. There's also a hidden casino where you can gamble your money and play Black Jack with ghosts. I won't spoil the ending of this game, but the story gets extremely bizarre but in a very fun way. It's a shame the US didn't receive this when it first came out, but I'm thankful I'm able to experience it with the help of translations.

 Conker’s Bad Fur Day is difficult for me to talk about, only having played it for the very first time 22 years after its initial release. There’s a number of reasons for this. First off, I feel that most people who really, really love this game met one of the following two criteria: they first played it in the 2000’s and/or they were around 13 years old when they did. I don’t mean this as an insult. I, myself found out about it online when I was probably around 13 years old and thought it was very funny at the time. It’s a game that I’ve seen multiple playthroughs of over the years. Over time though, with every playthrough that I watched, I had this ever-growing feeling. No matter how happy the person who played it was, no matter how much they loved the game, I kept having the same thought: this game does not look very fun to play. Even as a platformer fan, I sort of held off on playing this game simply because I didn’t think I would enjoy it very much. However, seeing as I’m playing through Rare’s library with games like Banjo and Yooka, I figure I should probably give this game a shot since it’s also considered a classic. Overall, I’m a little disappointed with it.

 Conker is a game that to me, seems to rely heavily on its writing and scenarios rather than the actual gameplay itself. The gameplay is really nothing special. The controls aren’t awful, the whole “Context-Sensitive” system is silly and fun, but I never really found any of it to be satisfying. Most, if not all of the game consists of “Walk to this area. Complete this task 3-5 times. Go to the next area. Complete this similar task 3-5 times. Go to the next area. Complete this similar task 3-5 times.” Before you know it, you’re at the end of the game. If you die while performing one of these tasks, your progress on it gets reset. It can get a bit frustrating at times, especially when Conker takes fall damage if he falls from 3 feet and explodes into a bloody pulp if he falls from 6 feet. The Context-Sensitive pads are a refreshing little break from the other tasks, but they don’t really get too crazy with them. I try to consider if part of the reason I didn’t enjoy it was my own fault, seeing that I’ve watched so many people play this game that I knew exactly what to do at most times. I wonder If I would’ve had more fun going in completely blind. Regardless, the objectives and gameplay almost feel like an afterthought.

 As for the writing, it’s the hardest part for me to find appreciation for. I’ve seen the blanket term “offensive humor” thrown around to describe it, but I wouldn’t say that’s the appropriate word. It’s more along the lines of “juvenile” and “vulgar.” Blood, poop, beer, sex, movie references, and swears are the only punchlines. Humor is subjective of course, but for me personally, it’s all stuff that I joked about when I was 13. I don’t really find this sort of humor funny anymore, or at least this much of it crammed into 1 game. Especially since I’ve grown desensitized to it with the rise of the Internet; you can go on Newgrounds right now and find something on the front page that will have the same amount of wit as Conker’s writing. It’s just not for me. I won’t lie though, there were a few parts that made me smile or chuckle. Ultimately though, considering that the gameplay clearly isn’t the main attraction, once you remove the crutch of the humor, this game has nothing to stand on. And if you feel the same way, that this sort of humor isn't for you, then I assure you that you will get nothing out of playing Conker’s Bad Fur Day. You’ll probably have more fun watching someone else play it.

 In terms of the positives, I don’t have too much much to say. I think it’s pretty neat that this was one of the few N64 games with full voice acting. I like the variety and designs of the environments. The music is memorable and catchy. I think a lot of the character designs are well-done and exude the classic Rare cartoon style. I cant help but wonder how this game would’ve turned out if they just went with the initial idea before they got worried that it was too similar to Banjo. Nevertheless, despite how little enjoyment I got out of it, I have a bit of respect for it and its spot in Video Game History.

 Crash Bash is a very interesting game to say the least. Much like how I can only assume Crash Team Racing was Sony’s answer to Mario Kart, I assume Crash Bash was Sony’s answer to Mario Party. Only this time, Crash Bash takes the approach of ditching the party boards altogether and instead offers a marathon of minigames and even provides a co-op story mode to tie them together. On paper, this sounds… okay I suppose. In practice, I feel the execution could have been much, much better. Many other IPs at the time tried to get a piece of that Mario Party Pie and quite frankly, I can’t really recall any that stood out for good reasons. Crash Bash, at least in my eyes, falls victim to this.

 Crash Bash is a game that consists of a few minigame types: Battle Arenas, 4-Way Pong, Pogo Rallies, Racing, Polar Bear Battles, Tank Shootouts, and Medieval Games. With the exception of Medieval Games, each minigame type has 4 iterations, with the first one being the most basic while the next 3 introduce new mechanics or hazards to add a bit of variety. 4-Way Pong for example, features 4 players in hover cars, each one protecting their own goal. Each player has a shield burst that deflects balls away from their goal if their car is just barely too far away to deflect them like a paddle. In the iteration “Beach Ball,” the players have these abilities plus the ability to magnetize balls to the front of their car and shoot them at high speeds to the player parallel to them. Most of these minigames have some sort of core mechanics which then are expanded when a new mechanic is added.

 Now, you can play all of these minigames in versus mode to your heart’s content. The problem is that since there are so few minigame types, it doesn’t take much time until you feel like you’ve been playing the same minigames over and over, despite the new mechanics introduced in each iteration. You probably won’t want to play them for very long, so it feels like you aren’t getting much out of the game. To feel like you are getting your money’s worth, you’ll want to switch your attention over to the story mode, as they offer a few more options for ways of playing these minigames. But beware: you are about to enter an All-You-Can-Eat buffet consisting of 7 unremarkable foods.

 In the story mode, there are 5 floors, with each floor having roughly 5 minigames and a boss stage. You can tackle the minigames in any order, but you must complete them all to access the boss and finally move onto the next floor. These bosses require a certain amount of collectibles to unlock. The primary collectible is Trophies, all of which are required to progress. To win a Trophy, you must win a minigame 3 times, which already doesn’t sound too great. This means if the CPU wins 2 times, you have to play the same minigame up to 5 times in a row before getting a Trophy, and that’s on the assumption that you won. If the CPUs win 3 times, the counters reset to 0 and you must try again to win 3 times. These minigames can take a few minutes, meaning you’re going to be stuck on the same game for quite some time if you’re losing. However, this is just for the Trophy; you’re going to have to play that minigame a few more times for the other collectibles. The Gem is the next collectible, in which you must win the minigame with some sort of restriction. Whether it’s a strict time limit, starting with half your HP, or starting from a higher point “debt” than your opponent where you have to gain points to work off, you thankfully only have to win these once. However, these restrictions can be brutal sometimes and you’ll find yourself retrying over and over. But you’re not done yet because you also need to amass a collection of Crystals, the third collectible. Crystals introduce some sort of twist or hazard that only affects \you\ and not your enemies. These tend to be a bit easier, but some of them can be mind-numbingly difficult. With all of these collectibles, you will be able to make your way to the final boss. Hold your horses though, because to unlock every minigame Crash Bash has to offer, you have to collect Gold Relics. Gold Relics are earned by winning against each minigame’s champions (basically, aggressive AI) two times \in a row.\ After that, you unlock the opportunity to collect the Platinum Relics, in which you need to win against even more aggressive AI \three times in a row\. As far as I remember, you do not need Relics to reach the final boss. However, that means in order to fully clear a minigame in Crash Bash’s story mode, you need to play it 10 times at \minimum\. Essentially, you have to play the same core minigame 40 times. You cannot do this all at once though, as Gems and Crystals become available after you get the Trophy and Relics become available after you beat the final boss. Bear in mind, this is all in a game where the CPUs’ skills can range anywhere from extremely stupid to “Seemingly Calculates Your Every Move” on a moment’s notice. The only saving grace in this campaign are the boss fights, which still use core minigame mechanics, but change it up enough to where it actually feels very different.

 None of this even begins to account for the fact that not all the characters are created equal. There are a total of 8 characters to choose from, with every 2 characters being “pairs” that control similarly and have similar stats. There are the Bandicoots: Crash and Coco, the Scientists: Cortex and Brio, the Mutants: Dingodile and Rilla Roo, and the… Jocks(?): Tiny Tiger and Koala Kong. Arguably, the Mutants are the worst, as they’re capable of attacking in rapid succession (see: 2 times), but their attack power tends to be low and their range is is pretty bad. The Bandicoots are well-rounded, but compared to the next 2 classes, are clearly not the best choice. The Scientists have attacks that move very quickly, have a long range, and do a moderate amount of damage. Objectively, the best class is the Jocks, with very powerful attacks that move at a moderate pace. If you’re playing story mode, the 2 obviously correct choices are Tiny and Koala Kong, especially as this ensures you will never have to fight against them. Adding depth to the character selection like this is a cool idea, but it only works if your characters are truly balanced.

 At the end of it all, I think the younger you are, the more you’ll enjoy Crash Bash, especially if you have friends or family to play it with. Once you get older, you’ll start to see the cracks in its design and begin to realize why Mario Party tends to work better. I almost feel bad making so many comparisons to Mario Party, because while I do feel like they were very much copying Nintendo’s homework, I appreciate that they tried to put their own spin on it. In a way, these games feel like entirely different beasts. However, the design choices Crash Bash went along with may have ended up doing more harm than good.

 Mario Party has a wide selection of varied minigames that you only have to complete once, so it takes a \long\ time to get burnt out on them. There are also different minigame structures, such as 2v2, 1v1, 1v3, or even solo minigames. Because of the absence of boards and stars, there are hardly any stakes. You aren’t going to be forming alliances or picking targets within the interest of winning it all because Crash Bash has no overarching winner. In fact, the only stake Crash Bash has going for it is the fact that it’s a gigantic time sink. When you lose, you don’t lose any of your collectibles, you lose your time and after a while, it becomes a slog – a chore in which you have to clean out each minigame of its collectibles. Do it right and win or do it wrong and do it again. Rinse and repeat. Mario Party also has a very clearly defined end: just play 10-ish turns and it’s over, making it very easy to jump in and jump out at a gathering. Crash Bash goes until you beat the final boss, until you collect everything there is to collect, or until you just can’t stomach it anymore. You absolutely do not want to do Crash Bash in one sitting, which makes it amazing to me that people are willing to speedrun this game. While I still do like Crash Bash a little bit, if you put a gun to my head and told me to get a world record speedrun in this game, I would just tell you to pull the trigger.

 I may be biased on this one, but... this is my favorite game ever. This was the first kart racing game I ever played and I love everything about it. A lot of reviews back in 1999 simply brushed it off as a Mario Kart clone. It may have been Sony's answer to Mario Kart, but it's very apparent Naughty Dog tried to bring their own ideas to the table when developing it. If anything, I would say this game might be closer to Diddy Kong Racing than it is Mario Kart. It comes with a Story Mode where you race against bosses or do other special races like Time Trials or CTR Token Challenges. I've played this game countless times through the years and it's great every time. Crash Bandicoot was fairly new at the time and was one of my favorite mascots. As cool as Crash and Coco are, it was cool that you were able to finally play as different characters.

 The controls in this game are super tight and the karts feel great to drive around in. Not to diss Mario Kart 64, but keep in mind... Mario Kart 64 is Mario Kart 2, and the first one in 3D at that. MK64's controls felt really slippery; I had to play as Bowser or Wario to feel some sort of control, but even then, it feels as though I'm constantly driving on ice. On another note, in order to distance itself from Mario Kart, CTR introduces a new drifting system: the power slide. You hold the drift button (R1) and at certain intervals, you press the opposite shoulder button (L1) to do a boost. You can do 3 of these in succession before you have to start another drift. While you can chain these boosts and keep a constant, good speed going, they're a little bit on the weak side. However, the fun starts when you get to a boost pad. Boost pads give you a bigger boost than a drift boost. But if you go over a boost pad, then continue to drift ahd chain boosts, you can essentially hold the same speed you got from the boost pad for the entire track, as long as you keep boosting and don't hit any walls or hazards. This changes the whole game and makes it more about skill than RNG. Less skilled players may have a tough time with this game, but people who learn the ropes will have a great time.

  There's an interesting weapon system, but honestly, the weapons are somewhat usless. If you manage to collect 10 Wumpa Fruits on a track, you'll not only go faster, but your weapons will get better. However, even the upgraded versions don't do too much damage. There are blue shell equivalents, the Warp Orbs, but only players can get these. You won't see them in Story Mode unless you get them. There are red shell equivalents, the missiles, but they don't travel the length of the course. There's a lightning equivalent, the Broken Clock, but once again, only players can get it. The other weapons are fairly original, but don't do much to stop racers in front of you. This is another aspect that makes it more skill based than RNG based; if you manage to break away from the main pack, there's very little chance they'll catch up to you. There's also a battle mode that makes use of these weapons in a better way, but I honestly don't care for it that much.

 Overall, this is a very fun kart racer and I honestly like it better than Mario Kart. It has a much higher skill ceiling which leads to more exciting races, it has more things to do in general, and it has a nice little roster of characters with more to unlock. Just a downright fun experience and one of the best experiences the PS1 has to offer.

 There's also a small team on YouTube who are working on cracking this game open so they can mod it from the inside. I'm super excited to see the results of that and to see expansion packs for this game in the future.

  The original CTR is one of my favorite games of all time. I was super hyped (yet somewhat cautious) to learn that it was going to be remade with the addition of the CNK tracks and characters, new tracks and characters, and online multiplayer. For the most part, Beenox did a fantastic job making this game and keeping it faithful to the original and adding improvements across the board.

 I always praised the original for having tight controls and the developers somehow found a way to improve upon them and make the original’s controls feel outdated. The visuals of the karts’ exhaust give you a better indication of how fast you’re going and how well you’re chaining drift boosts. Almost every Crash Bandicoot character ever made is playable (supposedly there were going to be even more before Covid threw the development time off). The amount of tracks will keep you busy for quite a long time. Any kart parts you pick are purely cosmetic and you can swap engines, meaning all of your favorite characters are competitively viable. There are multiple levels of time trial ghosts for you to beat and train with. You can play the story mode with any character and swap out at any time. There’s a new Ring Rally Mode that’ll add additional hours of fun to your experience. There were Grand Prix Cups with daily challenges that were fun to just check out everyday. Suffice to say, the improvements and additions to this game will you keep you playing much longer than the original. However, you’re going to be playing longer for a number of negative reasons, as well.

 The loading times on this game are absolutely abysmal. It can take around 30 to 45 seconds to load a track and maybe about 15 to 20 seconds to go back to the menus. This might not sound too bad but keep in mind, this is a racing game. There are some races that are going to take like 1 minute and 30 seconds. You’re going to be loading for about one third of that. If I remember correctly, someone actually measured play time vs loading time and if they’re correct, you are going to be spending quite literally 30% of your time with this game loading assets. I’ve clocked in 220 hours on this game. That means I’ve spent roughly 66 hours just sitting there, loading. That’s insane.

 Additionally, this game has a Fortnite-esque shop along with a virtual currency, Wumpa Coins. Depending on the track you play, you get a set number of Wumpa Coins, with longer tracks giving you more and shorter tracks giving you less. On weekends, you get double the coins. If you play online, you get 1 hour a day of 5 times the amount of coins. If you play online on the weekend, you can stack both multipliers for 7 times the amount of Wumpa Coins. You can also play daily and monthly challenges to get more coins. You also must be connected to the internet at all times to collect any at all.

 I do not like this system.

 The items in the shop are expensive. It’s going to take you several, several hours of playing to unlock everything you even want, let alone getting everything. While they Grand Prix Cups were the equivalent of Fortnite “Seasons,” they didn’t go for the “Fear of Missing Out” route, as all of the items you got from doing challenges in the Grand Prix are available in the shop. Either way though, it’s just a gigantic time sink designed to make you buy Wumpa Coins via microtransactions. When this game released, there were no microtransactions. People kept asking Activision up and down “will there be microtransctions?” to which they’d respond “no, there will not be microtransactions.”

 After the game released and all the major reviewers scored the game, they immediately put in microtransactions.

Thankfully as I’ve said, everything in the shop is purely cosmetic. Still, that doesn’t forgive these lousy, predatory additions to the game. I’d much prefer to be unlocking things just by completing time trials, CTR challenges, Relic Races, Ring Rallies, and even daily challenges, but I suppose that wouldn’t be as profitable. That’s just the Activision way.

 As for the online, it works well enough. There is one caveat though: trying to race with your friends is a fucking nightmare. I don’t know how it is on other consoles, but playing with friends on the Switch version just doesn’t work. Your friends will be online and waiting for an invite and the game will say they’re either offline or just “not joinable.” Don’t even bother trying. Just give up and pretend it’s not even a feature in the game.

 Like the original game, if you’re new to CTR and are just coming from Mario Kart, you’ll probably struggle with this game. The weapons don’t work like how they do in Mario Kart and they will not save you if you are losing. Instead, you need to drift boost as much as possible. The tracks are wide enough for the most part and are fully designed for you to be drifting and snaking as much as possible. If you’re in first, you don’t have to constantly worry about getting pelted with items from all directions. As a result, this makes it more based around skill than RNG. I kind of like it this way, personally; it makes for a different experience than Mario Kart. This becomes a major issue online though, because players are not separated by skill level like Mario Kart. If you’re a new player, chances are there’s going to be a veteran in your race who’s going to break away in the first 15 seconds and be a lap ahead of everyone by the time the race is over.

 I suppose maybe it’s unfair to give this game a 9/10. Especially with all the complaining I just did. My issue is that, if you look at just the game itself, it’s almost flawless. Unfortunately, it falls victim to a (to say the least) greedy corporation gluing crappy, predatory, mundane, anti-consumer businesses practices onto an otherwise great game. As much as I like this game, I think my time with it might be over. I’m tired of waiting for the game to load, I’m tired of grinding coins for dumb little decals of Crash’s face, I’m tired of not being able to play with friends online, and I’m tired of Activision. With people cracking open and beginning to mod the original CTR, it’s possible the original might catch up with the amount of features this remake has.

 I'm a pretty big fan of roguelikes, but I've been overdue for one that really grabs me. I've seen Cult of the Lamb here and there, but wasn't really interested at first. When the release date came closer and demos started dropping, I became pretty excited for it. Once it came out, I had a hard time putting it down.

 Cult of the Lamb is a roguelite game where half of the game is a community management simulator. You play as a lamb who was saved by some demonic entity named "The One Who Waits" who only agrees to spare you if you start a cult in his name. He then gives you his crown which transfers his abilities to you. From there, you go out into the wilderness to gather resources and followers for your cult, as well as to slay the bishops who tried to sacrifice you in order to banish The One Who Waits forever. When you aren't in the woods hacking and slashing, you're at your base kinda playing baby sitter for your cult followers.

 When you're at your base, you have to cook and clean for your cult members. The more you take care of them, the more faith they'll have in your cult, and the more you'll be able to upgrade your abilities and resources. They'll also perform tasks for you so that you don't have to, such as collecting resources, building monuments, and harvesting vegetables to eat. If you neglect them, they'll begin to dissent and start spreading propaganda against your cult. Eventually, dissenters leave the cult if you don't calm them down, sometimes bringing some of the other members along with them. It's within your best interest to treat them nicely for the above perks, but also because they don't last very long. They age pretty quickly and last around 10 to 30 in-game days (around 10 minutes per day). With that in mind, the game gives you several choices in terms of how you want to personally run your cult. Do you want to lead your cult through intimidation or kindness? Each option has its own ups and downs and you can't go back once you pick one, so you have to weigh your decisions carefully. For example, when a follower dies of old age, do you want your cult to lay them to rest forever -- gaining a lot of faith but never seeing that follower again -- or do you ressurect them, which lowers faith a little bit but your follower keeps their experience and abilities and grows even stronger as time goes on? Will you occasionally force your followers to work through the night to gather resources and make them upset, or will you give them a day off where all they do is sleep while you work? It's an interesting system, but I feel some choices are no-brainers over others.

 In terms of the roguelite aspect, I sort of wish it had more depth. You go through each area of wilderness in order to find each bishop's hideout. After 4 successful runs, you'll unlock the bishop's temple where you'll be able to fight them. The combat feels pretty good overall, but the 2D models in a 3D environment kind of lead to some awkward moments. A lot of the time, it will seem like your hit should connect but it doesn't. Or sometimes, there are bosses with bullet hell patterns, but it seems like your character's hitbox really wasn't designed with bullet hells in mind. Otherwise, the combat is quick and snappy, and super responsive. I also like some of the random events, such as the tarot cards you'll find which give you buffs for the duration of the run. Sometimes you can fight swarms of enemies for a follower or shop for food at a market, or even more. You also start each run with a random weapon, each with it's own ups and downs as well. I love doing heavy damage, so I love getting the hammers which take forever to wind up, but do massive damage when they connect. Ultimately though, the game is pretty short, with there only being about 5 major bosses.

 As good as this game is, it's pretty short. I'm alright with it, considering they're adding more content down the road. However, this game probably should've been released later on. There were a ton of annoying bugs in this game at launch, quite a few of them being game-breaking. Some of your followers would disappear permanently, sometimes rooms won't open after a fight meaning you have to throw away a perfectly good run, or sometimes your character would get poisoned until they die when they should only take around 2-3 half-hearts of damage. This game definitely needed more time in the oven, but overall, I'm pretty excited to see more.

 Disney Speedstorm is an above average kart racing game bogged down by the slimy, sleazy nature of live-service games. Despite my extreme disdain for Disney as a company, this is a game that could’ve easily been a notch below Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing if it were a full retail release. In classic Disney fashion, they instead decided to go with the option that would probably make them the most money. Forget the racetracks, you’re going to need a map to navigate just the horrendous menus alone. Be prepared to enter Microtransaction Hell as you wade through page after page densely packed with numbers, icons, progress bars, descriptions, alerts, lootcrates, currencies, timed rewards, timed sales, season passes, skins, challenges, character classes, arbitrary items, and so much more that it’ll make your head spin.

 For actual game itself, it’s a fairly competent kart racer. The game is fairly optimized to work and run well on any console of your choosing. The environments and characters look pretty nice. The controls take a bit to get used to but are otherwise slick and responsive. There’s a decently-sized character roster with more to come. There are side characters (crew members) you can link to your racers to boost their stats like Smash Ultimate spirits. There are only a handful of maps, but they’re designed with tons of alternate paths and so they can be raced in either direction, meaning you can get a lot of different tracks per map. The weapons are fairly standard, but each one has an alternate function depending on if you hold the attack button. Similar to Mario Kart Double Dash, each character gets their own special weapon. The music is pretty decent and includes remixes of popular Disney songs. The starting boost countdown is one of the most intuitive ones I’ve seen in a kart racer. They let you pick any character, unlocked or not, when playing multiplayer. Like I said, it’s fairly well-rounded kart racer that I would reluctantly add to my physical collection if it were a traditional retail release. Would I pay 60 bucks? Maybe, probably not. But the fact Disney Speedstorm is free is where they try to get you.

 Every action performed in this game is deliberately designed to be a slog. Despite the large cast of racers, you start out with Mickey. As you complete the tutorial, you unlock Donald, Goofy, and Mulan. From there? You’re on your own. You have to grind daily challenges, seasonal event challenges, or just pay money to unlock characters, kart parts, crew members, and more. In order to keep up with the seasonal event, you have to upgrade your characters. It’s easy at first, but the further you delve into it, the harder the CPUs get. It becomes a struggle to keep your head above the water. At this point, upgrading becomes a chore. You need 10 character shards to unlock a character, then 20 additional shards to level them up beyond level 15. Considering that shards are practically drip-fed to you, it stops being fun pretty quickly. That’s not even including the dumb random items you need to grind to even have the option of upgrading. From here, Disney hopes you’ll open your wallet because why not! – you haven’t paid for the game so far!

 In terms of minor problems, I had a few. One is that there aren’t really any traditional single player options you’d find in a kart racer: no Grand Prix or story mode, no time trials, and any sort of option for “Quick Race” is buried away under the Multiplayer menu. Time trials are technically in, but it feels like an absolute gamble because you’re racing against CPUs who are throwing weapons at you the whole time??? Also, as generally cool as the tracks are, there are only a handful of them. Despite the many layouts, you start seeing a lot of the same set pieces over and over and kind of wish you could see some new ones.

 It’s somewhat saddening to see a pretty decent game with a humongous leech attached to it, though Disney doesn’t surprise me with this kind of stuff anymore. There are some minor elements here I’d like to see adopted into other kart racers; like designing tracks so they can be played backwards is awesome. I’ve seen it in Mario Kart custom tracks and think it would be a cool idea to shake up future entries a bit. I’m also a fan of daily challenges as long as they aren’t intrusive and imperative to progression; it’s just nice to have a direction to go in sometimes. If you’re a die-hard karting fan, you might get enjoyment out of this; just be prepared to hit a progression wall at any moment.

 I have a confession: I really like the live action Cat in the Hat movie. It's weird, it's surreal, it's creepy, and it's everything a Dr. Seuss movie shouldn't be. That's exactly why I like it. I don't know who this movie was for, but it barely seems "corporate friendly" to me. Dr. Seuss adaptations probably work best in animation, but they always tend to be "modernized" and "pop-culture-y" in order to stretch it to feature length. In fact, this was the movie that supposedly caused that change: so many people found it repulsive they decided to go with the animation route. As for the game, I'm pretty sure my sister got it for her birthday and she didn't care for it at all. I had vague memories of playing this in 2003 and thinking the first third of the game was cool and the rest felt like torture. It didn't last long in our library until we sold it. Around 15 years later, I decided to pick it up on Amazon and give it another try, especially since it was 2 dollars.

 I now understand why it was 2 dollars.

 The game adaptation of the movie is a 2.5D platformer. Similar to games like Klonoa, Tomba, Kirby 64 and a bunch of other classics, you go through environments that can curl into the backgrounds sometimes. You play as the Cat in the Hat as he goes through warped versions of the house from the movie. My memory was fairly accurate, the first third of this game is pretty cool. The worlds are pretty creative, they often switch up the hazards and enemies, and the controls are pretty good. But once you get to the second third of the game, it quickly becomes apparent that's where the ideas run out. The game starts repeating itself pretty early and starts spamming the same hazards over and over. Most of the hazards just devolve into "wait for the hazard to turn off." It's more of a test of patience than it is skill. Some of the modes of transportation or switches just devolve into "wait for this mini-cutscene to end." It rarely throws anything new at you beyond that point. On top of that, the levels get longer and the collectibles become harder to find. The more you progress, the more collectibles you need to open new levels, so you have to slog through a level you already played until you find what you need. Additionally, each level has 4 keys to find, which opens a bonus challenge. These challenges are usually difficult and have a very, very long intro cutscene highlighting the task in front of you. You can't skip these cutscenes. Even if you die, you have to watch the cutscene over. On top of that, every few levels, you get a boss, which is just an iteration of the previous boss you fought: the evil neighbor Quinn from the movie in some giant robot. Every time you beat him, he just adds a new phase the next time you fight him. Everything about this game is so repetitive, that once again, my memory from my childhood was correct: this game almost feels like torture sometimes. I really can't recommend it to anyone. The movie on the other hand, I'd say give it a try, but don't watch it thinking it'll be "good."

 I will say, this game actually has a pretty nice soundtrack though.

 The mid-90's really saw a huge leap in technological advances in video games. Going from 2D to 3D was massive, both in significance and as an obstacle. In the end, we got games like Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros., Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, and so many more unforgettable experiences that would revolutionize the entire video game industry and inspire people to develop games themselves.

And then you had things like Eggs of Steel.

 In Eggs of Steel you play as Charlie, a moronic anthropomorpic egg who accidentally spills coffee on the main control system of the steel mill he works in. This causes all the machines in the mill to go crazy and cause havoc. Charlie has to scramble (no pun intended) to reach the emergency shut off switch, but only if he punches all the time clocks for some reason. Along the way, some ghost egg man who despises Charlie for spoilery reasons tries to stop him with robots and other contraptions.

 Eggs of Steel is a game that seems like it was behind the curve of 1998. The controls in this game feel absolutely horrible. Have you ever played an NES game where the character moves so stiffly that you can just feel their weight through the controller? Like you feel the need to hold down the D-Pad has hard as possible to maybe, just maybe, make the character move faster? This game is that, but in 3D form. Along with that, the jump is so pitiful and gives so little momentum that it always feels like you aren't going to clear the smallest, easiest gaps. Combine those two awful elements and you're gonna be dying constantly to the dumbest hazards. Furthermore, the camera is static and it only changes once you walk off the screen. The change is so sudden and the next screen is often so packed with garbage that it's nearly impossible to see where Charlie is when you first enter. They even have a flashing arrow to signal where you are on screen, but there's so much going on that the arrow itself just adds to the clutter. Also, you aren't always going the same direction which you came from; if you exit the screen on the left, it might put you on a perspective where you're supposed to be walking up, causing you to walk in a different direction that might end up killing you. Then there's the inconsistencies of the platforming. Sometimes you can walk straight onto platforms, sometimes you have to jump directly onto them. Sometimes the sense of depth is so awful that you're gonna be wasting lives jumping to platforms you can't actually reach. Sometimes there are platforms where you can't fall off despite there being no guard rail. Sometimes you just fall off anyway. With ALL of this in mind, you're going to end up frustrated through the whole thing.

  In terms of the actual gameplay, the game is extremely obtuse in terms of where you're supposed to go next or what you're supposed to do. I feel like MAYBE they were going for a puzzle-platformer angle, but in the end, it just feels like they're explaining game mechanics very poorly. There are paper airplanes in the game that tell you what you have to do when you touch them, but they're never around in places you REALLY need them. You'll spend so much time just looking at everything on the screen going "what...?," trying everything you can possibly think of, and then backtracking until you find one miniscule detail that you were missing. This is especially present with bosses. Some bosses are just "Run up to them and hit them 3 times," leaving you to say "that's it???" Other times it'll take you forever to figure out how you're supposed to beat them, and sometimes it's extremely repetitive. The whole experience is just frustrating. A game that looked and controlled like this would have been amazing in 1990, but it's absolutely nothing special in 1998 compared to everything else at the time.

 At the very least, this game has given us one of the funniest death animations I've ever seen. The one nice thing I can really say about this game is that the cutscenes are well animated. There are lots of 1-off cutscenes, but others repeat several times throughout the game, making the novelty of how goofy they are wear off quickly.

 Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak is the bar that licensed children’s games should aim to clear. It’s nothing too crazy or mind-boggling, but it’s Hamtaro; it doesn’t really have to be. Instead, you’re treated to a nice little Hamtaro-themed romp on your GBA. If you’re a fan of the series or just anything cute in general, it gets the job done pretty nicely and I think you’ll be satisfied throughout. Absolute worst case scenario, you might be the tiniest bit bored or frustrated. Either way, this game seems confident in knowing exactly what it wants to be and manages to maintain a consistent quality throughout.

 In Ham-Ham Heartbreak, you play as Hamtaro and (kind of) Bijou. A devious little hamster named Spat has been traveling throughout the land and causing squabbles between the closest of friends, lovers, siblings, and more; ruining their relationships. An angelic hamster named Harmony calls upon Hamtaro and Bijou to stop Spat and help the feuding pairs make amends. Unfortunately for Hamtaro, he accidentally spills water all over his Ham-Chat dictionary from the previous game, Ham-Hams Unite. As a result, he is no longer hip with the latest Ham-Ham lingo, meaning he has no idea how to communicate certain words or actions to his fellow hamsters.

 The game serves as a simple point-and-click adventure where you have to fetch objects or solve puzzles at the requests of multiple hamster NPCs. The only issue is that without his dictionary, Hamtaro doesn’t know how to speak or interact with the environment or other characters. While most point-and-click games have a small collection of commands such as Examine, Speak, Interact, and so on, Ham-Ham Heartbreak has a massive array of interactions, having about 90 in total. This may sound daunting, but each object or NPC you interact with only contains a small amount of actions to choose from, depending on the context of where they are. If you exhaust all the available actions and don’t quite get anywhere with them, it means you most likely don’t have the one you need yet. Actions can be obtained by completing quests, in which case a hamster will share a Ham-Chat that you’ll be able to utilize later. Throughout the adventure, there are also a few minigames to play and collectibles to find. You can buy little outfit pieces to put on Hamtaro in a photo studio and you can gather gemstones for no particular reason outside of vague education.

 The presentation is where Ham-Ham Heartbreak really shines. It’s one of the nicest looking games on the GBA, as you can tell a lot of care and effort when into the spritework of the characters and environments. Speaking of, Hamtaro and Bijou steal the show with their sprites and animations, especially the Ham-Chat actions. Each one is goofy and super expressive. Even if you have to watch them perform the same action 100 times, the animations never get old. The music is decent for the most part; admittedly the loops are fairly short so some tracks can get a little grating after a while. All your favorite Ham-Hams from the TV show are present and they look great, though they aren’t used too often. The dialog is also very silly, lighthearted, and remains on-par with the show. Once the credits roll and you realize that this adventure is published by Nintendo, it begins to make sense as to why this game has so much charm.

 My only real complaint is that some puzzle solutions can be very obtuse. There may be parts where you’ll want to bust out a guide for the simplest solutions because the answer isn’t as intuitive as it should be. Shoutouts to KirbyRockz and their GameFAQs walkthrough from May 2004. A minor complaint is repetition; like I don’t feel it’s necessary to make Hamtaro sniff for sunflower seeds when they’re sitting right in front of him. There are lots of small things in the game like that.

 At the end of it all, it’s just a fun little adventure that doesn’t demand much from you. As said, if you’re a Hamtaro fan, you’ll probably enjoy it quite a bit. If you aren’t a fan, I think you’ll still have a decent time.

 I've never really cared for Metroidvanias or Souls-likes. Something about both genres seemed somewhat sluggish and genereally trial-and-error, a combination of which sounds exactly like something I don't have patience for. At the time I got it, I was really wanting to play a new game, but nothing was really calling to me. However, I finally decided to give Hollow Knight a try because the gameplay managed to keep my attention... and for the low 15$ price tag. Safe to say, it was a really good decision.

 Hollow Knight takes place in the decaying ruins of a once great kingdom called Hallownest. You play as a mute little bug-knight-thing simply referred to as "The Knight." At first, there is no real objective, it's just to explore and see how far you can get. Later on, strange things start to happen, and it seems like a few characters believe you may play a role in a prophecy where you destroy a lethal plague. As you progress, you gain multiple abilities which help you travel to new places and fight enemies and bosses in new ways. You also start to piece together what happened to this kindgom based on what little info the surviving NPCs give you. A lot of it is implied which is nice; nobody really info-dumps to you and you get to piece everything together yourself. You learn about the fate of Hallownest, its citizens, and its King and Queen. You get all of this, in addition to beautiful hand-drawn graphics and an unforgettable soundtrack. I absolutely adore the character designs in this game, with a lot of strange yet memorable bugs, ghosts, and more. As for the soundtrack, it's a great listen. It can be lively, meloncholy, haunting, dramatic, and so much more. If you listen close enough, you can make out certain themes that connect certain characters and story elements together. This carefully crafted experience is astounding, considering it first started as a small game-jam game.

 Hollow Knight is a game with dark grimey, yet interesting environments where getting lost is super fun. It seems like controls took a priority when making this game because once you get enough practice, the main character moves exactly how you would expect them to. You can swing your sword down to pogo-jump off of enemies or hazards and then perform a dash to cling into a wall and walljump to a new area within a matter of a second or two. In the same vein, the combat is deceivingly simple, with only a handful of moves that are surprisingly versatile. A lot of the abilities are mainly used for travel or interaction with the environment, but can also help out quite a bit in combat. These help immensely against the tough-as-nails Dark Souls-esque bosses. These days, it seems like journalists compare any game with the slightest bit of difficulty to Dark Souls, but make no mistake. This time, they're right. This game is loaded with big bosses, each of which fight in their own unique way. On your first playthrough, you'll most likely get bodied over and over. Thankfully, there are no lives in this game, so you can go right back to the boss and try again. The only trade off is that when you die, you have to fight your own ghost (who's pretty easy to kill) or risk losing all of your money if you die again before managing to kill your ghost. Although, once you learn a boss' moves, it becomes super fun to wail on them until they fall to you.

 There's a ton to do and find, which never leaves me bored. There are a lot of side quests, most of which are super engaging while a few might have you going crazy because of how difficult they are. Throughout the game's Kickstarted life, it received 3 content updates: Lifeblood, Grimm Troupe, and Godmaster. Lifeblood added a few extra bosses while Grimm Troupe added a new major quest with more bosses. Godmaster serves as the "boss rush" mode with even more new bosses to find. There were originally going to be 4 DLCs, but they added so much to it that it eventually became the sequel: Hollow Knight Silksong. With all this content, I almost feel guilty paying 15$ for this game, considering how much enjoyment I got out of it. It feels like an absolute steal and I can't wait for the sequel. This game has easily made it into my top 10 favorites of all time.

 Hypnospace Outlaw is unlike any other game I've seen before. It's a simulator and somewhat of a puzzle game that lets you experience what the Internet was like in the late 1990's. However, this title is also an alternate history game. In this timeline, people used something similar to the internet called "Sleepspace," where you had to use a special headband while you sleep to browse online. The leading company in this field is Merchantsoft, and they just released their newest corner of Sleepspace, Hypnospace, only available on HypnOS.

 In Hypnospace Outlaw, you play as a volunteer moderator, where it's your job to keep the users of each community in line and well-behaved. You have a number of communities to patrol at your own pace. Communities like older people reminiscing about the old days or kids and teens posting about drama or the lastest new video game craze: Squisherz, an alternate history Pokemon. Some people post about conspiracies, some people post about religion, some post about music, and so on. People will make reviews, blogs, or just post about their interests. As a Hypnospace moderator, you aren't allowed to directly talk to them. However, you have to make sure no one is harassing anybody, or using copyrighted content, or check to see if someone is doing something illegal like making malicious software or posting inappropriate images. Once you find someone breaking the rules, you can delete it from Hypnospace and make a little bit of Hypnocoin, the official currency. When you get enough Hypnocoin, you can spend it on little downloadables like stickers to decorate your desktop, mp3s to listen to, or virtual pets. Just be careful you don't download any viruses or click on any sketchy emails...

 No one in this game is real, but the writing in this game is so good that it feels like there's an actual person on the other side of the web pages. Being born in the 90's, I kind of caught the tail end of when the internet was about expressing yourself and started becoming more about advertisement. Each of the pages you encounter on Hypnospace seem so silly yet genuine; it's what inspired me to make this website, honestly. If you report and remove something from their page, they react to it, which plays into the story. For example, your first task as a moderator is to remove gifs of a cartoon goldfish named Gumshoe Gooper from a harmless teacher's webpage. Obviously, Merchantsoft doesn't care about someone posting a cartoon goldfish, but since they don't have the legal licensing for the character, the goldfish has to go. The older teacher doesn't really understand this and starts a rebellion in her community once you remove it, which causes everyone to spam Gumshoe Gooper. There's a lot more storylines in the game like this. It may sound overwhelming, but like I said, the game allows you to tackle everything and take everything in at your own pace. The further you get into the game, the tougher the tasks get. Some people are breaking the rules, but not exactly out in the open. It's up to you to sleuth around and figure out how they were able to snake around getting caught. At the end of the game, something big happens and it's up to you to piece together what took place.

 This game is loads of fun. It's really fun to see how people react to everything you're doing and it's fun to think about how to solve a problem someone is posing on you. Once this game was finished, the developers put out tools you can use to make your own Hypnospace page. Also, there's already a sequel in the works, Dreamsettler, which takes place in the early 2000's. I can't wait to play that one as well.

I stand with Gooper.

 Jumping Flash is apparently the father of 3D platformers when it comes to home video game consoles. With a title like that, you might expect a dated, clunky mess of a game. Surprisingly, this isn’t the case. Jumping Flash nails the genre almost perfectly, which is impressive considering it’s also a first-person 3D platformer. The short levels combined with the simple controls make for an enjoyable experience that will make you want to complete the game in one sitting.

 In Jumping Flash, you play as a big robotic rabbit aptly named Robbit and your objective is to collect 4 carrot-shaped rockets and deliver them to the goal. Robbit can triple jump, with the first jump being fairly small and the last 2 being extremely powerful. He also comes equipped with with laser turrets that you can use to fire at enemies. There are 6 worlds in total, with each world having 3 levels, with the third level being a boss. The nearly non-existent story is about an evil scientist named Baron Aloha picking off large chunks of the planet to use them as his own vacation resorts. Robbit has to travel to each giant robot responsible for taking 3 planetary chunks and take out the boss in charge.

 Jumping Flash is one of those games where the entertainment value comes from its simplicity, almost to a fault. The game gives you 10 minutes per level, but each level is bite-sized and will only take you a few minutes. There’s also a very low difficulty bar; pretty much anyone can pick this game up and beat the main story in maybe 2-3 hours. However, that’s where the fun can come in. The game is so simple and so easy that it doesn’t stay a game about completion for very long; it becomes a game about score and time, in which case the developers put in a Time Attack mode so you can play a level as many times as you want to improve your times.

 Despite it being very simple, there’s a bit more depth to it than what I just explained. For starters, each map is littered with power ups Robbit can use. Some of them include passive abilities, like freezing time, invincibility, extending the time limit, and more. Others include mostly party-themed explosives such as fireworks, Roman candles, ground spinners, and a handful more. You can carry 3 at a time and you can even bring them between levels if you don’t die. You can also obtain them from defeating enemies. Additionally, being a rabbit, Robbit can also jump on enemies. The amount of damage you do on impact depends on how high the arc of your jump is. You can insta-kill most enemies with the height of a triple jump or make a huge dent in a boss’ health bar by doing this. In fact, you can finish the entire game without firing a single shot just by using the jump. There are also lots of flying enemies who hover over bottomless pits, so once you master the controls, you can use them as platforms to areas that might otherwise take you a while to reach. Each world also has 1 hidden bonus level where you have to pop all the balloons in a mini stage within a time limit. Once you learn and understand how all of these mechanics work together, that's when you can start optimizing your times, and to me, that's when the real fun begins.

 The overall presentation is very charming. The in-game models are very low poly but cute with a wide variety of silly creatures to encounter (like the popular green kiwi). The sound design is delightful, with lots of satisfying little blips. bloops, and other sounds as you dart across each stage. While I don’t find the music to be too memorable, the soundtrack is pleasant and fits each area quite nicely. The level design on the other hand is very memorable and offers a lot of variety. Most levels are wide-open, flat planes while others are more linear or maze-like. In terms of controls, they are a bit slow and awkward, but considering how early of a 3D game this is (and the fact that Robbit is kind of a big tank), I find it forgivable. Additionally, once you complete the main story, you’re given a deluxe story mode. It’s nothing mind-blowing; it's the same story but the levels are harder. More enemies, different enemies, shuffled starting and ending points, less time for completion, and so on.

 Overall, Jumping Flash is a very charming little game for the PS1 and I wish Sony would port it to PC and put it on Steam or something. I don’t really have any experience speedrunning games, but if you were ever looking for a good entry-level game, I would easily recommend Jumping Flash. Even if you’re not into speedrunning and you want to take a glimpse at video games that broke new ground, Jumping Flash will not disappoint. I highly recommend playing this game with RetroAchievements, as it gives you incentive to do crazy tricks and push this game and your skills to their limits.

 As said in my Ribbit King review (I wrote that one before this one), there was a strange era of video games in the early 2000's. If a game was colorful or was made by Nintendo, a lot of people would write it off as "baby-ish" or "were they on drugs when they made this???" Katamari was one of those games as well. On the contrary to the "drugs" comments, Katamari's concept was designed by a man named "Keita Takahashi," a Japanese man who seems quite pleasant. He's active on Twitter, where he posts about he loves being a parent and how much he loves making cute, silly games.

 From what it seems like, Katamari Damacy was created to be a budget title. According to Wikipedia, it took less than 1 million dollars to develop. In Japan, it costed around 2/3rds of what a new, fully priced game would cost (4000 Yen). Namco decided to release it in America as well, only costing about 20$. It didn't sell too well, only moving around 155,000 units in Japan and 120,000 in the US. Despite this, the game got very high praises from those who played it and it became somewhat of a cult classic in the US. In Japan, these sales numbers were considered pretty successful for a new IP. Namco ordered a few sequels afterward. As years went on, many people started to learn about this game in the 2010's through Let's Plays and it gathered a huge following online. In 2012, this game was even added to the New York Museum of Modern Art among a few other titles, to showcase how far toys for children have come.

 Katamari Damacy roughly translates to "clump spirit," or more accurately, "team spirit". You play as a funny, tiny 1 centimeter tall guy simply known as "The Prince." Your father, the ever-massive King of All Cosmos, got drunk did a silly little dance and accidentally destroyed all the stars in the sky. He calls upon you, his son, to make new stars. How do you do this? By rolling everything up into a big ol' ball. The King later takes the ball, makes it into a star, and resets the Earth for you to make the next one. This concept was designed around novelty, and most importantly, simplicity. All you do is move both analog sticks in the direction you want to move the ball, called "the Katamari." You start by picking up small things, and when the Katamari gets big enough, you can move onto picking up larger things. When you first begin, your Katamari is about as big as a mouse. The further you get into the game, the bigger the ball gets. It gets as big as adults, as big as buildings, as big as cities, and as big as the moon by the end of the game. It's not always about size though; there are special levels where you have to remake the constellations. For example, for remake Cancer, only the crabs you pick up will count towards the score, or to remake Taurus, you're only allowed to pick up one cow, but it has to be the biggest cow you can find. It's a super simple concept that anyone can pick up and understand. Once you get used to it, this game becomes super relaxing, even with the time limit. Once you get really good at it, you'll find that the time limit is very lenient anyway. On top of all that, you get a banger soundtrack as well (if you're a fan of this game, you'll know what song this is without even clicking the link). You can also play in 2 player mode and can unlock more characters to play as after you go through the story mode and find the Prince's silly-looking cousins. Much like Ribbit King, every time I show this game to people, they're a bit hesitant to try it. When they pick it up and start playing though, they can never get enough.

 This video game is one of my top 10 favorites ever. Once you get good at it, you can just mindlessly play it and enjoy it over and over while trying to beat your previous scores. The sequels are great too and introduce additional challenges and modes you can try, but I like the first one most for its overall simplicity. I'm glad they did a remake of this game in 2018 as well, making it more accessible to people who wanted to try it out. As time went on it was only available on PS2 and the online PS3 shop, making its accessibility limited. Now everyone can enjoy the game on most modern consoles.

 Kirby is a series that usually delivers the goods. Truth to be told, I think Kirby games have been a little stagnant in the 2010's. They weren't bad by a long shot, but Kirby Triple Deluxe felt a little generic while Kirby Star Allies took "generic" to the next level. However, word was going around that HAL wanted to make the first Kirby game where you can platform in 3D. Some people were worried, but most were excited. I'm happy to say this is one of Kirby's best games. Kirby gets transported to a myserious world. Not too far in, he finds that Waddle Dees, some of the residents of his own world, are being hunted down and captured. Kirby travels the lands freeing the Waddle Dees from their cages and saving his friends from mind control.

 It was very clear that in this game, their primary goal was to translate Kirby's 2D gameplay into 3D and they hit the nail on the head. Kirby feels great to control and moves exactly as you would expect him to. As a result, there aren't too many copy abilities, but it's a small price to pay for how well this game does everything else. Besides, they allow you to upgrade each ability and make it stronger or function in a slightly different way that suits your style. Each level takes a long time the first time you play through it because there are so many secrets to find and objectives to complete. Every level, though having a general theme like "desert" or "snow," are all memorable and change up the environment quite a bit which means you'll rarely mix up levels and layouts in your head. That was an issue I had with games like Kirby Truple Deluxe, where all the levels were kind of generic and blended in with each other with only a few stand-outs, which got even worse in Star Allies. Oh and course, this game has an absolutely stellar soundtrack with a main theme that keeps popping up here and there.

 A regular highlight for the Kirby series for me is the bosses. They aren't as difficult as Dark Souls or anything, but they tend not to be push overs. Once you get used to them, you can find openings in their attacks and start to wail on them, which feels ultra satisfying. They even introduced a new dodge feature for Kirby where you can roll around pretty easily to dodge attacks. If you just barely manage to avoid an attack, you'll get a cool bullet-time slowdown. It seems a bit easy to cheese bosses with this, but Kirby was first designed with beginners in mind. Once you get to the post game, these bosses get amped up and much harder, but still pretty manageable once you get used to them. Of course, the game also brings back the Arena, where you can fight every boss in a row in exchange for ability upgrades. As fun as it is, I wish there was a better way to grind for ability upgrades, as once you complete all the in-game bonus levels, grinding bosses is your only option.

  In my opnion, Littlebigplanet is one of the best series Sony has. In an era where video games were kinda oversaturated with shooters, it was refreshing to see a new IP that took a new approach. LBP was a 2.5D platformer where you play as a little hacky-sack creature simply known as SackThings. In the story mode, you mainly just make it from point A to point B while avoiding silly hazards. The levels were interesting, both in layout and visuals and the story wasn't captivating by a longshot. However, those weren't why LBP was so awesome; LPB was awesome because players got to make their own levels. In the Edit Mode, players could make a ton of different levels, using bits and pieces they collect in the story mode levels. You could make pretty much any sort of platforming level you wanted: shark survivals, giant race cars rallies, fighting games with weird physics, obstacle courses, your own chain of story levels; almost anything you can imagine. While the editor was easy to use, there were some things that required out-of-the-box thinking that weren't so easy to pull off. If you took the time and understood all the tools REALLY well, you were capable of making tic-tac-toe games with an AI or even working calculators. On top of that, you could customize your little Sack person with costume parts also found through the story levels. It was pretty rare to run into a player that looked exactly like you. Overall, LBP was really impressive at the time, and it had a high level of polish and detail.

 And then LBP2 came along and blew the first one out of the water.

 LBP2 has everything from LBP1 and then some. The editor was made easier to use, there were most costume parts to use on your character, more story levels to play, more tools to make levels with, and so much more. LBP2 added "Logic" to the Edit Mode, making game-like aspects easier to work with. Now you could make custscenes for your levels. Now you could have multiple playable characters in a level. If you really knew what you were doing, you could make your own power ups like double jumps, wall jumps, and so much more. It was way easier to make enemies, way easier to make bosses, way easier to make interesting platforming challenges. Sometimes you didn't even have to make a platforming game; some people made puzzle games, top-down racing games, horror games, and so much more. Some people made actual feature length films using the cutscene tools. Some people remade the story mode from LBP1 but with extra flare. Despite there being some restrictions, this was the closest consoles had to a "if you can think it, you can make it" kind of game. This game was a masterpiece in terms of what people could do with the tools provided. Even though the servers shutting down a few years ago is a bummer, you can easily go on YouTube and find playthroughs of the best user-made levels the game had to offer.

 I have a love-hate relationship with LittleBigplanet Karting. Kart racers are one of my most favorite genres, so the thought of a User Generated Content kart racing game sounded amazing. On the surface, LBPK is a LBP themed reskin of Modnation Racers which came out about 3 years prior. ModNation Racers was pretty good, but I felt they could've given you a bit more control over your tracks. When I learned that this game was being made and the main focus was giving you more tools to get more out of your tracks, I was super excited.

 Upon release, it's evident that something went wrong. Right away, you can tell Media Molecule had no hand in making LBPK. It's unpolished, quite buggy, and the editing mode has an immense learning curve, dwarving the learning curve compared to previous LBP entries. It crashes frequently, which means there will be lots of times you lose work in the editor unless you’re constantly saving. Compared to ModNation, it feels like you had more track customization options but far less character and kart customization options. You can't customize the NPCs you race against in your own levels, so it was difficult to make anything story-driven. When the online was working, you were constantly booted from races. You were also only allowed to favorite a certain amount of tracks before it started taking older ones off your list. At some point, it just stopped recording your new favorites altogether. The online tracks in the "Cool Levels" section (New and Popular levels) never changed since Day 1.

 Whoever was in charge of the servers was fully aware of the reception to this game, as the online servers only lasted a little over 5 years. That's also unfortunate, considering the main attraction of LBP is usually the online levels. It's a shame that some of the coolest tracks in this game are only viewable on YouTube now while others are just completely lost to time. I wish they had some sort of end-of-life plan for this game so that it was easier for players to keep playing their favorite online levels while offline. I don't know how large each level file is, but if they're relatively small, I think it would've gone a huge way if the devs patched in an "All-Time Community Favorites" section that you could access offline once the online was killed off.

 As for the actual racing itself, it’s alright. The controls feel a little floaty but you can get used to them pretty easily. I like that they kept the weapon system from ModNation, where you can use any weapon to block a weapon homing in on you. The only trade off is that there's probably three times as many leader seekers (blue shells) than most racing games. In your own levels, you can make completely custom weapons that function differently from the base set. There's also a Story Mode, but it's not very memorable at all. The levels are tightly crafted and offer a variety of different gameplay styles, which makes it seem like a demo of what the Creation Mode can do. Some people have dug through the files and found that there was potentially going to be more Story Mode content and prizes available to the player, but it appears to have been cut due to time constraints.

 It should also be noted that this game doesn't just offer racing. You can make battle arenas, though I tend to find them half-baked in most racing games and this one is no exception. However, using the Battle Arena game type in your own levels offers a huge variety of other activities. The game gives you the ability to set win conditions based on score, weapon targets, racing gates, and more. This means you could make a King of the Hill style game mode, a ring-rally race, freeze tag, Keep Away, Shine Runners and Balloon Battle from Mario Kart, Cops and Robbers, and so, so much more. Albeit it's a pain to program in this game compared to LBP2, the mantra remains the same: if you can think it, you can make it.

 Despite the low points, I find myself loading this game up every once in a while to make a new track. There's just something so satisfying about drafting an idea, building it in-game, and tweaking it to perfection, even if I’m going to be the only person to ever play it. It's sad to see an idea for a game like this flop; if given more time and resources for its development, this game could've been endless fun. This is probably the closest thing to my personal dream game that we'll ever get.

 I'm not much of a connoisseur in the ways of edutainment given I only had a handful of edutainment games a kid. Nevertheless, this one was among my favorites, if not my most favorite.

 The Zoombinis are silly, peaceful pacifists who live on their very own island. One day, they trust the wrong group of merchants, the Bloats, who swindle them out of their own home and quite literally enslave them. The Zoombinis make a break for it, but to make it less conspicuous, decide to travel in small groups at a time. The Zoombinis make it to the main land, where it's up to you to escort them through the dangerous locales and dens of strange creatures you'll encounter along the way.

 Like the title suggests, this game is a test of your logical skills. This includes process of elimination, pattern recognition, and planning ahead. Many of the puzzles are linked to the physical attributes of the Zoombinis themselves, which you can customize at the start. To make it difficult to cheese, you're only allowed to make 2 of the same exact Zoombinis. Throughout the adventure, should you fail a puzzle too many times, you'll start to lose Zoombinis one at a time. As a result, there's very little room for brute forcing. Not to worry though, as they only return to the previous checkpoint, with 3 checkpoints in total including the start. In total, there are 625 Zoombinis to save. You can only take 16 Zoombinis at a time with you, and you cannot continue from a checkpoint if you have any less. Saving every few batches of 16 increases the difficulty of the game. Despite being marketed towards children, make no mistake: these puzzles can get hard towards the end, even for adults. Even so, there's a small but highly varied selection of puzzles. You play them in the same order, though there's a split in the middle of the map. If you keep taking the same path, those puzzles get harder each time you play. Should a puzzle be too difficult for you, there's a practice mode and you also have the ability to leave Zoombinis at a checkpoint and go back to the start to get a new batch instead.

 The world of the Zoombinis is appealing and calm. There isn't much in terms of music, but I assume it's to help you focus. Whatever music is there tends to be chill with a hint of charisma to match the feeling of pushing forth into unexplored territory. The visuals are well-drawn and have a bit of a story book feeling to them. The NPCs you encounter are wacky and charming, and not to mention quotable. Anyone who has played this will never forget Arno the Pizza Troll, who desperately wants a pizza but refuses to tell you what he wants on it. The hardships and challenges of the Zoombinis are narrated by an eccentric narrator who really wants to see the poor things make it to the legendary Zoombiniville.

 It might not be the best edutainment game, but it's certainly among the best. It definitely accomplishes everything it sets out to do. If you have a hard time tracking down the original version, there's a remake on Steam that updates the visuals and touches nothing else. Both visual styles have their extremely miniscule ups and downs, but I think I prefer the original solely for nostalgia. Either way, I highly recommend this game if you're ever going through a 90's edutainment spree.

 About a decade ago, I watched a Cinemassacre review for this game and it stuck in the back of my mind for the longest time. Every so often, I like to pick out a few PS1 games I've never played before and give them a try. Eventually, I made my way around to this game and I had an absolute blast.

 Normally, I'm not a huge fan of puzzle games. However, this game is one of the exceptions. You play as Ralph Wolf on a game show hosted by Daffy Duck. In each level, your goal is to steal a sheep from the ever-watchful Sam Sheepdog. To do this, you have to use items delivered by ACME through a combination of platforming, stealth, and puzzle-solving. There's a quite a few items and each level is built around using one or two as a primary mechanic while a few more might play a smaller role. Many items are used multiple times throughout the game, but despite this, you end up discovering some items have more than one main use or can be used with different items for different results. If you've watched Looney Tunes, you can just think "how would Wile E. Coyote use this to catch Road Runner?" and it'll usually steer you in the right direction. Overall, it's a solid, silly and unique experience.

  Normally when you get to the end of a console's lifespan, you start to see developers really understand and push the boundaries of the console. This game is a perfect example of that concept. The environments in this game are vibrant and look like they're straight from a Looney Tunes episode. The low-poly models are delightfully charming and look right at home in the environment. As for the animations, they're super snappy and expressive, taking full advantage of the medium and calling back to the chaos of the original cartoons. Speaking of, you get to see a few familiar faces like Elmer Fudd, Road Runner, Gossamer, and more as they help or hinder your progress. As many other reviews pointed out as well, this game's soundtrack is astoundingly great. It's not the kind of music you would normally associate with Looney Tunes, but it holds up on its own just as well. It's a low-key score that offers a chill, grooving vibe that never gets old despite how long you take on a puzzle.

  As for some of the puzzle solutions, I feel a little conflicted. On one hand, I like that they don't give you much information to go off of. On the other hand, some of the mechanics are so obtuse that you would never think to try them. The game gives you "hints" on each item on the inventory screen, but they're honestly useless and tell you nothing. I don't think it would be as satisfying if it told you what every item was capable of, but would help if it gave you a small nudge in the right direction. This ties in with another minor complaint I had, which was a boss that shows up toward the middle of the game. It was the only time I had to break out a walkthrough because I had no idea what the game expected from me. Otherwise, those were my only gripes I had throughout the experience.

  I truly miss this era of licensed games. This exact sentiment isn't original by a long shot, but not only were you able to find diamonds in the rough with these sorts of titles, but I miss the strange, yet memorable experimentation of genres that licensed games would go for sometimes. This is one of those licensed games that meets this exact criteria. I feel if you asked several people to come up with an idea for a Looney Tunes game, hardly anyone would've ever thought of the "Ralph vs. Sam" cartoons, but I'm glad somebody did. I'm especially glad that it came out as well as it did. If you're ever looking for out-of-the-ordinary PS1 games to try, put this one on your list.

 When I was a kid, my brother apparently had a subscription to Playstation Underground, the Playstation equivalent to Nintendo Power. Sometimes they would give you demo discs to see some upcoming games. My siblings and I would spend a lot of time playing through these demos, probably more time than the people throwing them together would expect. One of the best ones though was the Jampack: 1997 Winter Demo Disc. This had games like Crash 3, Spyro 1, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider Revelations, Small Soldiers, A Bug's Life, and more. I had many of these games, but there was one game that I enjoyed a lot that I never got as a kid yet it never really left my brain. That game was MediEvil. You got to play around 15 or 20 minutes of the game, then it would just throw you back to the main menu of the demo disc. I always wanted to get more out of it. It wasn't until around 2010 that I started looking for games I wanted to try as a child but never got around to. MediEvil was one at the top of my list, and after watching some playthroughs, I decided to pick it up, and I'm glad I did.

 MediEvil takes place in the 1200s. In a kingdom called Gallowmere, there was an evil sorcerer named Zarok. He and his demonic army went to war with the king's army, led by the main character, Dan Fortesque. People who didn't quite see what happened say that Dan fought valiantly and led the kingdom to victory... when in reality he died to the first arrow shot in the whole war. Being a necromancer, Zarok came back 100 years later to claim his revenge on the kingdom, summoning vast armies of the undead to do his bidding. During the process, he accidentally resurrects Dan. Dan, fully aware of his embarassing defeat, decides to take this opportunity to settle the score and live up to his own legacy.

 In the game, you play as Dan. He's a bit clunky and awkward to control, and the control layout isn't the same as most platformers at the time. Once you get used to it, it's serviceable. You go around hacking and slashing demons, monsters, zombies, and more in an effort to solve puzzles, do some platforming, and get to the end of each level. If you kill enough enemies, you can collect a Golden Chalice in each level, which teleports you to The Hall of Heroes: a place where Dan is desperate to get a statue in. There, he speaks with the statues of great heroes from the past who offer him new weapons to use. There's a huge and satisfying array of weapons, but it mostly boils down to swords, bows, daggers, hammers, and axes. Each one works a bit differently and can be used in different combat scenarios, all of which are useful at some point. There's a wide variety of enemies as well, some of which have weaknesses to certain weapon types. There are zombies, goblins who steal your weapons, flying demons, living pumpkins, living scarecrows, minotaurs, and way more.

 The soundtrack in this game seems like it was made using some sort of MIDI system (I can't find a definitive answer, so don't quote me on that). Despite this, it gives a great atmosphere to each level. One of my favorite tracks is the Hilltop Mausoleum with the harsh pipe organs horns, and choirs.

 If you're a fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, you'll probably love how this game looks, considering it was one of the main inspirations for this game's visuals. Despite being low-poly, it has a super fun cartoony, yet spooky visual style that gives you a great Halloween-y vibe. On top of that, this game uses part of its limitations to its benefits. Every stage is covered in a thick, foggy darkness so you can't tell what's lurking in the shadows. Normally fog in 90's games tends not to look great, but the black fog in this game really fits the dark atmosphere. You'll travel to all sorts of locations you'd expect from a spooky, cartoony adventure. You'll go through graveyards, mausoleums, caverns, pumpkin patches, castles, creepy villages, haunted woods, and so much more. I tend to play this game every other year in October and I imagine a lot of people share the same sort of tradition. If you're looking for something genuinely creepy, this one might not be for you. Though if you want a fun Halloween video game for the season, consider throwing this game into the mix. Like I said, the roughest thing about this game is the controls, but everything else about it has aged really well.

 The Munchables is one of those weird, colorful games that's similar to Katamari or Ribbit King. This game came out 2009 though, when weirder games started getting a bit more of an audience. Either way, it seems as though it didn't sell very well; I don't see many people talking about it despite it having some pretty above-average scores, usually getting between 6's and 8's out of 10.

 You play as a little creature known as a Munchable, where you can choose between a spiky monster named Chomper or a girly, squirrel-like monster named Munchy. Their home planet gets invaded by Tabemon: pirate monsters made out of food. Conveniently, the Munchables have an insatiable appetite and will eat these pirates on sight. Like I said earlier, this game is pretty similar to Katamari, moreso than just the visuals. The more enemies you eat, the bigger your character gets. From there, you can eat bigger enemies and the cycle countinues. Your character also changes visually, but it doesn't really affect anything. When you get to the end of a level, you're usually towering over everything. It's pretty fun, but it doesn't have the relaxing nature of Katamari since there are multiple things that can hinder your progress. If you get attacked by an enemy or touch a hazard, you momentarily get really small. If you get hit in this state, you have to start the stage over.

 There are a few basic, but fun moves you can do in this game. You can do a roll which splits enemies into smaller enemies. This is useful for when you encounter an enemy that's too big, you can just split them into 4 smaller guys. You can also do a charge move to move a bit faster while automatically eating enemies. It's simple, but it's a nice change from spamming the A button. There's also some power ups, like a super stomp that stuns enemies or a vaccuum power up that suck everything up for you for a bit.

 Honestly, I don't have much to say about this game. It's pretty fun, but I don't think anyone would like it in the same way most people can easily pick up Katamari or Ribbit King. I kind of just wanted to highlight this game since no one really talks about it. It's fun to mindlessly turn on and play around in for a bit. And of course, I have to plug the soundtrack. Overall, this game is pretty repetitive but still manages to feel fresh the whole way through.

 Muppet Monster Adventure is a Playstation 1 platformer game where you play as Kermit's nephew, Robin. While visiting Bunsen Honeydew's uncle's mansion, the Muppet cast gets abducted by the evil uncle himself, who turns the main cast into mind-controlled monsters. The only ones left are Honeydew, Beaker, Pepe, and Robin. Honeydew and Beaker quickly invent some gadgets for Robin to safely travel throughout the estate and protect himself from other monsters roaming the area. Robin has to travel through each level collecting dark energy to help revert the Muppets back to their original state while also collecting Muppet Tokens to help him progress to the next level.

  The gameplay is a bit of a mixture of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Robin has a spin move that can take out most enemies while his energy glove can destroy enemy shields. He can also turn into different monsters with different abilities: he can glide, he can push blocks, climb ladders and vines, he can swim underwater, and karate chop barriers. The levels are designed to be pretty open-world with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Robin feels okay to control, with the controls being a little on the stiff side but mostly manageable. It can get a little annoying when it comes to precise platforming though, you'll have to do lots of minor adjustments to line up a jump or glide. Overall, he doesn't feel too satisfying.

 There are minigames hosted by Pepe are littered throughout each level, where Robin can earn Muppet Tokens. A lot of these minigames can get pretty frustrating sometimes, and not to mention repetitive. Lots of minigames show up at three times or more throughout the game. Sometimes Robin will have to race an enemy back to the beginning of a level, sometimes he'll have to break open chests before time runs out, sometimes he'll have to go through an obstacle course, and quite a bit more.

 

 Peglin is a game that as of writing this, is still in Early Access. The premise of the game is pretty simple: Rogue-like Peggle. Rogue is an adventure game from 1980, where every time you played the game, everything would be randomly generated: the dungeons you explore, the enemies you encounter, and the items you find. The "Rogue-like" genre has become quite popular in recent years, with developers using Rogue as a diving board by mixing new ideas and genres into the "randomly generated" aspect. Peggle is a game from 2007 where you have a board of blue and orange pegs and your objective is to clear all of the orange pegs by launching a pinball at them. The ball bounces around the screen until it falls off the bottom. In 2021, someone combined these ideas and created Peglin.

 In Peglin, your objective is to simply defeat every enemy you encounter. To do so, you launch an orb at a bunch of pegs. Once the orb falls off the bottom of the screen, you "cash in" your attack. The more pegs you hit, the more damage you do to the enemy in front of you. Once you hit a peg, you destroy it. The only way to bring it back is by hitting a "refresh" peg, which brings back every peg on the board. You can also aim for "crit" pegs, which let you do more damage to enemies. Every time you run out of orbs, the game gives them back to you in a randomized order, but the enemies get an extra turn. After clearing a level, you often have a choice to spend gold to upgrade your orbs, choose a new orb, or heal yourself. Afterward, you throw your orb down the board to decide which part of the level you want to go to next. You can encounter more enemies or even mini-bosses for rewards, or if you aim for it, go to shops, find items, or random events.

 So far, it's a neat little game. There isn't too much to it at the moment; I think the story is just a little Peg Goblin (Peglin), got tormented by a dragon and now seeks revenge. There's an interesting collection of orbs to choose from, like orbs that pierce through enemies, orbs that can burn enemy shields, orbs that can summon a god to smite some enemies, and way more. If you build your collection just right, you can breeze through levels like nothing. In addition, there are also lots of items that can affect your performance, like adding bonus damage, making your orbs loop back to the top of the board, activating bombs on the board with one hit, and way more. As of right now though, there are only 3 worlds with more on the way. Each time you beat the game, they give you an option to add a restriction to make your next playthrough harder, but there doesn't seem to be a reward for it at the moment. From what it seems like too, there are going to be more playable characters, but you can only play as one right now. Overall, it's a neat little game and I'm excited to see where it goes. My main complaint so far is that some of the end-level bosses have a bit too much health or protection, making them nearly impossible to beat even with the best builds. Hopefully they iron that out later.

  Pikmin 4 is a game which exemplifies why people tend to put a certain trust in Nintendo even when they aren’t exactly the most consumer-friendly company: you can usually bet that their mainline games are expertly crafted, tightly designed, and polished to a shine. On a technical level, Pikmin 4 shines very brightly: there are no major glitches or hiccups I ran into, the gameplay is solid and stays fun throughout its length, it introduces a few fun concepts and game modes to the series, it brings back a lot of highly requested elements from Pikmin 1 and 2, and it comes with tons of small yet warmly welcomed quality of life improvements. It is by no means a bad game. However, there is a bit of a problem that many people may have: Pikmin 4 is a game that is very clearly designed to be everybody’s first Pikmin game. In some aspects, it is desperately afraid to let go of your hand. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing somewhat depends on where you stand in terms of familiarity with the series. If you are new to Pikmin and/or have always been put off by the difficulty or overarching time limit that it’s known for, this game is a fantastic entry point for you and you will probably have a great time. If you’re more of a veteran and prefer the brutal and sometimes horrifying nature of Pikmin 1 and 2, you may find yourself disappointed. However, that does not mean Pikmin 4 is a lost cause for you. Even though this game is much easier compared to its predecessors, many of the new tools introduced in this game are optional and let you make the experience a bit more challenging. I could see a lot of cool challenges emerging from this game over time.

  Pikmin 4 features an astounding array of tools, all of which are geared to making the game easier and generally user-friendly. The coolest part about them though is that most of them are optional. Newcomers can use all of these tools to ensure that their experience goes as smoothly as it can. Veterans on the other hand can choose to not use these tools at all, allowing them to make their experience a bit on the tougher side. Even when it comes to things like purchased upgrades, the player has the option to turn them off at any point. There are things like a drone that lets you scope out areas before you go ahead, a satellite that calls Pikmin to your current position, consumable items that stun enemies, and so much more. There’s even a rewind button that lets you rewind 2 minutes and even earlier so you don’t have to suffer losing tons of Pikmin in a single second, but again, it’s all completely optional. Then you have aspects like Oatchi, and while he is definitely overpowered, you still have the ability to choose when you want to use him aside from level design. If you want to send in Oatchi to clear out a room of enemies before your Pikmin enter, you’re free to do that. If you’d rather barge in and throw yourself into the chaos, you’re also free to do that. If you want to, you can use Ice Pikmin to freeze and shatter enemies, but you can also just not do that. The majority of the game is flexible and is designed to work around either play style and I think that’s pretty cool.

 However, despite whatever options you choose, the overall skill ceiling has been reduced; it doesn’t quite feel like everything is conspiring to work against you like they were in Pikmin 1 and 2. Creatures in Pikmin 4 don’t really take “cheap shots” like dropping bombs from the ceiling out of no where. While there are many choices you can take advantage of, there are several core aspects that you have no control over. Many of these aspects are great for new players, but hardcore players may still find themselves a bit annoyed as a result. To list a few, the majority of the enemies in the game are from previous entries, so if you are familiar with how they act, you’ll already know how to defeat them with no issues. The Pikmin AI has been improved significantly, which means there will be far less moments where you say “what the hell are you guys DOING???” when your Pikmin start doing things you didn’t want them to. There is an auto-lock on feature which is extremely aggressive and some people find to be a bit intrusive. There’s also a throwing cap, meaning if you encounter an item that requires 10 Pikmin to carry it, you can spam the Throw button and the game will automatically stop throwing Pikmin once you reach 10. It sounds silly to point these things out as “bad” because they’re genuinely great improvements. But the people who enjoyed the original games do have a good point: the concept of attempting to control the inherent chaos of nature is a really cool idea for a game and Pikmin 4 sort of downplays this idea this time around. Personally, none of these things bothered me at all, but I can see how they could put off some people who were looking for something tougher.

 Personally, my biggest problem with this game is the NPCs. There are sooo many NPCs and they constantly stop you to point out the obvious. They become so annoying that I begin to tune them out. I no longer care about what they’re saying. I'm no longer interested in learning anything about them. I no longer care about their backstories, I just want them to be quiet. I’m a big believer of “show, don’t tell,” but Pikmin 4 so, so badly wants to show AND tell you about every single little thing you encounter. Thankfully you can skip cutscenes and interactions and you will not miss a single bit of crucial information. But to have them constantly stopping you and saying “Hey did you see that Leafling? You saw him right? He challenged you do a Dandori battle and jumped down the hole! You saw that, right? You gotta jump down the hole too! Win that Dandori battle!” I know. I saw. I get it. Plus, I think having having an entire community of characters by the end of the game sort of detracts from the atmosphere Pikmin is known for. None of it feels as lonely, mysterious, or threatening when there’s a collection of NPCs are constantly telling you how you should be feeling in the moment. It’s like a big flashlight has been shined over the Pikmin series and they don’t want evoke feelings of uneasy or dread, or at least no where as much as they used to.

 The remaining issues I had with this game are somewhat minor. First off, I don’t really like the 3 Pikmin type limit. It made exploring the day time levels feel shallow, especially as the game tells you exactly what Pikmin types you’ll need. It feels more appropriate to do this with caves, as they’re shorter, can serve more as puzzles or challenges, and you’re stuck with the Pikmin you bring in. I feel the daytime levels should have more opportunities to go back to your base, exchange Pikmin types, and do something else with another type, but you really never need to. All other Pikmin types can be completely ignored, since the levels are fully designed around the 3 suggested types. Another aspect I’m somewhat disappointed with is the music. Make no mistake, there was a lot of attention given to music this time around, as certain enemies get their own instruments once you get close. There’s also tons and tons of callbacks to themes from the previous games. Outside of cutscenes, I get what they were going for, keeping it peaceful and minimalist when all is fine, but getting hectic when an enemy attacks. However, I almost feel it’s too minimalist this time around, as I can barely notice the music anymore until I get into a scuffle. Additionally, designing your own captain is really cool, but they’re essentially a blank slate throughout the entire game. I would prefer playing as any of the previous protagonists. Last thing I can think of is that I don’t really care for the night missions. It’s just NPCs constantly screaming at you while you beat up enemies for 5 minutes. I personally didn’t get much out of them.

Another gripe I had with this game is that it constantly screams “Dandori” at you, but you really don’t get as many opportunities to flex your organizational skills as you do in Pikmin 3. The levels seem to be solely designed around Oatchi’s navigational abilities alone. Rather than having entire sections dedicated to your Captain or Oatchi, they’re constantly mixing obstacles that only one character can clear. For example, you want to collect a treasure, you have to hop up a step with Oatchi. You get to the top and – oh! There’s grate that only the captain can cross. It’s not like this 100% of the time, but most of the levels are designed this way. You’ll find that the game rarely wants you to separate from Oatchi. Given that the characters have slightly different abilities, you really can’t plan to have each character be on the other side of the map performing different objectives. This is because both sides of the map will have inevitably something that only the other character can do. It’s just more efficient to stick together the whole time and it feels a little disappointing in that regard when Pikmin 3 gave you so much freedom to truly practice Dandori at any moment.

 Despite my complaints, I had a wonderful time with Pikmin 4 and I believe it was worth the wait. It’s a great big mix of what worked in previous games in addition to quite a few new elements. Although it introduced a lot of complications with the lore, it still manages to show they put in a lot of love and care by giving you encyclopedias full of flavor text for every single thing you collect and every creature you encounter. It’s also a bit longer than what it may look like at first glance, including a lengthy side-mission that will keep you busy for a little while longer. If you’re on the fence about getting it, I think you’ll enjoy it and I greatly recommend it if you don’t mind how easy it is. Here’s hoping we get Pikmin 5 before 2040.

  A simple 3D Metroidvania that is definitely worth the asking price. Pseudoregalia is a game that focuses heavily on the movement. Once you reach a certain point, you’re able to do a whole ensemble of acrobatic tricks to quickly and smoothly get you to where you want to go. Despite a few tiny learning hurdles, the movement is awesome and it feels great to make Sybil dart around the castle. There’s tons of opportunities to sequence break and sometimes you’re rewarded for it while other times you get stuck. There’s an option to teleport you back to your most recent save point if you get stuck though, so it all works out. Once you get good enough, you can even travel both ways through some points that I assume are supposed to be one-way shortcuts. Plus, once you get the long jump ability, you can even b-hop to keep the momentum it gives you. There’s just so many little neat and interesting things you can pull off from the moveset you’re given.

 Aside from the movement, I really enjoy the atmosphere of this game. It seems to be going for that somewhat eerie, lonely, and (fittingly) almost dream-like feeling you get in N64 or PS1 games that have a relatively low draw distance. It also goes for the same general low-poly, low-res aesthetic of the era and I think it does a nice job. The OST is nice, but it’s not quite something that I think will stick with me (except for the Twilight Theater, that one rules). There isn’t too much of a story, but I assume it’s like that on purpose. There are little interesting tidbits here and there and I’m sure they mean something, but I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be up to interpretation or if it means something specific. Given that nearly everything in the game seems to be vague and ambiguous in nature, I’m going with the former. Sybil herself is a mystery; it’s never explained who she is, what her goals are, and nobody even knows what sort of animal she’s supposed to be. All anyone knows is that she's very tough, very tall, very fluffy, and very much doesn't wear pants.

 In its current state though, you’re going to have to be okay with getting lost because as of now, there’s no map in the game. I sort of enjoy getting lost in Metroidvanias to a degree, so I was actually pretty okay with it. I imagine if you’re bad with directions, you’ll get frustrated very easily though. For the most part, I think most of the rooms have weird enough setups or landmarks that you can sort of feel your way around, but the keyword being most, definitely not all. It really only became an issue for me in the Underbelly section. At the very least, all the main areas are very distinct from each other, as you’ll find yourself exploring a dungeon, a large foyer, a main hall, a few courtyards, a library that may double as a farm, a dark sprawling cave, and a lone tower. You can easily tell which one you're in just by looking at the colors of the floors and walls.

 As for the combat, I feel like it’s missing something, but I’m not sure what. I like the concept of having to fight enemies to regain healing mana, I like the idea of losing your sword when a large enemy does a huge sweeping attack, I like the idea of being able to reflect the vast majority of projectiles if you swing the sword at just the right time. But overall, enemies just don’t feel very satisfying to fight. If I can figure out what it is and articulate it, I’d like to update this section because I want to give actual feedback than just say “not satisfied, idk!”

 Overall, I’d say this is a fantastic little indie game, especially for the asking price. With a few tweaks and additions, I feel it could be even greater. Considering this is already the expanded version of a game jam project, I’m not exactly sure if the developer wants to further expand upon this idea, but I hope they do as long as they enjoy making it.

 One of the few PS1 games my brother had when we were kids was Rayman. That game was fun, but tough as nails. Games near 1996 were starting to go 3D and were becoming significantly larger. Thanks to these new restrictions, developers realized they didn't have to make their games as difficult anymore. Rayman 1 came out just a year or two too early, and as a result, didn't quite catch the memo. To this day, I still haven't beaten Rayman 1 without cheats. Unknowingly, I skipped Rayman 2 until I eventually saw Rayman 3 in the store. I picked the game up and immediately started enjoying what it had to offer.

 The story takes place after the events of Rayman 2. Rayman and his friend Globox are enjoying the peace and quiet. That is until a fly-like creature named Andre starts turning fairies known as Red Lums into Black Lums, like himself. The Black Lums use their surroundings to make clothes that they can use like puppets or vessels. Now known as Hoodlums, they start to cut down trees, set up outposts, and forcefully drive everyone out of the area. Globox tries to wake Rayman up, fails to do so, and then decides to drag him along. Globox accidentally "rips" off Rayman's limbless hands. Murfy the fairy finds a hand-less Rayman and leads him in the right direction. Through a series of unfortunate events, Globox swallows Andre and Rayman has to guide Globox through the Hoodlums' outposts to take him to the doctor's office to get Andre out of there.

 Aside from the characters, my favorite thing about this game is the combat. It's deceptively simple. Rayman is known for literally throwing his fist and punching enemies, and this is the only attack he has in the game. However, Rayman can hold the punch button to wind up a punch, leading to more damage. If Rayman just spams punches with no real force, enemies are able to parry them. With that in mind, there are several different enemy types, each one having a really cool design. There are pushover enemies who die in one punch, enemies who die in about 3-4 punches, enemies who throw bombs, enemies you can only hit by curving your shot, enemies that protect other enemies, and so much more. All you have to do is find out how to punch each and every one of these guys and clear them out of an area to progress. Despite how simple it sounds, the enemies will have you ducking and weaving through their attacks. There's hardly ever a dull moment when fighting enemies, and it never feels repetitive due to their layouts, attacks, and movements. There are also mini-bosses littered throughout and bosses at the end of each world which tend to shake up the gameplay. Some may say the combat may not be the best of the best, but if you're making a 3D platformer and need some inspiration for combat, take a few notes from this game.

 Rayman also gets an array of new abilities in this game. There aren't too many, but each one makes pretty good use of its limited capabilities. You have a tornado power that lets you lower platforms, shrink enemies, or hit multiple enemies in one shot. There's a bear trap power that lets you swing from grapple points seamlessly, and it can also be used to electrocute enemies from far away. There's a rocket power up that lets you guide Rayman's fist from a first-person perspective, and so much more.

 The soundtrack is pretty awesome too. There's a wide variety of moods on display, from peaceful, to suspensful, to spooky, to funky. This game also deserves an award for having one of the coolest opening montages ever.

 This game was made back when it felt like Ubisoft still cared to some degree. Since then, the "mainline" Rayman series has been on hiatus for almost 20 years. This was the last 3D adventure he had before the Rabbids hijacked his series. Rayman Origins and Legends are fantastic games and I love them a lot, but I'd like to see Rayman return to 3D in this style again. I have nothing against the Rabbids, but Rayman is arguably Ubisoft's most iconic character and they just don't seem interested in using him anymore. Maybe someday they'll pick him up again. Besides, Murfy says "see you in Rayman 4!" in this game, so it's bound to happen any day now, right?

 In the early 2000s, there was a strange phenomenon going on. With Playstation 2 doing well and Xbox coming onto the market, video games were more geared towards teenagers and adults at the time. This led to a weird culture where people thought that if a game was made by Nintendo or had a lot of bright colors, it was either "for babies" or for people on drugs. Even looking at reviews for this game back in the day, lots of them say something stupid like "were they on drugs when they made this game???" In my opinion, Ribbit King was maybe a decade ahead of its time.

 Following a Japanese-exclusive PS1 game called "KeroKing," Ribbit King is a game where you play golf but with frogs. You launch frogs with a little catapult and try to make it into the course hole in the least amount of strokes. However, there's more to it than that. Along the way, there are different things you can interact with that give you points. Things like touching soap bubbles, making your frog eat flies, making your frog swim in the water, or triggering certain events will net you some extra points. Chain these events together and you'll multiply your score. In the end, it actually doesn't matter how many strokes you have, but how many points you have, though having a low stroke count helps. It may sound a bit complicated, but it's much simpler than it sounds. The controls are pretty easy, so almost literally anyone can play the game. There's about 5 worlds and 4 courses per world, each course with 4 different starting points. Though there aren't many levels, setting them up in this way makes for a replayable experience. Each world has its own unique gimmicks, as well as some universal ones like trampolines to bounce off of or snakes to escape from. It's super satisfying when you become so familiar with a course that you know exactly how to get a hole-in-one.

 In terms of single player content, there's a little story mode you can try. You play as a little alien carpenter named Scooter who has been entered in a "Frolf" tournament. There, he will have to face off against a collection of strange characters and win the grand prize: Super Ribbinite, which is the main power source of his planet. Despite the fate of the planet and its energy crisis, the king buys Scooter the cheapest Frolf kit and sends him off to the tournament where he has to climb the ranks. It starts off pretty easy against the AI, but it gets much harder the further you get in. In the multiplayer mode, you can play as the Story Mode opponents. They have no impact on performance. However, you can choose different frogs to use, each with their own abilities. Some frogs are immune to lava, which is good for the lava levels. Some frogs are good at swimming, which will earn you more points if you knock them into the water. In addition, there's also a "mood" system for the frogs which affects how far you can launch them. If a frog does a lot of stressful things in one turn, it'll get tired and won't fly as far in the next turn. You can use items to fix their mood or just to generally enhance them for one turn.

 I bought this game in 2005. Every time I showed it to someone, they always thought it looked really, really weird and were hesitant to try it. By the time they finished a match though, they always wanted to play more. Most people found out about this game in the 2010s through popular Let's Plays and it later became a coveted item. Unfortunately, there aren't too many copies floating around and the ones being sold online are skyrocketing in price. The only realistic modern way to enjoy this game is through emulation. Honestly, it's a shame this game came out in 2004. It didn't sell very well because of the culture of the time and the fact it just wasn't advertised too well in the US. However, the multiplayer mode is a blast and I think people would go crazy for this game if they could play it online today. I'd love for this game to see a port or a remake or a sequel at some point.

 I was never a huge Scooby Doo fan. Like Scooby is fine, I don't hate it, but I never really got hooked on the original show or any of it's reincarnations. My sister got this game for her birthday, and I honestly don't think she's ever seen a full episode. As far as I know, she barely gave this game a try. I ended up trying it for myself and I ended up liking it a lot!

 The game starts with the Mystery Inc. group helping out one of Daphne's old friends, Holly Graham. She says her grandfather, Alexander Graham, has gone missing. Not only that, but all of the classic Scooby-Doo villains have appeared and have been wreaking havoc all over the Graham Estate. Before the gang is able to investigate, they're all kidnapped one by one until Scooby is left all alone. Scooby has to venture into all the areas of the Graham Estate: the Mansion, the Docks, and the Hedge Maze. Scooby has to rescue the gang and solve the mystery before a strange new villain named The Mastermind breaks up the gang for good.

 Like I said in my Hollow Knight review above, I was never into Metroidvanias as a kid. Strangely enough, it took me years to realize that this game is actually a 3D Metroidvania. You'll be going through each area of the Graham Estate; each one having its own secret passages and shortcuts that intertwine with the other areas. Scooby has to go as far as he can into each area until he hits a dead-end. There, he usually finds some sort of power up that will let him progress to another area. There's a nice feeling of progression in this game. For basic moves, you can run, jump, and charge at your enemies. When you first start out, you can't kill any of the enemies, you can only stun them with your charge. Later on, you get a football helmet, which lets you finally dispose of your enemies. On top of that, there are a lot of silly gadgets and items that help Scooby on his quest. There's stuff like springs which let you double jump, an umbrella that lets you glide, slippers and a lampshade that let you hide from monsters, and bubblegum that lets you bounce on enemies' heads. You keep getting new power ups until the very end of the game. The only other roadblocks in the game are these "Scooby Snack Machine" things that won't let you pass until you get a certain number of Scooby Snacks, which are littered through the game like coins. If you don't have enough, you need to backtrack until you get more. If you collect every snack you see, it'll rarely be a problem, but it can feel kind of lame sometimes.

 Despite every level being pretty linear, there's a fun feeling of exploration in this game. Secret passages are fun to find and you sometimes get rewarded with a Monster Token, which was my favorite part of this game as a kid. You bring Monster Tokens to the Monster Gallery and you'll get a blurb about one of the enemies in the game along with some trivia facts about Scooby-Doo in general. Each and every enemy in this game, except the main villain, comes from the classic 70's Scooby-Doo: Where Are You TV show. Iconic monsters like The Creeper, The Caveman, The Space Kook, The Ghost Diver, The Green Ghost, and more all make appearances. A lot of them attack Scooby in different ways too, so you have to be careful when you encounter each one for the first time. On top of all that, the voice acting consists of the main Scooby Doo voice actors of the time, including guest VA's such as Tim Curry and even Don Knotts. It's all really well done and sounds like it's straight from one of the shows. The music itself is a bit goofy and chaotic and sometimes suspenseful, but it all sounds like something that would be in the show as well. Even the bosses of the game get their own themes that sound exactly like those 70's tunes that would play during the TV chase sequences.

 Back then, licensed games were a mixed bag. Hearing "licensed game" and "Scooby Doo" combined together sounds like it wouldn't be a great mix, but this game is surprisingly good. There are a few glaring problems here and there. The collision can be a bit janky sometimes, the camera doesn't always cooperate, the snack roadblocks feel a bit forced, and there are a few rooms here and there that are just boring to navigate. In addition, the bosses feel a bit silly not well thought-out. Overall though, I have a great time every time I play this game. If you're not convinced, this game was developed by Heavy Iron Studios, the developers responsible Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: The Game. It even uses the same engine. It seems like such an authentic game that was made with a lot of love for the series. Like MediEvil, if you're looking for a fun, goofy, spooky game to play in October, consider trying this one.

 Sim Theme Park is a very simple game. Riding off the heels of the popular Roller Coaster Tycoon, Bullfrog (now defunct due to Electronic Arts) wanted to bring that experience to consoles. You make a theme park with pre-designed rides, shops, sideshows, and more. You have to keep the park visitors happy along with your employees who will go on strike if they don't approve of your leadership. Honestly, the biggest negative of this game, and you'll notice right away, is that a little advisor guy pops up in the corner to tell you something about your part every 5 seconds.

  It's a pretty repetitive but almost zen kind of game. You start with a Dinosaur/ Jungle theme park and work your way to different themes (Halloween, Alice in Wonderland, and Aliens) as you progress. You build the paths, you place the rides, you hire the employees, you set the prices for everything. You get a bit more control when it comes to building roller coasters, which is kind of the main attraction. After that, you just sort of wait to get enough money to move onto the next park. In my experience, the PC and PS1 versions are more stable than the PS2 version, though the PS2 version has a bit more to do overall.

 Spyro was one of my favorite series as a kid, and it still remains of my top favorites to this day. I thought the "Legend of Spyro" series was okay, but it just couldn't compare to the originals. As the 2000s came to a close, the only thing we really had was Spyro Skylanders. Seeing as how they made Spyro look like a literal gremlin in that game and that it was a Toys to Life game, I wasn't really interested. However, as the 2010's was also coming to a close with no new Spyro games, I kinda gave up on thinking there would ever be anything sequels, spinoffs, or so on. In 2017 though, Crash Bandicoot finally got his N. Sane Trilogy remake. Given that Crash and Spyro have a weirdly linked history, I figured maybe Spyro would get his trilogy soon. Surely enough in 2018, we finally got Spyro: Reignited Trilogy.

 Overall, this is a pretty faithful remake. It has almost everything you'd expect. Spyro controls as he normally would, all the original content is there, and they even added Skill Points and Fast Travel to all 3 games. I wish I could say more in terms of the positives, but this is a decent remake of series that was already great to begin with; there isn't much else to say. Unfortunately though, there are quite a bit of downsides.

 Nothing too major comes to mind, but there are a few blemishes here and there that tend to add up. This first one I feel is a very personal thing that I find isn't exclusive to Spyro: sometimes there is too much detail. In a 3D platformer, it's imperative to know what's important versus what's in the background or what's an unimportant prop. As graphics and console performance improve, I find a lot of 3D platformers have this problem. Important objects that were front-and-center in simpler graphical styles tend to get lost in visual clutter pretty easily in today's graphical styles. In Spyro's case, there's Next Gen™ grass everywhere. It looks fine, but I've ran past so many gems in the remake because so many of them are hidden by the grass. You can use Sparx to locate any missing gems, but it can still be tedious sometimes. While talking about visuals, I feel there's a bit of mistranslation when it comes to some of the character designs. There are NPCs in the remake that look a bit off to me. Some of them make sense in certain contexts, but others just seem to entirely miss what they were seemingly going for in the originals. Let's use the Gnorcs in Spyro 1 for an example. In the original, you had some visual limitations, so you had to keep detail real low. As a result, the main enemies, the Gnorcs, in the original game look kind of cute. In the remake, they look kinda ugly. This contextually makes sense though, because their boss, Gnasty Gnorc, is supposed to be a big scary monster man. So, it makes sense if they look like big scary monster men.

 A lot of NPCs or enemies got pretty good upgrades from PS1 to modern graphics. The silly Wizard Cats from Spyro 3 for example look great!

 However, there's still a lot of NPCs in this game that somehow got lost in translation. Characters that are supposed to look cute and cuddly end up looking a little uncanny. Like I don't think I need to see the clearly defined eye-sockets of this cute seal character.

 One thing I found to be a bit of a bummer is the soundtrack. The original soundtrack was done by Stewart Copeland, the former drummer for the band The Police. Copeland used a synthesizer, with lot of synth-y sounds in the original trilogy, and his scores got more diverse with each game. Spyro's soundtrack is so interesting and unique that you'll know a Spyro song when you hear one. I believe in the remake, Copeland is credited as "supervising" the recreation of the soundtrack. The new soundtrack seems to be going for a more "realistic instruments" approach, which in theory, sounds cool. At the end of the day though, the new score sounds kind of... "muddy" to me. A lot of instruments kind of blend together somtimes. The original score was more bombastic: the melodies are clearly defined and way more in-your-face. The new score sounds like it's deathly afraid of waking your neighbors, so the main melody stays as quiet as possible. Sometimes it seems like they're removed entirely. I've had people tell me I'm just straight up wrong about it. Call me wrong then; I really don't think the new soundtrack is an improvement over the original. Thankfully, they give you the option of switching back to the old soundtrack, which is a nice surpise given that wasn't an option in the Crash remakes.

 Those are my biggest gripes with this game though. Everything else wrong with it is pretty simple, like frame drops, bugs, difficulty increases/decreases, and the loading times. Oh, and the fact you have to download 2/3rds of the game even if you get a physical version which is... not ideal. Either way, this remake is pretty serviceable and it makes the Playstation-stranded classics available to everyone on all platforms. Generally, I think people would enjoy the originals more. As it stands, this remake just takes the originals, polishes the visuals a bit, and sort of makes everything else a little worse. With any luck though, this may pave the way to Spyro 4. Here's hoping since there's already a Crash 4.

 As a side note, one of my favorite criticisms I commonly saw before this game released was that they made Spyro's butt too big.

 Super Mario Bros Wonder is a much-needed step up from the New Super Mario Bros titles. Overall, it makes some great changes and introduces many cool and lovable aspects that I hope become series staples in the future. However, as I read these reviews, I get the feeling I didn’t enjoy it as much as most people do. I can’t help but feel this game plays it a bit too safe in some areas. Wonder would’ve been mind-blowing if we got it in place of New Super Mario Bros 2. or New Super Mario Bros. U, so I’m sort of left with a feeling of “yeah this is where we should’ve been like 10 years ago.” Either way, I’m glad we made it here eventually, at the very least.

 Starting with the positives, the most noticeable changes are the visual style and details. Mario’s world remains as bright and colorful as ever, but Wonder finally manages to have a style completely separate from NSMB. Even though many of the traditional environmental themes are used, they mixed up a lot of the color schemes to really freshen things up and create new visual aesthetics that will hopefully bleed into spinoffs and future entries. And of course, there are the characters, each one being super cartoony, expressive, and having a wide variety of poses, even for the smallest actions. Speaking of, I really liked the array of characters they had this time around. I sort of wish you could be Yoshi or Nabbit without it being easy mode, but it’s not the end of the world. Plus, I think it’s nice they managed to have more than one playable girl character for once. I also like all of the new enemies, lots of goofy new faces are always welcomed in my book. Some enemies are as expressive as the main characters, if not more. I remember in a snow level, a Goomba fell into a small space between 2 blocks. Rather than mindlessly walk back and forth in a 1x1 space, he just gave up, sat down, and looked straight at the camera with a miserable expression. I loved it. Wonder is just full to the brim of little details like that.

 As for Mario and Luigi’s new voice actor, Kevin Afghani, I think he sounded pretty good! I’ll be happy to hear more from him in the future. As for the talking flowers, I didn’t find them as annoying as other people did, but I can see how they can get grating pretty quickly.

 One of my most favorite bits was the online interaction system. I assumed I wouldn't care for it all that much, but it brings so much to the table. It’s fun to be thrown in with a group of random players as you tread new ground together and help each other out. Helping someone through a tough section and spamming the little smile icon at each other is such a nice feeling. Silently agreeing to cooperate and take turns at trying a difficult section is hilarious. Putting down a standee in one level and seeing tons of notifications that people are using it like 10 minutes later is satisfying. Plus it’s all optional too, so if you feel it makes everything too easy or if it’s too invasive, you can turn it off with no issues. Overall, it’s just a delightful little system that I had a great time with.

 With Wonder Flowers, I’m a bit mixed. They’re definitely fun the first time around, but I can’t see myself replaying most of those segments if I already got the seed from them. It’s really cool that they came up with so many ideas, and even cooler that you only see a small portion of them reused only once. Though there’s just something about them that feels like a novelty that will wear off soon. Additionally, I’m also a bit mixed on the Badges. They have some fun ideas going on, but I’m literally never going to switch off of the Parachute Cap badge. The only time I will is when the game clearly expects me to use another badge to get a big purple coin.

 In terms of the difficulty, it’s extremely easy the whole way through minus some of the special levels. I’m not too harsh on that though, because I assume this game is for kids first and adults second. I imagine designing modern, linear difficulty for both demographics is a nightmare. Generally, the levels are a lot shorter as well, which I assume also plays a role in the low difficulty ceiling.

 In the music department, I have to say I’m a little disappointed. Mario games are usually chock full of awesome, memorable tunes. While this one had a handful of stellar tracks, the vast majority of them were fairly forgettable.

 My biggest complaint with this game are the bosses. Bowser Jr. being the boss of every castle is really lame and I’d argue it’s even more boring than bringing back the Koopalings again. The airship bosses being replaced with 10 second factory sections was also a bit of a letdown. And ultimately, the final boss had a generally cool presentation, but it didn’t really feel as “grand” as previous entries. It almost feels silly to complain about this, as I feel nobody really plays Mario Bros for the bosses, but for a game that seems like it’s trying to think outside the box, they really, really missed the mark with bosses.

 At the end of the day, it’s exactly what you’d expect from the next evolution of Super Mario Bros. It’s colorful, creative, and well-polished all throughout. I was hoping for it to push the boundaries a bit more, but it’s still a wonderful little game.

 Do not get tricked by into playing this just because it has "swag" in the title.

 Swagman is a game that would be passable if it came out on SNES. Even so, this would not save it from being unremarkable, as your time would be better spent on similar games like Zombies Ate My Neighbors or Ghoul Patrol. Coming out in 1997 when the market had things like Crash Bandicoot 2, Final Fantasy VII, and Symphony of the Night, Swagman pales in comparison. It’s a 2D overhead puzzle platformer where you control 2 children trying to save their town from Swagman, the video game equivalent of Freddy Krueger. Overall, it’s inoffensive, primarily just boring and monotonous.

 The primary reason I abandoned Swagman is because one of my biggest pet peeves in all video games is ever-present in this title: when it comes to deaths and game overs, this game does not respect your time.
 When you die in Swagman, the screen slowly fades to black, then fades to a game over screen with Swagman’s face. You have 10 seconds to press the start button to continue. Should you not continue, you get sent to the main menu where you have to reload your last save. If you decide to continue, the game has to reload the area you were in which takes a few seconds. From there, it respawns you at the beginning of the room before the room you died in. When you’re at the start of the game, it’s not so bad because the rooms are pretty small. Once you get further into the game, it becomes so irritating. The rooms are much bigger and last longer. Puzzles you’ve already completed must be solved again. Any complicated platforming segments must be completed again. Any important items or consumables you’re running low on must be collected again. To get to each boss, you have to build a bridge by watching a cutscene that takes a while. Every time you die to a boss, you must watch this cutscene again. Maybe this doesn’t sound too terrible, but to top it all off, the game respawns you with the amount of health you had when you entered the previous room. If you entered a room with 1 health and cant find any HP pickups, you just have to hope you won’t die again. In a game that’s littered with rooms full of unkillable enemies and insta-death pits, you are doomed to see the game over screen again and again and again. You can chalk it up to skill issues, but I promise a boring game like this with a terrible checkpoint system is not worth the time or effort.

 There's a neat thing called Retro Achievements, a website you can link to your Perfectly Legitimate Console™ in order to collect achievements on older games that were made before achievements were even a thing. This prompted me to replay some of the older games from my childhood, ones that I haven't played in almost 20 years at this point. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour is one of these games. I remember liking it as a kid, but never really finishing the story mode entirely. After replaying it and getting all the achievements, I can begin to see why. Like I said in my CTR review, there were a lot of kart racers at the time trying to compete with Mario Kart. Some of them, like CTR, brought their own ideas to the table, while others just tried to cash in on the trend. While Disney came up with some cool ideas for this one, it was also a bit clear it was a bit more of the latter.

 The story of the game, narrated by Jiminy Cricket, stars Chip and Dale checking out a magical fireworks machine that the Magic Kingdom uses for their fireworks displays. Chip and Dale get a bit too close to the machine and accidentally drop their nuts into the mechanism (as one does), causing it to explode. The two now have to travel through Disney World and win races in order to get the parts back for some reason. Once you collect all the parts, you race in each level again to get a penant flag. Once you do that, you race on each course again to collect a bunch of trophies within a time limit. Doing all of this unlocks one extra character and one extra stage. The game doesn't do a great job conveying any of this to you. You kinda just keep playing until you realize the UI elements on the track selection menu start to change. I imagine this was explained in the instruction manual or something, but I've conveniently misplaced mine.

 The first thing I noticed about this game are the controls. This game has a pretty inconsistent frame rate, with some tracks being better or worse than others. When the game is (rarely) at full speed, it actually feels somewhat nice to control. This changes when you drift, however. For some reason, the karts will drift at almost a 90 degree angle, flinging you into any nearby walls. It takes a lot of work, but you can get used to it eventually. The boosts you get from drifting tend to be worth it for the most part. You absolutely do not want to drift around every corner though. Sometimes it's more efficient to just tap the drift button to do a short hop around a tight corner. You'll barely lose any speed by doing this. Otherwise, when the game slows down, the controls tend to feel a bit heavier.

 When it comes to the character selection in this game, it's a mixed bag. When you play Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing, you'd be a bit concerned if you couldn't play as the titular characters. While "Mickey" isn't in the title, I would think most people would assume you can play as him and his friends when this isn't the case. You get the aforementioned Chip and Dale who are fine, and Jiminy Cricket who seems like an odd choice, but he's also fine. Then you get mostly original characters, made specifically for this game. Some of these characters are based on rides you find in Disney World or just general Disney themes. Some of them are really cool, like an evil duck princess based on Malificent or a creepy little duck man from the Haunted Mansion, a cowboy from Thunder Mountain, or a robot from Space Mountain. The rest feel kind of generic and forgettable, as if they were background characters in DuckTales or Goof Troop. From what it seems like, there are no stat changes between these characters (and if there are, they don't convey it to you), meaning any of them are viable options. I picked the Haunted Mansion guy, Baron Karlott, because he's a little freak and he's my favorite.

 In terms of the weapon selection, there isn't much to say. Like a lot of kart racers, they copied Mario Kart's homework. There are green and red acorns that function like the Mario Kart shells... except you always get 3 of them. This sounds nice, but the NPCs also get these, meaning you're getting constantly spammed by them. There are teacups which are cool, they turn your kart into a teacup ride and you temporarily lose control. There's a basic boost, there's a rocket that's kind of like a Bullet Bill, there's a... firework popcorn booster thing that makes you invincible? Then of course, there's the Frog Spell. This acts like the lightning in Mario Kart, turning everyone in front of you into frogs. The only issue with this item is that it happens quite literally every 30 seconds or so. Just constantly. Of course, there's also coins which increase your top speed if you collect 10 like Mario Kart. However, this game innovated a mechanic I haven't seen before: Luck Fairies. Collecting these green sparkles that are randomly spawned on the track will decrease your chance of getting hit by homing weapons. Instead, the homing weapons will just ignore you sometimes. I found this to be pretty neat. The one and only drawback is that you need to collect 8 of these fairies on each track to unlock a secret character. The game doesn't keep track of which tracks you've done this one, so it can be hard to remember. On top of that, as I said earlier, these fairies randomly spawn. All 8 of them are not available on just one lap; additional ones spawn in during each lap and old ones despawn. You have to look through each track thoroughly before cashing in a lap. Fortunately, you don't have to win the race to record your fairy score.

 Each track is based around a Disney World attraction, anything before 2000 at least. You have things like Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Blizzard Beach, and more. They look pretty nice for the most part with some really cool set pieces. There's a cool system where if you drive through 3 rings, you can unlock a shortcut once per a lap. The soundtrack is okay, each track usually just uses their pre-existing themes from the park. Anything original in this score isn't really too catchy. There are also some battle maps where you have to collect 50 coins in the story mode. These start out annoying but get easier as it goes on.

 Overall, this is a pretty middling experience. I don't quite fully understand why they made this game. To me, it feels like it was more of an advertisement for Disney World rather than a well-thought-out kart racer, but maybe someone will feel differently.

 As a kid, I loved Collect-a-Thon platformers. I only had a Playstation 1 and 2 at the time though, so I was only able to play games such as Spyro, Battle for Bikini Bottom, or Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. As a result, it took me quite a long time to get around to Banjo-Kazooie, which is the #1 game that comes to mind when most people bring up the genre. In summary, I liked Banjo a lot. Some of the levels toward the end got a bit annoying, but it was a really fun experience and I can see how many later games were inspired it. As of writing this, I've tried to play Banjo-Tooie a few times but haven't been able to finish it for a few reasons. My main gripe with it was that the worlds seemed way bigger than in the first game, which made traveling a bit annoying. On top of that, I feel there were too many moves to learn. If you put the game down for a bit and come back, it's going to take a while to remember what abilities you have and which button combo you have to press. Honestly, I think Tooie had a lot of problems that platformers at the time faced.

 For those unfamiliar, I'm talking about about Banjo a lot because Yooka-Laylee was created by the same team under a different company name. These developers, formerly RareWare which is now owned by Microsoft, made some of the best games on the Nintendo 64 in the 90's. Departing from Rare after the buyout, they went their separate ways for a bit but then came back and formed Playtonic around 2015. With all of their experience, what kind of game would they make 20 years later? After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the highly anticipated Yooka-Laylee released to lukewarm reception. After playing the game myself, I agree with this sentiment. From what it seems like, Playtonic hasn't really learned from the pitfalls of Tooie. This game has quite a few issues that weren't even present in the Banjo games.

 First of all, much like Tooie, the levels feel a bit too large. This would be okay if these levels were packed with fun things to do, but a lot of them are just open fields and empty space. Going off of that, some of the environments seem pretty forgettable. A lot of the structures in the levels appear very similar, so you end up just wandering in circles looking for the next objective. There's an interesting mechanic where the first time you enter a world, about halfway of the level is missing. With this mechanic, it can help you get familiar with the level when it's at a much smaller scale. Later when you get more collectibles, you have the option of filling out the rest of the world. This is cool in concept, but the expansion option doesnt require that many collectibles, so most people just expand the world right away. Once the level is full, it becomes so large that it makes it a lot harder to remember where things are and where to go. I think maybe it would be better if they had to force the player to other worlds first, and then come back when they have more abilities and collectibles, as long as they have an easy way to backtrack. There are also 200 quills to collect in each level. These act as a currency to help you buy new abilities. From a game design perspective, small collectibles like the quills are a good way to leave breadcrumbs to the player, lightly guiding them to areas they haven't been to yet. In Yooka-Laylee, the quills sometimes lead you to new places, while other times, they just seem randomly placed. Every level also has a mine cart section where you have to collect 100 gems or you just have to do it over. Some people like it, but I find it kind of boring and repetitive. Every level also has an arcade minigame that tend to be pretty dull. I think my least favorite thing about this game is the Special Moves Meter. Every time you use a special move, it depletes your meter. This includes a rolling-ball move that helps you get around faster. Once you deplete it, you have to wait about 15 seconds for it to fill up. I get that with some moves the developers don't want you to spam them, but why put a limit on how much you can use a run move in a 3D platformer?

 As for things like enemies, there's very little enemy variety. You have little goblin guys that die in one hit. You have these bee-drone guys who have a very tight window of vulnerability. You have these big beefy goblin guys who take a long time to kill but respawn anyway. You have Xbox Kinect robots that shoot lasers at you but stay in one spot. My favorite are the googly eyes that possess nearby objects and throw them at you; a callback to everything in old RareWare games having eyeballs... but that's it for enemies. They don't really make use of your abilities, except for the robots who can't detect you if you go invisible. As for the bosses, they barely feel like bosses. You just do some sort of task over and over until the boss dies. This just sounds like a brief description of what most bosses in video games are, but there's just no satisfaction to it. They aren't difficult, they aren't interesting, they aren't clever, they aren't engaging. Like in World 2, you "fight" a giant ice cube that slides around the wall. You have to light the fires beneath him in order to melt him. There's barely any indication that you're doing anything to him aside from him ever-so-slightly shrinking over time. The fires go out every 10 seconds or something and you just light them again until he's dead. Every 10 seconds, he stops and fires projectiles at you. That's it. No actual combat, no puzzle to solve, or anything. You just kinda wait him out after lighting the fires.

 I'm sad that this game is painfully average. I'm a huge fan of platformers and I'm always eager to see more of them. It's just a bit disappointing that industry veterans delivered something like this when newbies have been able to make more with less in recent years. The main highlights are the character designs and the music, and that's about it. I really hope they make a sequel and take the feedback they received to heart, I really think they could make something awesome, and I think they will one day.