Bahamut Games

Opening

As I said earlier, I don't really do visual novels, Ace Attorney is my only experience with it. And, in fact, this is a game I didn't even know existed until recently. I thought Melty Blood was just... Melty Blood! But no! This is actually where it starts! I don't know if I would've tried this on my own, but my girlfriend and my partner are both BIG fans of it, and so we all read it out loud together. Which was extremely fun! Voicing all the characters is actually something I do when I play alone so having others along for the party was a real treat. And ultimately I found myself have a really REALLY good time with it that I don't know if I would've otherwise.

Stuff I liked

+ Well first off, I LOVE how the game looks. The art style on the portraits and CGs are SO lovely. I like the backgrounds too, I think they're very nice and, I know it doesn't ACTUALLY take place in Atlanta. But it reminded me of places I've been to in Atlanta. And now that I've been to Japan and I've seen places there that ALSO remind me a lot of Atlanta... Yes, Tsukihime takes place in Atlanta. + The character designs are VERY nice! Arcueid is so cute, Ciel is the wife ever, I like Akiha, and the maids are both very cute and very distinct. And Nrvqsr... Oh.... Nrvqsr... How I LOVE YOU!! His design is SO bad ass and he's absolutely the coolest concept to come out of this game. HE'S GOT A CROCODILE IN HIS BODY!!! HE'S LITERALLY THE PRIMODIAL OOZE IN HUMAN FORM!!! THIS CHARACTER WAS TAILOR MADE TO APPEAL TO ME!! + And of course, the characters in of themselves are absolutely fantastic! I could go on and on here. Nrvqsr is totally bad ass. But I really like Shiki, I think he's VERY interesting. Ciel is super cool and tragic and easily my favorite character. Arcueid is SO cute and a ton of fun, I like her story a lot too. I think Akiha is cute and her powers are really interest. I felt so much for maids, they were so sad I loved them so much, and ultimately Kohaku has what is probably the best ending (next to Ciel's ending where Arcueid keeps third wheeling lol). I LOVE Arihiko and wish he was in the game more, his dynamic with Shiki is genuinely SO lovely. I think Roa is an interesting concept, I think SHIKI is so tragic, I think Yumizuka is tragic. Genuinely all the characters are excellent. + The music. Oh that music. Goodness the music!! It's all SO good!! My favorite one, bar none, is Track 7. It gets me so emotional every time I hear it and every version is touching. Yes, even the GBA port version gets to me. I really REALLY like this song and it's been stuck in my head nonstop since finishing it. Yeah there are other songs too. They're nice. Anyway, track 7- + It has a really interesting world. I like how they do vampires with this weird true ancestor stuff. I find Roa's weird reincarnation power to be fascinating and really horrifying. And again Nrvqsr is genuinely SO cool and interesting. I think all the vampires and weird supernatural shit are just so so fascinating to me. Again, with Ciel being the cream of the crop. + The game over scenes are genuinely hilarious with Ciel-Senpai teaching you what you did wrong. Those scenes are full of gags that made us all laugh a lot. I can't believe Neco-Arc is like, a visual gag from the game over sequences. Why did she become so popular? "You got your head cut off..." did make me lose my shit. + Actually with that being said this game has some FUNNY shit for such a depressing story. The part where you have to remember where Akiha's room is has a gag where you can accidentally go back to Shiki's room and he'll be like "truly, I have never felt this stupid in my entire life." And that's it, no punishment. Just there to clown on you. Very good. + And the final part, perhaps the biggest part for a visual novel. The story is really REALLY good. It's tragic, it's tough at times, it can be uncomfortable and hard to sit through, especially the back half. But it is GOOD. Full of tons of twists and turns and really fascinating concepts that I found to be super interesting. I like how everyone's backstories are slowly drip fed to you through hints you might not even realize until like, hours in. It gets really emotional and tough, it's cool and scary, it's sweet, it's pretty much everything you could hope for in a story. My personal run rankings are maybe: Arcueid > Ciel > Akiha > Kohaku > Hisui. With Hisui's still being WONDERFUL of course. And again every character's backstory is SO cool. Ciel being like, a glitch in reality. Arcueid being a weapon. Akiha being a heat sucking vampire. Shiki being some crazed super soldier. Every single character is absolutely fascinating.

Stuff I didn't like

- I feel like I gotta get this one out of the way right away. There are more than 1 sexual assault scenes in this game. And they kinda make me uncomfortable. I don't think the game is necessarily wrong to include them. But like, they were tough. I didn't really end up reading them out loud. I probably could've done without them. Though I do respect and understand that they are a part of the story if that makes sense? - There are some lose ends here. I think Yumizuka deserved to be in the game WAY more. She's pretty tragic, and all she does is die. It's a little unfair, especially for a game that goes out of its way to give its female characters SO much more time... time to suffer, yes, but time all the same!! Similarly, we never save SHIKI... He's really tragic and while he has way more time than Yumizuka. It still ends with him never getting saved. He was just a kid too. - God DAMN there's like, 3 happy endings in this game. And only 2 of them are the "true ending" of their route I think. It's brutal. I think the game is a little TOO depressing, in my humble opinion. - I probably could've done without the child assault stuff too. I understand it's part of the story pretty crucially. But it's a little brutal in my opinion. Again I like the game, but I do have to side eye the creator a bit for tormenting Kohaku so much throughout every run. And then only deciding to give her a good ending RIGHT at the end. It feels cruelly brutal you know? - I like sex scenes. I think the game should include sex scenes... But I think maybe some practice would be very beneficial. Not EVERY sex scene needs an anal part where everyone is explicitly having a bad time. I think the dream sex scenes are written well and fun and stuff but the real world ones are like, almost all bad. STOP CALLING IT GROTESQUE!!! DON'T DESCRIBE IT LIKE THAT!! - My only real gameplay critique is that I feel like there should be a way to tell whose talking at any given time. They put quotation marks around things that are being said and not just Shiki's inner monologue. But that's not super helpful when 3 people are talking in a scene at once. Just someone's name next to their text or even color coding the text would go a long way. - No Arihiko run 0/10 game actually where are my Shiki x Arihiko shippers at?

Final Thoughts

Overall, it is a game that has a fair amount of uncomfortable stuff in it. But if you can get through that I really challenge you to give it a whirl because it is a beautiful game that's really moving. Great art, characters, music, writing, concepts, it's genuinely a very good time. I'm very happy I was able to be introduced to this and I'd like to explore more of the Tsukihime world too, particularly Melty Blood. I want to be able to understand Melty Blood now.

Also yes Ciel is the best girl, wrap it up, no more questions.

===

I feel like I want to write more about this one but like. Again it's a visual novel, and strictly visual. It's not like ace attorney or murder of sonic where there is gameplay. It's all just reading and choosing options and stuff. Very basic from a gameplay perspective, but very deep with its content. And ultimately that made it very unique and perfect to play with my partners.

Yeah! I had a great time with this! My partners and I are already planning to tackle more, as there is a bonus game and all of melty blood and Aoko's game. And maybe we'll touch FATE eventually too... And maybe the remake but I do really really really hate how Ciel looks in that thing so idk.

But anyway, that's about all I have for you! Go out and play something with people you love :)

Opening

So, I'm actually not the world's biggest Air Ride head. I've played it and I enjoyed it, but I haven't played it a bunch. But I like Kirby enough, and everyone was posting about how good it was, and it's an official Sakurai creation. So I couldn't help but be a little intrigued.

Oh, but that price... for a game I'm not SUPER invested in? There was only one solution. I took the plunge on renting through GameFly! I had a free trial, and what did I have to lose, right? Frankly, the experience was pretty smooth and painless, and I got to keep the game for my entire subscription, so I will absolutely be using this service again in the future for super expensive games. But I wanna specify that the success of renting through GameFly may color my perception against other Switch 2 titles as I effectively got to play Air Riders for free.

Stuff I liked

+ This game is GORGEOUS, that's the first thing I notice about it. I know the characters are really simply but their models are super cute and the environments are insanely detailed and absolutely beautiful. The machines are also fun and detailed in spite of being pretty simple in shapes too! + It just feels nice to play, it's a racing game, but it's so weirdly combat and chaos focused when compared to other games. The controls are super simple, but you can absolutely destroy other racers and powerups come at you at such a chaotic pace even in races. It's a ton of fun and kind of only gets better when you're actually fighting each other. + Track selection is really nice! In addition to tracks from the original game, you have some absolutely lovely ones like Amber Falls which is absolutely gorgeous or Nova which is so over the top, maybe one of the most cinematic racing game tracks I've ever seen. + Music is also delightful, I have to give a shoutout to Floria Fields which gives me a feeling so complicated every time I hear it, and I've replayed it tons of times already. It's those violins... it's those DAMN violins!!! + The sheer amount of customization for your cars is kinda nuts. You can make TONS of stupid shit here. My pride and joy was Cerberus, a Rex Wheelie who was evil and fucked up. Tons of stickers, textures, effects, and pair that each car's unique abilities and the racers who all have alt colors, hats, and their own unique abilities. The possibilities are kinda endless!

+ Tons of modes for EVEN MORE shit to do. Racing, top down racing, City Trial, play by yourself, play with friends, play online, go into the story mode, there's so much to do! + City Trial does kinda rule. I get it now. Genuinely the next Smash Bros. NEEDS to bring back Smash Run with features from this. Let me encounter my rivals on the map while playing! Add online! I beg of you!! + Being able to pick a challenge off the challenge board and have the game automatically set it up for you is so smart, that I'm kind of baffled it took this long for a game with a built in list of challenges to do that. + TONS of accessibility features! Maybe some of the most I've seen since like, The Last of Us (though nothing may ever top that game's accessibility stuff). It's already been a while so I can't recall them all, but I was very impressed with the option to reduce screen motion and such for a racing game. + Story mode is a TON of fun, it's pretty simple in terms of gameplay. Kinda feeling like Smash 4 classic mode. But i'dunno it just really worked for me. Doing random matches and building a random machine as you go. It was a total blast and I thoroughly enjoyed getting every machine for the true ending. + The story in of itself is also a ton of fun. Noir is SUPER cool, I have no idea why Nova hated her pussy so much, the whole concept of Gigantes is very cool, and the finale is absolutely INSANE!! Just bat shit crazy for no fucking reason. Any opportunity I get to kill Nova is a good one!!

Stuff I didn't like

- I think the roster leaves something to be desired. It's a lot of big names, without a ton of weirdos and less known characters. I know hoping for Escargoon is maybe foolish, but I'd like some Kirby characters I've NEVER heard of. I haven't played a Kirby game in years you really expect me to believe Taranza and Susie are the only newcomers to the cast in that time? - No ChuChu so actually I take back everything nice I said the game sucks ass - I think the hats for characters are also a little meh. A lot of them fit weirdly and while there is a nice selection it is a limited selection. - Alt colors for characters suck. I'm just gonna say it! Most only have 2 and they're not that exciting!! Just saying! Gooey should have more than 2 colors. JUST SAYING!! - Making Noir a Dedede clone is really disappointing, why is it Noir Dedede? How does Zorah even know Dedede? I love King Dedede but... it can be a fully original character that's okay... It barely even looks like Dedede! Maybe a nitpick, yeah, but it bothers ME, okay?? - I feel like 3 slots is really weirdly limiting for the amount of cars you can have posted online at any given time! I wanted to share more machines before I had to return my copy of the game!! - Even though I do like the story mode, playing it twice is KIND of a slog, and I imagine if you miss a machine and have to redo it again and again it's probably a massive fucking chore. Also, like, the spirits thing they try to do feels a little pointless? Just let me pick my path without doing all that? Oh well at least they tell you which to pick to get a new path. - Seriously why did Nova hate Zorah's pussy so bad!?!? That's NOT what Nova is supposed to do when granting wishes? I hate that fucking clock so bad!!!

Final Thoughts

I do feel like I had more negatives to say, but it's already been a few months and I don't take notes on these things so they've kinda escaped my brain. But overall I REALLY enjoyed this one. It was a total blast and I see why people like Air Ride so much! I get it now!!

I do love Sakurai but he can be a little hard headed sometimes, BUT also I do fucking LOVE Sakurai so I'm always gonna be interested in anything he makes. I can't help but be a little bit of a shill for him I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!! I do think there's a lot of cool stuff here that I hope we can see in a future Smash Bros game. Like more accessibility features, more customization options, improvements to Smash Run, and like... a story mode with maybe more a proper conclusion... I loved World of Light but that ending was kinda nothing aha

And as for GameFly, yeah I enjoyed my time with a lot! You get a free trial for your first time using it, so if it's a console you can't pirate, it's a great way to try a game out without having to pay $70 and being disappointed in it. My only issue is I do find the website to be really weird to navigate, being basically impossible to find your profile to do ANYTHING. I know they want to make cancelling difficult but like... what about stuff I use when I want to pay for it? Just odd.

===

BUT YES, so far, Kirby Air Riders is my favorite Switch 2 game, and was actually my game of the year last year!! How exciting! While I do think getting to try it for basically free colored my time a bit when compared to other Switch games, I still do think it was genuinely a blast and I hope we start getting more Switch games that just feel a little more satisfying and not like, actively player antagonistic? I'dunno

If you wanna see and download my custom machines, I shared their codes on Bluesky! Let me know if you get a kick out of them!!

But for the most part, that's all I got for you! Go out and play a crazy racing game!!

Opening

Before we start... God is it weird to anyone else this game is from 2012? Like, the DS is supposed to be SOOOOO old now or whatever. But I was on Tumblr when this game was coming out. I remember EVERYONE doing backflips for how cute Rosa was (and they were right)... What do you MEAN the DS and Tumblr coexisted? Huh? Whuh???

As I mentioned last time, Pokemon Black and White are some of the games I'd been most interested in playing. I love Unova a lot, as it has some of my favorite Pokemon ever. And I guess now that Emerald and Black are done, Black 2 is probably the next most interesting game to me. We've never had a sequel before in the series so I was ENDLESSLY excited to see what they'd do with that kind of a concept! So, how did it hold up?

Well....

Stuff I liked

+ Kyurem is here!!! It's Kyurem!!!! Oh my god hi Kyurem hi hello!!!! Easily one of my favorite Pokemon designs ever and easily one of my favorite legendaries ever! And not only is it here, but it's a major player in the story! How exciting!! + GREAT music as you'd expect. Listening to it right now I really like Route 19 a lot, what a cute song. GREAT visuals too, even if it's all built of Black and White 1, they manage to do their own things with it that give it a new breath of life. + I like Hugh! I think he's a fun rival and it's cool that he has a motivation tied into the villain team and is a little chuuni because of it. He's fun and he's got a cool design. + It's really exciting to see how the region has changed over the years. Bianca is SO cute as a scientist and it's fun to see Cheren now being the starting Gym leader. He's come a long way since wanting to be all powerful. + On that note, once again this game does a great job with making the gyms facilities that are proper locations you would visit. With Cheren's in particular being a personal favorite as it's so new and fresh that it's just an outdoor basketball court. And there's a small line where he mentions that since he's the first gym, they don't let him use his partners from the first game and make him use weaker Pokemon. It's cute! I love this detail! + PokeStar studios is a fun idea, I love all the weird shit they make you battle in there. Genuinely I'd love to see more weird non-pokemon monsters be opponents in this series... AND DON'T HAVE THEM USE POKEMON- + HOLY SHIT I ACTUALLY GOT TO DO 3 V 3 BATTLES INSTEAD OF THE STUPID ROTATION BATTLES! These are SO much better I'm genuinely so confused who thought up rotation battles because they are effectively pointless. THIS is what was supposed to be the focus of the last game. THIS is the reason we had 2 rivals, you idiot!! UGH!!!! Glad it's here now though, it rules. Don't make crucial gameplay mechanics version exclusive anymore okay? + LYRICAL MUSIC!!! IN POKEMON!!!!!! THEY HAD A SONG WITH ACTUAL LYRICS!?!?!? HELLO!?!??!?!?!?!? THAT FUCKING RULES I LOVE WHEN VIDEO GAMES HAVE LYRICAL SONGS!!! I actually had no idea this was gonna happen so I flipped out when it came up! + Roxie... ehehe... Roxie~ *twirling my hair*

Stuff I didn't like

- Remember when I complained that Black and White 1 weren't different enough technology-wise from Diamond and Pearl? It was because they were on the same console. So imagine if we had 3 different games on the same console. Sure, maybe you could count this as a 3rd version, but because there is a brand new story, I feel compelled to count this as its own version. And it just doesn't do enough new to really justify itself. BW1 stood apart from DPP because it used the art style and music in new and exciting ways. But this one kinda just doesn't? It's the same stuff again, which is primo stuff... But still. - Not really the game's fault just cause it's the nature of the beast but... TECHNICALLY the worst Pokemon distribution because there are no new Pokemon. Which I could forgive if they didn't bring in older Pokemon. This was BW1's biggest achievement in my opinion. I don't WANT the old guys, I WANT the new guys. Why would you axe that now? I'm just not a fan of that angle, I'm sad to say. - The Gyms are fucking weird in this game. 2 new Gyms, which are the best. Followed by 5 returning Gyms that are all worse than the last game. Then 1 underwhelming Gym lead by a guy whose like... a centrist or something i dont remember. It's really weird to front and back load the game with new stuff then make the whole middle just a repeat of the first game. Even if it has new story beats it's just kinda like??? - I don't remember exactly which 2 gyms it was so you can scratch this off as more of a nitpick. But there's a set of Gyms that are like, AGES away from each other. It takes forever to reach the other one and I just remember that being really weird. - Another more nitpicky take but this game is that I do remember having some issues again with enemies just tearing me down no matter what level I was at, and once again grinding for Audino feels kind of required for the end game and just... isn't that fun? - The connectivity between BW1 and BW2 is potentially the most wasted feature I've ever seen in my life. I'm so shocked by just HOW wasted it was. You get some flashbacks of N being like "UGH fuck you YN..." and I think they mention you once or twice... And that's it! That's all you got!? No boss battle with Georgia? Not even like a statue? A mention of my starter? NOTHING?? Seriously, the fact you don't get to fight yourself is actually a crime. I can't believe they didn't do that. - I'm not a huge fan of the 3 musketeer deer Pokemon. So just having them standing in the middle of the road waiting for me to interact with them felt so clunky and weird. There HAD to be a cleaner was to bring them in rather than having them jump down from a mountain and stand in the middle of a route while I walk away from their side quest awkwardly. - Then there's the story... What a delightfully pointless tale that seems to exist almost just to undermine the first game? Team Plasma has split into 2. Those who serve N and those who serve Ghetsis. Team N are apologetic and want to reunite people and Pokemon, but are not trusted by society at large. I get that, that's good development. Those who follow Ghetsis are back at it again doing the same thing pretty much. But this time!! They have a BOAT!!! AND IT FLIES AND SHOOTS ICE!!!!!!!! Their goal is to kidnap Kyurem and fuse him with a dragon in order to take over Unova. Nothing really happens, you beat them up and then... N shows up, tells the guy who abused him his whole life "pwease stop :(" Ghetsis says "i don' wanna :(" and then you fight the Kyurem fused dragon... Ghetsis gets a slap on the wrist after throwing a tantrum and is escorted out by his baby sitters, and N is like "cool im gonna head out" and that's it. In my opinion, possibly the most underwhelming conclusion to Black and White they could have possibly done. No exciting finale at the league, no true defeat of Ghetsis. Nothing. Not even your trainer from BW1 showing up on HER dragon to do something. Nothing happens and then the story is over and you just go fight the champion and it all goes off without a hitch. I truly don't

know what the point of any of this was. And it left me feeling unfulfilled.

For some reason if there isn't an indent there the post can't save by the way. Which I will consider the last curse of Black 2.

Final Thoughts

I'm gonna be honest with y'all, this is the first true dud game in the series for me. I could not get into it, and I think that's for a multitude of reasons that just make this game feel… Pointless? Maybe even a little unpolished. It's not BAD by any means. But just by the standards of the series so far, even Platinum or Crystal which I thought had weaknesses, were held up by new and exciting things that made me enjoy them. This game HAS nothing new or exciting. So ultimately its weaknesses shine a lot more. So, sadly, I think I know where it has to be ranked...

Yes, in spite of everything, I think Black 2 is my personal least favorite entry in the series so far. Like I said, where Platinum and Crystal had weaknesses that bothered me a lot, they are filled to the brim with new stuff that still made the game exciting and fulfilling to go through. And they don't necessarily actively drag down the games before them. But the lack of anything truly new outside of some new characters, and the almost laughable way the villain story ends here after the culmination of 2 whole games? It just really left a bitter taste in my mouth.

===

This one makes me feel kinda bad. So many people told me that this is their childhood game or even their favorite Pokemon game. So I can't help but be a little bummed that I didn't like it as much. Or even that I came away with such strong negative opinions. Don't get me wrong, I still think Black 1 is AMAZING. But this just really failed to hit nearly the same highs every single opportunity it had. At least to me.

I've heard a lot of opinions on every Pokemon game past this point. "It's all down hill" "they're not that bad" "they're a mixed bag" "my childhood games". X & Y are next, and they're the last games I tried before kind of giving up on playing the main series as a kid. So I'm VERY curious to see how it'll end up treating me.

You can see my team for Black 2 right here if you want!

And that's all I got for now, go out and play a sequel to a game you love!

Bird vs Bird

Simple but interesting enough. Control an orange bird and get it to the edge of the map 1 tile at a time while black birds spawn to stop you. It's kinda boring but inoffensive. I finished Orange Bird Story but there's a level in Black Bird Story that I legit think is impossible without being able to place 2 birds at once.

Casino

Basic as fuck casino minigames. Only things of note are that is has horseracing, I never got ANY matches other than cherries on the slots after doing nonstop pulls, and interestingly enough the game seems to have a money counter that presumably makes your little protagonist avatar become wealthier? I didn't have the patience to try for it though cause early in your max bet is so low and idk when it raises.

Chess

It's chess. I don't know how to play chess. I meant to play with my mom before leaving but never got around to it. Sorry mom. When I get back home let's play Chess right away, okay?

Hue Drops

Interesting puzzle game where you have a board of blobs of different colors, change colors to link blobs together, and the board must end on a specific color. It took a bit to understand but once you get it its okay. The randomness makes some levels seemingly straight up impossible however. But I think there's some potential here.

Juan's Magic Lab

Basically a non game, I have no idea how this isn't listed in the kids section when its obviously made for really little children. Make a weird chimera, Juan is happy, Juan gets a fly as a reward for your chimera? And you get nothing. There's a mode where you have to match another chimera, and a mode where you have to memorize a chimera and recreate it. This would be tough if the chimeras didn't react when you were right so its impossible to lose this one YOUR GAME SUCKS, JUAN!!

Luggage Lane

WAIT this is the best game in the lot, genuinely. It's a simple premise. You play as baggage check, and you have to tag bags appropriately. Some levels are by contents (represented by a little image) and some levels are by weight (these beat my ass). If you mess up, you have to grab it from the back row before your boss sees it. If your boss catches an error 3 times you lose. It's simple but fun and the later levels get gross with conveyors having mismatched timing and TONS of bags. What sets this over the top is the features though. 10 levels with ranking systems, achievements, a leaderboard, and a cute lady as the protagonist! This is a game game!

Shanghai

It's mahjong. I don't know how to play mahjong.

Solitaire Classic

It's solitaire. I don't know how to play solitaire.

Tick Rack Toe

Now THIS is a fascinating concept!! It's connect 4 (not tick tack toe...) but it's more in depth and interesting. You must get 3 rows in order to win, and there are power ups you can get to interfere with the board! This is the second most interesting game here and certainly one I'd like to see expanded on! The only issue is that the CPU absolutely never makes a bad play, even on the easiest difficulty. So you have to genuinely outplay it which is not easy. And this is the only game in the kid's section!! It DOES have multiplayer though! Local and seemingly with others on the flight so that's neat!

Walk the Vine

Potentially the worst game here. But maybe I'm just harsh on it because it was the last one I played and I was tired by then. This is similar to bird vs bird, but less fun and less thematically cohesive. Play as a Chameleon trying to eat a bird. Each turn you can go across a rope, and each turn the bird can cut a rope. Simple enough but its not fun. I don't think level 1 is actually beatable as the chameleon, genuinely, and the vines have such a small button to cut them as the bird. And whats the correlation between chameleons and birds anyway? Shouldn't you have gone with a bug that could reasonably cut the vines like a stag or a mantis. This is the game I played and enjoyed the least.

I do think it's very interesting that there's no game ports here, and it's all original stuff instead. Could you imagine if they only made original movies instead of just licensing movies? That'd be insane. And while I can tell these are all meant to be slightly easier mobile games, so you can't port Elden Ring to Delta Airlines... No Angry Birds? No Fruit Ninja? No Among Us with flight exclusive lobbies?? It seems like a missed opportunity.

EDIT: HEY WHY DID TUMBLR DELETE MY WHOLE SECTION FOR ORIGINAL GAME IDEA!?!?! I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE UNTIL NOW!!

Basically my concept is that it's a shorter kind of JRPG with traditional turnbased combat. Nothing too intense like action commands or anything cause the screens kinda suck ass and you need to be able to pause it at a moment's notice. Just regular turnbased combat with special abilities and items and the like. And then between battles you can land in cities and towns to buy gear for your aeromorph and talk to NPCs and learn a little about the world around you. Which, aesthetically speaking, would be full of old ruins and really prioritizing the different islands you land and fly over having different cultures and such!

You play as a cute Aeromorph fighting sky pirates as she soars around the world. Either to stop the sky pirates from attacking her friends, or because you're collecting stuff around the globe and the sky pirates are attacking you to steal it from you. However big you want to make the mystery. I would love an RPG that's like, 10-13 hours, perfect for my flight length, but I think something much much shorter is probably better.

An idea I had when I first wrote this was what if the game actually used the real time flight tracker? The aeromorph flies in real time with your plane and as you fly you get random encounters and power ups. I hate to say it but some roguelike elements of some kind would probably work pretty well since it's meant to be a little short and sweet. Only issue is like, what if you die? You can't just start the flight over again. Maybe it impacts your score? But who gives a shit.

Just some basic concepts. Again I'm so sorry tumblr just axed this whole section from the post and only kept my initial shitty idea of making chimeras with fucking Juan to fight in Pokemon battles. I don't LIKE that idea cause I don't LIKE Juan FUCK YOU JAUN YOUR GAME SUCKS!!

Mario Kart Arcade GP (October 10, 2005) - Arcade

A little while ago Dolphin upgraded to be able to emulate Triforce Arcade hardware! This is pretty exciting to me as I haven't had a ton of time with these kind of games. And as I've been giving Mario Kart World another shot recently, Mario Kart was on the brain. So... Why not give these a whirl from the comfort of my own home?

Stuff I like + I think it's a GREAT looking game. It's got this Double Dash/MKWii aesthetic I really enjoy. And it actually has some WONDERFUL track aesthetics. This is easily my favorite looking Mario Circuit in the series. And Rainbow Road going through floating islands and under water makes it one of the most whimsical Rainbow Roads in my opinion! + Pac-Man is here, along with Ms. Pac-Man, and Blinky. And you absolutely cannot hate Pac-Man. In fact, Pac Mountain is the best designed track in the game in my opinion. I'd LOVE to see this stuff come to a console Mario Kart eventually. + This game actually has some VERY interesting gameplay concepts. I was a pretty big fan of drifting giving you a temporary shield, it's a very neat idea and makes me want to try and drift anywhere I can! + But the most interesting mechanic to me is the fact that you actually unlock items and build your own custom item set ups. 3 items per race of your choosing. And some characters even come with exclusive items! Princess Peach has a Princess Drink that makes her invincible, which was a personal favorite of mine. + Robo Mario is such a cool design! It's a shame he's never been playable. + There's also minigames after each cup and they're pitifully easy and not very fun. But I do appreciate them having mission mode styled stuff. Sure.

Stuff I didn't like - In spite of everything. The item selection kinda sucks. It's a lot of the same things. A lot of "throw this and it acts like a green shell" "throw this and it acts like a red shell" and then you get like, 10 items that do that same thing. Your best bet is focusing on defensive items like shields and what not. But in the end it's random what items you unlock I think. Across both games, I NEVER unlocked a basic mushroom. Which is insane to me. - The tracks are not that great in my opinion. They're not bad, but they're not really that amazing to me. I think the Mario and Rainbow Road ones are pretty good mainly visually, and the Pac-Man one is the most solid. But the others are kinda just whatever? Wario's is neat because it's implied to be Diamond City from WarioWare which is cool but it's a meh track. - And I know for a FACT the reason I feel like that is because the format of the single player experience in this game sucks. Each cup is the same track over and over, with 1 variant on the track sprinkled in. The differences come from the items they let you use during it. And it makes the game SUCH a chore to go through. More tracks, or even just having 2 cups only. Day Cup, with the first versions of each track. And Night Cup, with the second versions. I think something like that would've been MUCH better.

Overall I think the game is OK. I think if you like Mario Kart, it's absolutely worth your time. It's a really fun and interesting entry in the series history!

AND OH MY GOD IT'S SO MUCH BETTER THAN MARIO KART ARCADE GP 2!!

Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 (March 14, 2007) - Arcade

What an absolutely pointless video game. This sequel is basically the exact same thing as the last game with only a handful of new additions. 2 characters, 2 tracks, new unlockables, and maybe new items? I don't recall. If Arcade 1 kinda dragged on towards the end, I was basically clocked out for a lot of Arcade 2.

Stuff I like + The new characters are great! Waluigi is always a welcome addition and Mametchi is a very fun inclusion! + The new tracks are alright too! Yoshi's is just okay (though I do love the haunted house part using the Luigi's Mansion ghosts.) However, Waluigi's steals the show. Being an alright track with a KILLER aesthetic. Basically being Waluigi Stadium again but this time with robot dinosaurs for no reason. I love it. + Being able to unlock an alternate car for each character is fun!

Stuff I didn't like - But like, it's the exact same fucking game. All the other tracks are IDENTICAL. And you go through them IDENTICALLY. It's the same game!! Yes, there's changes to the menus and there's red coins and other changes. But at it's core it's the same thing!! It's so boring!!! - One of the new changes is the ability to select your Course Class. Which of course, I already beat Arcade 1, so I went with 150cc. The tracks are NOT designed to work with 150cc and it shows. The final turn in the Wario track made me lose every single time. - Weird to me there's no Tamagotchi track?? Anything to avoid making more new stuff. - The mini games are also identical, except the Bowser fight is now made impossible for some reason?? Okay????? - There's only 1 unlockable car for everyone anyway so what's the point??? DAMN!!!

I'dunno. While I enjoyed Arcade 1, I just don't see any purpose to this game. An absolute bore because, again, it's the exact same thing again. I guess you are better off just skipping to this one? As it is probably better since it's the same game with more content. But of course since I played this one second it kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Oh well. One day I'd like to try Arcade 3 as well, but that doesn't seem to be on Triforce hardware so I'll have to find another way to play it.

Mega Man Battle Network (March 21, 2001) - Gameboy Advance

Now here's a game I've been LONG overdue to play! Since I first got back into Megaman when a good friend got me the X collection years ago, I knew I REALLY wanted to check this series out. It's a Megaman RPG on GBA... That's painfully up my alley! But for whatever reason, I just never got around to it until now! And I'm VERY glad I finally took the plunge!

Stuff I like + Absolutely DELIGHTFUL game visually. The sprites in of themselves are fantastic. But I'm really taken by the character designs and aesthetics. I'm a huge sucker for this era of media about the internet and how it understood technology. It's a lovely look and just fills me with this nice feeling I can't exactly describe. + I particularly wanna highlight those character designs because I think the Net Navis have such lovely designs and are really interesting spins on classic Mega Man characters. I think the way Mega himself looks like a scuba diver is very interesting. And even the humans themselves are cute and the viruses look GREAT!! + Great music, the main theme has been stuck in my head NONSTOP since I beat it. + The story and world are also nice. There's a real excitement for technology here, similar to Pokemon, while warning about dangers that come with better technology, while not shaming technology. It's clear they love tech, and can see dangers present with it, but it shows the technology is worth protecting in a way I quite like. Also, always online technology getting hacked is like, my nightmare for real. I've been horrified of the bus hacking chapter for years now. This is a horror game. + The gameplay isn't what I was expecting, but I like it!! I knew it was deck based and also had a little grid you moved around kinda in an action/strategy hybrid. But the way deck building and hands mid-combat worked was not at all what I was expecting. But it was cool and I think there's SO much potential for the sequels. This is REALLY solid ground work!! + Enemy patterns can be genuinely fun to dodge and solve, it evokes something similar to undertale in the way two different enemies can become total menaces when their bullets are fired together. + Similarly customizing Mega Man to your liking is a TON of fun! I mainly focused on filling him up with shotgun and cannon blasts so I could get full hands of them. But it was also padded with some health and other weapons for fun.

Stuff I didn't like - I feel like this game does kind of fall into a trap that a lot of games with this "real world vs fantasy world" set up fall into. Where the noncombat sections (the parts with Lan) can kind of be a drag. They're not overly long but they're certainly less exciting that the Mega Man sections and sometimes navigating them can be a pain in the ass. There's a LOT of parts where it's like: >Let's go to location A >Huh, no one's here, let's return to location B >Oh! Now that we're in B, we got an email telling us there's something in A now >Return to location A A lot of meandering and running about as Lan. To put it concisely. - Similarly, while the Mega Man parts are a lot of fun. Holy shit navigating the internet is a mess. It's cute at first but by the time you're reaching deeper levels, even using access points feels like a real chore. - While they keep new enemies coming through the game a pretty good amount, I feel like the enemy pool is pretty shallow. And you find a lot of the same enemies reappearing a lot over and over. - I think this games' biggest strength is also it's biggest weakness. I LOVE customizing Mega Man, but it's also a pretty disappointing part of the game. Mega Man himself gets a lot of the same weapons over the course of the game, I only started finding new stuff REALLY late and it was like, a hammer. And he doesn't actually USE enemy moves, he summons enemies to do moves for him... This might be a nitpick but it REALLY took me out of it. I feel like this is just a really weird flavor choice, you know? - Similarly, shields don't even change Mega Man's color!! This is all so bizarre! I feel like the customization isn't as robust as I'd like it to be. - Menus are a little messy to navigate. An option to multi select chips or even just premade organization methods would go SUCH a long way!! - The ElecMan dungeon sucked ass

And that's that! I had a lot of nitpicks with this game but overall I REALLY enjoyed it. I'm very hopeful for what improvements we can see in the sequel. And it makes me a little happy imagining how fun this probably was to actually play on GBA back in the day. I know there was some crazy stuff with like, actual battle chips you could use in these games. I'm eager to look into stuff like that, at least to watch if I can't demo it myself. Regardless, very cool game!!

Hello, Mario! (August 26, 2025) - Mobile

Okay but enough of this BABY shit! It's time for a REAL game!! You know I'm pretty serious about Mario so I gotta play anything I can get my hands on with the dude in it. So when I saw they released PEAK for free on phones? I had to give it a go!!

Stuff I like + Very cute game, it's actually kinda funny to just have a whole app dedicated to the Mario 64 face thing. I honestly wouldn't mind if they did this more in depth with a 3D model more so based on Mario 64, if that makes any sense. It'd just be funny to play with. + Pretty nice and relaxing honestly. It's cute and the music is nice and chill. I quite like it. + Okay so dropping the jokes. I do think this is probably a really good game for babies. I've only ever seen a baby phone game being played by a baby one time in my life. At a Pizza Parlor a baby came up to me to show me what she was playing on her tablet and I thought the game looked pretty dumb. I'll say it. She could've been playing the Crazy Taxi phone port. Is she stupid?? But I feel like from what I saw there, I could see this REALLY entertaining a baby and just being fun and silly to give them a good time.

Stuff I didn't like - It's made for 3 year olds what do you want me to say??? It doesn't do anything bad or wrong. I think it's a good time. There's not much to do in it? I guess? But I feel like the less you cram into it the less confusing it's be for a baby. Right?

Well at least it doesn't have a sequel that's an exact copy. Unlock Mario Kart Fruadcade GP am I right?

Hello, Yoshi! (April 9, 2026) - Mobile

NINTENDO CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!!!! I'm just being a little silly. Yeah it is the exact same game once again. But like, what is a baby gonna complain about the fucking Mario Mandates or something? It has Yoshi so I still wanted to check it out. And it's also fun.

Stuff I like + While I probably prefer the Mario one just cause it reminds me of Mario 64. This one is probably objectively better because... It's got Yoshi in it. And there's actually 1 more thing to do in it!! + You can actually get different Yoshi colors by exploring the menus which is fun! And it even features the White Yoshi! Which is awesome! No Black Yoshi though, which is fine. I don't care that my favorite Yoshi just... Never appeared during the entire Switch era. But still, having White Yoshi GENUINELY gives this game a point over Smash Ultimate in terms of character cosmetics. I'm serious.

Stuff I didn't like - Uh... It's like..... fucked up that parents rely on phones to raise their kids? Right??? Like why are we raising our kids on products and IP, you know??

I genuinely hope that the fact there's 2 versions of this game means we'll get more versions with other characters. I WILL be playing Hello, Peach! an it WILL be Game Of The Year!!

Cosmo Gang The Puzzle (February 26, 1993) - SNES

So there I was, minding my own business. Looking through what was available on Nintendo Switch Online. Then, I saw her there!! Cosmo Gang, a Cosmo Gang game on NSO!! Go figure! Some of you may recall I became pretty obsessed with Cosmo Gang when I first played it last year at a local arcade. So of course when I saw this I just HAD to jump on it!

Stuff I like + It's COMPLETELY different from Cosmo Gang proper, as the name suggests. It's a puzzle game. Combos of blocks and Gang members and occasionally an energy ball. Blocks can be disappeared when you make a full line of them. But Gang members can only be removed by hitting them with the energy ball. Which will turn around when it hits blocks. It's interesting. Your goal in single player being to eliminate all the gang members as quick as possible. It's a really unique falling block puzzle game. + Music is pretty bumping, my partner kept noting the funky music when I was playing it on call with them. + Very nice music and sprites, I adore the Cosmo Gang's design. I really do. + The backgrounds are also very pretty :)

Stuff I didn't like - This might just be the worst single player puzzle experience I've ever seen in my life. So, there's 100 levels. Cool! And each level is a uniquely made puzzle that can only be beaten in a pretty rigid manner. A little brutal but with trial and error you'll eventually beat a stage. Right? NO. What you'd expect is the game to give you predetermined blocks and let you figure out how to solve the level. Instead blocks are still randomized. Meaning that if you just DON'T get the right blocks. You just lose for no fault of your own. It's INSANE. It's NOT FUN. IT SUCKS!!

But even though Cosmo Gang has failed me here. It was still a neat experience. And I can't stay mad at Cosmo Gang. Glad to have tried it!!

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (November 15, 2004) - Gamecube

Last year I played Metroid Prime and was able to beat it after years of trying with no success. And I was quite impressed with it! It was a fun and cool time! So I was VERY excited to play the sequel because it's like the first but DARK and FUCKED UP and samus is EVIL and that's HOT... So how did it live up?

Stuff I like + Similar to the first it's a remarkably good looking game! I know we praise this era for its cartoony stuff aging well but I feel like this generation doesn't get enough credit for its realistic stuff also aging surprisingly well in my opinion! + Holy FUCK the music is so good. I'm obsessed with the creepy alien synths they use in the sound tracks for these games + I like the Luminoth a lot, they're fun. They're tall. They're cute. I wish they weren't all so sad or worse :( + Samus' suits are NICE in this game. No way around it. The Dark Suit is sick and the Light Suit is WONDERFUL!! + I'm a big fan of the fact that upgrades are like, clunky things grafted to the armor. Like the booster is a big jetpack, or the grappling hook is a big chunk of metal attached to the gun arm. + Dark Samus fucking rules! No ifs, ands, or buts!! Cool design, cool concept, really intimidating. All her fights are easily the best in the game.

Stuff I didn't like - But i'dunno this game just kinda sucked in my opinion. It never really clicked honestly. For a number of reasons. - I think the story is fine enough, with the Luminoth chilling until the Ing came and fucked them up. But there's a lot of weirdness here that just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The game starts up SO STRONG with the animated corpses of the Federation. But they're a non issue. The Space Pirates are all over this game but like... Why? The Ing are the main villains, I don't really get with the space pirates are here... Why is Dark Samus here? Phazon was a CRUCIAL part of the first game but here it's SUCH an afterthought. I thought Phazon was gonna be our source of darkness. But no... It's unrelated to the dark energy the game is all about. Super weird. - The Dark and Light world contrast didn't do anything for me. Dark World is like, kinda stressful the first time. But you lose HP so slowly it's basically a non issue, and eventually it's LITERALLY a non issue. And overall it just feels, idk... Weird to me? It's fantastic in a way that took me out, as opposed to the fantasy elements in Zero Mission and Prime 1. - Holy shit combat is such a fucking drag in this game. Every enemy takes 500 hours to kill for NO reason. "Oh use the dark or light beams" okay good I'll use my limited ammo to kill them in 400 hours instead. Really helpful. Particularly the dark pirates where you sit there with the dark visor like a jack ass watching them jump around, hit them once, then watch them jump around more. Or the stupid tentacle monsters that just, can decide you didn't hit them for ages at a time until they arbitrarily decide to take damage. Some enemies are creative, the weird spider top robots are neat. The robots that shut down Samus' OS is very creative. But even these enemies take AGES to kill and are NOT FUN to fight EVER at ANY POINT of the game. - Oh my god what if there was like... a BIG enemy. That took 1000 hours instead? Yes this game has boss battles! And in my opinion pretty much all of them are a total chore!! Dark Samus is fun, and maybe the one where you have to dash across the spider tracks with proper timing are cool. And kind of the big bug in the lake was neat. BUT ALL THE OTHER ONES ARE SO BORING!! I think it's neat that they all are monsters using your stolen powers. Having to fight an evil version of your moveset is usually my favorite trope in video games! But here you're not truly fighting evil versions of your moves cause they don't even work like your moves and in my opinion they're just NOT fun to fight. I felt like they were all a drag. - The morph ball. Why is there SO MANY morph ball fights in this game? The morph ball isn't really fun to use in my opinion. but holy shit the dev team is OBSESSED WITH IT. There's like, 3 fights dedicated to it and I didn't enjoy any of them. I actively groaned every single time they made me use it in this game. - The Ing are lame. Straight up. Their designs aren't cool. They look boring and their fights are annoying and boring. I think Prime 1 having you on a planet totally controlled by pirates made the game really tense. But here the Ing aren't even on half the planet. And every time the pirates appear it was like "why are they here?"

I feel bad. But this game just felt like a chore. Prime 1 felt like a chore but that felt like me getting used to the genre. This felt like a chore just because it was a chore. I hate to say it but I just didn't get into this one the way I did with the other games from this series I've played so far. But again, that could just be how I feel because I don't play Metroid much. Still glad to have gotten the experience.

I want to shout out Primehack once again for making the game control like a traditional FPS because I truly think this game would've been insufferable otherwise. Though keyboard controls can't do much for all those Morphball fights. Oh well!

Cosmo Gang: The Video (March 18, 1992) - Arcade

So there I was, minding my own business. Looking through what was available on Fightcade. Then, I saw her there!! Cosmo Gang, a Cosmo Gang game on Fightcade!! Go figure! Now THIS is a little more of what I'm looking for in a Cosmo Gang video game!! A falling block puzzle game is a neat idea but a Galaga styled shmup? That's WAY more appropriate, I think!

Stuff I like + EXACTLY what I would want from this kind of game. A shmup with LOTS of wacky enemy variety and lots of fun power ups too. A goofy shooter just suits Cosmo Gang so well! + Once again, delightful sprites, visuals, and music. Cosmo Gang kind of can't miss in this department. + Gang members talk more which is lovely! In The Puzzle they kind of just scream. But here you hear them actually talk which is one of my favorite parts of the original Cosmo Gang! My favorite are the enemies in power suits, that when you destroy the suit they go "I'm so sorry!!" and try to run away. + Having bonus stages that play like the original Cosmo Gang was such a nice treat! And the fact they all have different styles was a ton of fun! + THE FINAL BOSS WAS THE DON!? NEW COSMO GANG LORE???? THIS IS CRAZY!!!!

Stuff I didn't like - This game is fucking brutal. Absolute bullet hell levels. But I actually really felt like, just due to the randomness of bullets, some patterns were undodgeable. Which I might say is a skill issue due to the nature of bullet hell, but it is an arcade game trying to get your money... So... - While the enemy variety is great, I did think the weapon variety left a bit to be desired. There's a speed upgrade, and a black hole which was my favorite one... And I don't remember any of the others so that should tell you lol. More wacky powerups please!!

Sadly, this might be it for my Cosmo Gang journey for the time being. There are 2 more games in the series: Cosmo Police and Dodongadon. However, both of them are physical redemption games like the first Cosmo Gang. And while that first game is what made me fall in love with the series, it was SUCH a rare opportunity to live near an arcade with a working cabinet. And I don't take that for granted, but I just don't know what the odds are of finding both of these in the wild. However, they are certainly new Arcade Cabinet holy grails I'd like to play on. Up there with Killer Instinct, which I did actually get to play on the original cabinet, even if it was the Xbox version internally. And a friend showed me her local arcade seems to have a KI cabinet with the original game inside, so I at least know where to look for that. There's always stuff to find out there in the world of Arcade Games!

Fantasy Zone (March 28, 1986) - PC

After Cosmo Gang, I was curious what other shooters are on Fightcade, as they actually have a whole section for it! And to my delight, the entire Fantasy Zone franchise is there! I've only played the first and the last one before, so I took this chance to experience them all back to back like this. If you don't know, I'm pretty big into Shmups, and I like Opa-Opa a lot, so I was excited to learn more context for his horrible war trauma.

Stuff I like + For starters, Fantasy Zone looks great. You'll find this whole franchise is delightful to look at with colorful graphics, whimsical character designs, and of course, Opa-Opa rules. + Music is really nice, the song "Don't Stop" is a song I really like and it's a song you hear a few times in the series. + I always say this, but shmups are such a versatile genre that you can do SO much in. And I think Fantasy Zone is a great early example of this. It's a horizontal scroller, but you can move freely across the entire map. Instead of reaching the end, it's about destroying specific objects in the world. It's a really unique spin on the concept. + The sudden plot they throw at you RIGHT at the end with Opa-Opa's dad and "was my victory worth the price I had to pay?" is SO jarring it's genuinely wonderful. I'm also a big fan of games that don't need deep plots having them for some reason.

Stuff I didn't like - It can be a bit physically painful, as mashing to shoot rapidly is the way to win. And you don't really get auto fire mode until later into the series. - In my opinion the series never got particularly good with equipment. I think having a store to buy gear is one of this series' strongest points. But most equipment is underwhelming or lasts for such a short time it's kinda worthless. I think having weaker weapon types that you can keep permanently would be HUGE for this series. - This game is fucking BRUTAL. I'll be 100% I cheated through the whole series. It's a tough franchise!!

Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (October 17, 1987) - Arcade

Stuff I like + Hugely improved graphics and music, as you'd expect + While it's not life changing, the different worlds are a fun new dynamic + Having a good and bad ending kinda rules actually, I wasn't expecting that. I got the bad ending. Final phase of the final boss is neat too.

Stuff I didn't like - This game does some odd stuff, like, how would I ever know to cry on the final boss? Or save the dark worlds and not the light worlds? - I actually think the dark/light world is pretty underwhelming in general here. I think having to travel between the 2 worlds to find enemy spawners makes so much sense, I'm kinda sad they didn't go with that. Oh well. - Shop is basically the exact same thing, they even reuse the weird bug final boss thing for the first phase.

Fantasy Zone: The Maze (July, 1987) - Console

Stuff I like + Well, it's certainly a unique take on the Maze Game formula. Imagine Pac-Man but you can shoot the ghosts sometimes. The pellets are actually coins here that you spend to buy super pellets, basically. It's a cool twist on the formula even if the game is kinda boring.

Stuff I didn't like - I'dunno I just couldn't really get into this one. It's a neat concept, but idk it just didn't click. - Maze designs are kinda boring, and the enemy patterns can be pretty unfair. Sometimes full blown covering up their energy zone, which you need to touch to stop them from spawning enemies. When enemies spawn proper, that's a death sentence. - Opa-Opa's hitbox is larger than it looks. Like the opposite of a shmup. - Didn't even really have that fucked up of a story. What gives??

Fantasy Zone Gear (July 19, 1999) - Game Gear

Stuff I like + Hear me out... Hear me out!!! This is the first one to kinda do upgrades really well? Like being able to swap them out just from pressing pause makes a lot of sense to me. Idk. + Also for being a tiny version of Fantasy Zone, it's pretty good, and totally unique bosses and stuff. This is a full fledged entry!!

Stuff I didn't like - I'd say this game's biggest flaw is being on a tiny screen, it can make it hard to see where enemies are and stuff. But overall this entry is pretty good, not much to comment on.

Super Fantasy Zone (January 14, 1992) - Genesis

Stuff I like + As you'd expect, graphics and music are big step ups here. We've got it really nice in the audio and visuals department! + TONS of upgrades available here! Not just boosters and temporary weapons. But even permanent ship upgrades like rubber boots (which is useless basically but it's the thought that counts) and even a genuinely useful new bomb type! Not perfect but really appreciated!! + Some unique concepts for levels too! Like one where everything is pitch black, or one where the ground can't be landed on if you don't buy the rubber boots (so the gimmick is gone if you buy them but it's the thought that counts) + Feels the most reasonable to actually beat. Difficulty isn't nearly as harsh as before. + Being able to to buy turbo as a ship upgrade is a fun way of handling this, I like it more than having it be an option in the menu

Stuff I didn't like - Story leaves a bit to be desired. It's not THAT fucked up and technically is a cliff hanger and... this is the final entry in the series. Whoops - It's disappointing that the upgrade system by this point. Though again I do appreciate all the stuff in the shop. - It's hard to kinda criticize it cause it's so similar to the previous entries?

But yeah, that was Fantasy Zone. I wouldn't mind a new entry in this series eventually. I think I'd wanna see a major overhaul of upgrades, where you can actually buy permanent main weapon upgrades. And more variety in the way levels are set up. It's NUTS to me that across all these games we never saw a SINGLE vertical stage?? Fuck I wouldn't even mind seeing a 3D Fantasy Zone with more aerial maneuvers for Opa-Opa to preform. And of course, a deep, long story about war trauma.

Windosill (May 26, 2009) - PC

During a call with my partners, we mentioned games that we've replayed over and over. And one of them brought up Windosill, which is a game I'd never heard of! And so, of course, I had to sit down and give it a quick look see myself!

Stuff I like + Really short but sweet. Each room is it's own contained puzzle that can be solved pretty quick, letting you get through the game pretty fast! + The puzzles are VERY creative, the final puzzle and the puzzle with the 3 friends were a personal favorite. And some of them can be surprisingly tough to figure out your first go through. Or at least they were for my baby brain. + It's very charming, nice animations and funny looking creatures, plus the limited use of color, all make it a real treat to look at!

Stuff I didn't like - There's not much here to not enjoy really. The closest I can give to a critique is there's no music? But I think that suits the game perfectly fine, you'll find :)

A really nice little experience! I had a great time with this game and it was fun just going through it for my partners. If ever you feel like you don't have time for games nowadays, I highly suggest trying stuff like this to ease yourself in with something slow and simple. Less is more sometimes!!

.hack//INFECTION (June 20, 2002) - PS2

This year I've been slowly getting into the dothack franchise! I've been finding it kind of fun to play a game and then enjoy it's corresponding anime. Similar to what I did for Gungrave and its anime or Spongebob and its anime. And part of me just felt like dothack would be like, the ultimate game to do that with as it's a MASSIVE multimedia project. I've been following .hack//LIST as a guide on what to do and while I have no intention of rushing it, it has been an interesting experience so far. I'm only on Legend of the Twilight volume 1 and that one is... kinda boring but I have a lot of nostalgia for it cause it's the first manga I ever read when I was a kid! But anyway yeah INFECTION:

Stuff I like + I'm not an MMO player but it was really interesting to get a single player MMO experience that tries really hard to convince you it is actually an MMO. Such as NPCs acting as if they're real players, or you not being able to get in touch with teammates when they're offline, and the most charming aspect: + Using your computer and actually logging into The World! I'm such a sucker for fake OS stuff I think. I loved checking my emails and forum posts and reading all the news articles outside of The World. And I think having this fake OS allows them to avoid particularly long and boring real world sections like Digimon Cyber Sleuth had at times. + I think the gameplay is also pretty good, maybe a little basic, but I think the set dressing makes it feel compelling. I think managing your party with commands feels nice to do once you really get a hang of it and is particularly what helps the game feel more frantic and fun to play. As you really won't get far if you manage them poorly. + Where this game really shines is in its designs for everything. The World is very nice looking, and it was fun to run around locations we say in .hack//SIGN. Even the fake OS has a delightful early 2000's look to it. But where this game and franchise really shine are in the character designs. They're not all life changing bangers. But Kite and Blackrose surely are some of the cleanest character designs of all time (Piros was my go-to 3rd member and while his design kinda sucks Piros is my guy for all time)! Plus, Skeith looks really cool and was such a stressful final boss in a good way!

Stuff I didn't like - This is one of those games where you get BILLIONS of equipment pieces which is always such a chore to deal with in games imo. However, I do think .hack does this better than any game that's had this type of endless loot gain system, as selling loot is the only way to gain money here. But still, it's a chore to manage. - And you NEED to keep gear on you, because you NEED a spell of every element, and you only get spells based on your equipment. Now this might not sound horrible, but some enemies are straight up IMPOSSIBLE unless you have their weakness. And I'm not really exaggerating. I spent like, 1-2 hours on one infected boss battle hitting it with melee then running away because I didn't have the right spell. It was not great. - Even fairly weak enemies can just utterly crush you in seconds while you miss every single attack you throw at them endlessly. - And of course, your teammates can be pretty stupid so you have to be really particular about your commands. I know it might be a little broken but I think a "run away from enemies!" command would be CRUCIAL for the sequel. - Grinding for Virus Cores... This shit sucks. They're not required for like, 80-90% of the game so I just didn't bother going for them instead of getting EXP from fights. Only to at the end be completely roadblocked by having to find all the ones I needed. The fact there's 26 total makes me REALLY nervous for the sequels, also.

Overall, it's a very fun game, and I'm REALLY eager to continue with the series because it's SO awesome to me you can transfer save data between them all! I'll give my thoughts on the other .hack things as I get to them. But for now, I'm pleased with this game and I'm looking forward to getting to Mutation next whenever I get around to it.

Mario vs Donkey Kong (May 24, 2004) - Gameboy Advance

You may remember a little while ago I played Donkey Kong on Gameboy and REALLY enjoyed it. That was actually my first time touching this series, cause even though this game was the new thing when I was a kid, I just never had any interest in it. However, I was chatting with my girlfriend and it came up and so... here we are

Stuff I liked + Similar to the prior game, the short puzzley levels with lots of crazy jumping and movement Mario can do makes it pretty fun. The Minis aren't necessarily the most exciting thing ever but I do think they're fun enough to make their levels a fun different challenge. + Surprising amount of stuff to do in it. 2 sets of worlds each with their own mini, 3 present boxes, and a high score to achieve. Maybe there's even more stuff I don't recall. + The presentation is easily the best part. It's SUCH a weird game in a good way. There's cutscenes (slide shows but still, they use the 3D models of the era which is nice) and the sheer amount of shit Mario says in this game is SO good. "Here we go again!... again!!" Genuinely got a chuckle out of me. In addition to the goofy stuff the Minis say and DK's various grunts and what have you. The whole game just doesn't feel real to me. But not in a bad way.

Stuff I didn't like - It's still kinda ugly though lol. I'm not really a huge fan of GBA 3D just because I think GBA sprites are SOOOO good they absolutely clear anything the 3D on the console could do. So while the game is nice looking, the actual in game graphics are a little muddy and ugly at times - It is kind of a downgrade from the first. Maybe it's just because the first one was so surprising to me, but I felt like this one just couldn't live up in the same way. Like, the final boss theme here is GOOD, but not nearly as good as the first game's final boss theme. And I think it's because I had some expectations this time. - GOD DAMN the minis are stupid. They just love to kill themselves, and some of the levels I seriously could not wrap my head around how to solve them at all. It was pretty brutal for my tiny brain - Why does DK do a loud, long, genuinely pained and horrifying scream every time he takes damage in this game??? Why are we actually killing him???

But yeah it's a neat game. I think it's really interesting cause I just feel like, even though it's a remarkably tame game all things considering, the amount of voice lines is just NOT something we'd see nowadays if this had been made today. From what I'm seeing the remake seems to HEAVILY gut a lot of the unique voice clips which like??? For what reason? Stupid. Will I continue with this series?? Maybe... If my girlfriend talks me into it.

Super MarioMon (December 15, 2025) - PC

A bit of a detour from my Pokemon playthroughs! At the request of my partner, who is a BIG fan of Pokemon roms, I gave Super MarioMon a shot! As you probably know by now, I am a bit of a Mario RPG head. And for a while there considered them to be my favorite kinds of games ever (SMRPG is still my #1.) But the realm of fan made Mario RPGs is one I've only lightly dipped my toes into. So I was very curious to see if a Pokemon Mod could scratch that itch for me. I'll go ahead and say it now, it absolutely does!

Stuff I liked + Gosh the sprites in this are SO well done!! Genuinely, the sprites of the enemies look official! Such beautiful artwork for all of these creatures was such a treat to see. I loved the Mario themed battle backgrounds, and seeing all this fun Mario stuff in the lovely art style of the GBA Pokemon games. A personal favorite of mine from the Pokemon franchise! + Similarly, the music is really well done. I've always been a sucker for soundfont swaps, and this game does is WONDERFULLY. It also has some really good choices for songs. I was particularly impressed with them picking Brawl Stickerbrush Symphony over the original, Destroy the Dark Star is a neat choice, and the Partner's In Time Bowser theme over any of his other themes. It was neat! + The story and writing are really good. I feel like everyone's in character for the most part, and the story is simple and cute. The game never tries to be anything more than what it is. I feel like a lot of stuff like this can fall into the trap of trying to raise the stakes, bringing back old villains, ect. But no, it's a simple premise, it stays simple, it's fun and good the whole way through. And again, the writing feels like an official Mario RPG. It's great and got a lot of laughs out of me even with jokes that are really topical and relevant right now. Also, the ending genuinely got me, these people understand Mario and Luigi's dynamic very well it seems. + And of course, the biggest part for anything Pokemon related to me is the Pokedex itself! This game has some DELIGHTFUL enemy choices! Popular things you'd expect like goombas and dry bones. But also some lesser appreciated things I wasn't expecting like Eerie, or the T. Rex from Odyssey. It's neat! A particularly big surprise was Boss Broudler who became a staple of my team REALLY early. Plus, the game has a GREAT distribution. You'll be seeing new faces left and right throughout the journey! + This game has some CRAZY level gimmicks that I didn't even think were possible in a Pokemon GBA game. Solving puzzles by firing bullet bills, working together with Captain Toad, it was all REALLY impressive and served to keep each chapter fresh! Plus the game also has small stuff to keep you on your toes like the random double battle chapter or making you do a rental fight at one point. I liked it! + There's a LOT of shit in this game. Tons of side quests I didn't even touch, and dozens of quality of life improvements that made the game feel so nice. I particularly liked just being able to redo my team's moveset whenever I wanted. That was lovely. But also getting EXP share and a way to turn off random encounters as late game rewards was nice. I feel like it's gonna be hard to go back to main series Pokemon without all this stuff now!

Stuff I didn't like - Even though the enemy choices are GREAT. I do have some issues with them. Namely, too many of them are one off characters. Like King Bob-Omb or King Boo. Why are these catchable creatures? Surely these should've been boss battles? Maybe Bowser's admins? As far as I'm concerned all the enemies should be enemies that there are multiples of, for obvious reasons. Maybe the legendaries can be different, but I think you'd still want to save legendary slots for bosses who couldn't be trainers like The Lord of Lightning or Gobblegut or something? - On a similar note, I feel like some of the enemy choices are just plain strange. I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to cross contamination of my Mario spinoffs, yes. But I feel like if you're gonna be mushing all these Mario series together... WHY IS THERE NOTHING FROM SUPER MARIO RPG!? Except the Shamans, but not a single enemy!! But we have Handfake and Bubble Blooper? Very strange. - I actually did think the sprites for the non-enemy characters looked a little weird. Particularly in combat. They all look in the Pokemon style but I just felt like they looked weird. Idk how to describe it I can't put my finger directly on it. - I didn't care much for the Wario chapter, Diamond City is too big and while I thought fighting Red was cute I feel like he should've been a more serious secret boss. That's a huge nitpick though for sure! - I can't believe I'm gonna say this... I think... EXP share makes the game too easy. THIS FEELS INSANE OF ME TO SAY! I think Pokemon can be a little too grindy, but now that I have this power. I feel like it's too much power! You don't appreciate just how well the formula works with just having 1 Pokemon at a time gain EXP until you see the EXP share's massive power in action. Again, this isn't really a problem with the game, as I chose to have it on. But I wanted to note it.

Yeah, Mariomon is delightful! If you're like me, and you've played all the Mario RPGs and want to try something new that the official games haven't dabbled in yet, I think you'll have a great time with this!! Thank you to my partner for suggesting it! And if you wanna see my team you can see them right here!! Also, I enjoyed this so much it really has gotten me thinking of other fan game Mario RPGs... I never did beat Mario & Luigi: The Starlite Worlds... hmmmm... Much to think about!

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (December 11, 1997) - PS1

Hey it's Klonoa!! This actually isn't my introduction to the series, when I was a kid I played Empire of Dreams on my GBA and REALLY enjoyed it! I got a big kick out of it! But then I proceeded to never touch the series again. Until now! I actually do own the remaster as well, but I did not like it at all. So I went back to try the original and it's actually laughable how much more charming it is. I think this may have convinced me to stop touching remakes lol

Stuff I liked + LOVELY visuals. I like the sprites on 3D backdrops, it's something I've always been a fan of. All the levels are cute and nice to look at. And even the menus, with their desk storybook aesthetic are really cute. + I LOVE the character designs in this game. Klonoa is SO cute and the enemies are all ADORABLE!! I really loved the one that randomly pulls out 2 pistols and starts blasting at you. Bosses and NPCs were fun too, but Klonoa and the Enemies clear + Really REALLY lovely OST. I remember liking Empire of Dream's music but I feel like this one is even better. The level themes in particular are so nice to listen to, I love the Windmill Song. + Cool story! It starts out really cute and simple, then halfway through we straight up see a man die and then the plot becomes BIG and way more exciting than I was expecting! I love when cute and unassuming games become really exciting and crazy out of nowhere! That final boss totally kicked ass! And the ending was way more bitter sweet than I was expecting! + Gameplay is also fun, it's simple platforming, but the ability to catch enemies really elevates it and makes it unique. I feel like the only way it could be improved is if you could catch more things for temporary powerups or puzzle solving. I also really enjoyed every boss fight! Stuff I didn't like - Fortunately there's not really much to say I didn't like about this game. My biggest gripe is that 5-1 is a total fucking slog of a level and I really didn't like it. It was clearly the most unfun level in the game but... that's kinda the only level I didn't like!! - I don't like Huepow's human design. I don't think this came up in Empire of Dreams (it's been years though lol) so I never knew he had one. It's fucking ugly. I don't like it. I think Huepow's whole twist is very good. But we didn't need that gross human form. - Genuinely I can't recall a single other thing I didn't like about the game lol. I will say, the remake is totally swagless. That's not a fault of the original but I wanted to point it out.

And that's that! Yeah this game was a blast!! I had a great time with it!! It was a lot more than I was expecting in the best way possible, and now I'm VERY interested to continue onto Klonoa 2 eventually. Neat stuff!

So in general, my thoughts on Pokemon are that I prefer my pokemon to be monstrous and animalistic rather than humanoid. Now, don't get me wrong. Furry pokemon RULE. And I do love some humanoids like Darkrai and Ceruledge. But in general I think the worst monsterous Pokemon has higher of chances of looking better than the best humanoid, you know what I mean?

Also it won't really come up much but I love object pokemon. They're like Yokai and RPG monsters. Electrode and Voltorb are brilliant because they function the same as mimics. Come on now, y'all. Get it together.

Charizard - My favorite pokemon of all time! Is this the most basic choice possible next to Pikachu? Yes. Do I care? No. It's a big salamander dragon, it's got the perfect shape and color scheme and has a bunch of design elements I love and use in my work to this day. Particularly with the 2 horns that come out from the top of the head. And of course, I have nostalgia for it as it was my starter in my first Pokemon game FireRed. And it's also my Smash Bros. main in any game its in. Love the shiny, love the megas, the gigantimax isn't my favorite but it's neat. My only real critique is that I wish the tummy went all the way up to the bottom jaw.

Mr. Mime - So, frankly, I am a big fan of Kanto. So even Pokemon that I would probably hate more if they appeared in Galar or Paldea can get away with just a bit of nostalgia. So I hate to say I hate Mr. Mime. But like... Yeaaaah it's surely my least favorite. It's kinda gross, too humanoid, has clothes, and a job. A lot of Pokemon no-nos for me personally. Jynx is also really close but I think she can get by because she's in a little trio and could be interpreted as a yokai. Not the most offensive Pokemon here but I'm not exactly a fan of it.

Feraligatr - Jhoto has the best starter trio in my opinion, so having one of them be a clear winner is a BIG compliment from me. Feraligatr is actually my 2nd favorite Pokemon behind charizard. Come on. It's a HUGE crazy alligator monster. And I think you can tell it influences a LOT of my character designs. Cool fangs, the crooked posture, the huge back spikes. I LOVE Feraligatr and it's truly one of my favorite Pokemon. Even down to the color scheme. my only critique is once again the tummy. More clear tummy/body separation would look great :)

Hitmontop - So, Jhoto has, in my opinion, the strongest Pokedex with basically no duds. Basically. Cause Hitmontop is a dud. It doesn't really fit in with the rest of the line in my opinion, clashing completely. And it's also just not a very cool Pokemon to represent Capoeira. I think something that's more serious and falls in line with Chan and Lee would be really nice. But personally, this design just isn't it. Again, Jhoto so good so Hitmontop is not the worst but like... It just kinda really sucks in my opinion.

Swampert - Sorry I really like starters. I'm also a little biased to Hoenee cause it's my childhood region and a lot of the designs in it just make me feel good and at home. Anyway Swampert is wife. Swampert is my wife. I want her. Her designs is SO cute and I love all the little fins and bumps. It's just a design that makes me happy to look at! And look, we finally have a belly that goes from the bottom jaw all the way down!

Shiftry - Hoenn also has very few duds, in my opinion most of the duds are just boring rather than bad. So in the end it comes down to Shiftry or Hariyama. But, in my opinion, I'm not a huge fan of Makahita anyway. I think Seedot is PEAK. And its evolutions both just suck completely to me. Why does this cute seed become this gross Tech Deck Dude with leaf hands??? And not even a good Tech Deck Dude with magnet feet, one of the older series with peg feet. It's too grossly humanoid and has clothes that are also grossly molded to its skin. Not a fan.

Darkrai - Come on. It's Darkrai. YES. It's humanoid. Yes... But it's edgy and it's peak as fuck. LOOK AT IT!! It's so edgy and cool and is the master of nightmares. Plus, the Darkrai movie is one of my favorites! Oracion always get a tear out of me. Not really a complicated reason. Darkrai isn't my favorite legendary/mythical. And frankly I could one day see it overtaken by other Sinnoh goats like Mismagius or Ramparidos. But for now? Nah I love Darkrai!

Rhyperior - Fuck this ugly thing. There might be other Pokemon that are arguable worse in this region. I won't deny that Sinnoh has a few duds frankly. But Rhyperior goes out of its way to ruin what was SUCH a good design with Rhydon. I think this thing is SOOO ugly and it actually pisses me off whenever I remember it exists and has killed any chance of Rhydon getting a new, better evolution. I think Sinnoh did too many evolutions of old Pokemon. Some of them are real winners like Mammoswine, and some are just kinda mid like Magnezone... But Rhyperior here is just straight up bad and fucks up its earlier forms by existing.

Scraggy - There are absolutely cooler Pokemon in Unova. It's one of my favorite regions in terms of Pokemon designs! And I do thing amazing designs like Druddigon and Kyreum give Scraggy a run for its money. And I don't like Scrafty as much... But idk! Look at the cute little thing!! It's pants made of shedded skin, its all angry and cute! It's probably one of my favorite stage 1 Pokemon. I even have the sitting cuties of it sitting in my car! I still remember the first time I really appreciated it, I was watching the episode Ash gets one on my phone while eating chinese food. And I just instantly fell in love!

Timburr - Where Unova stumbles for me is its humanoid designs. As I think they're pretty much all major duds. Sawk and Landorus and their contemporaries are all ugly and I don't like them. But they're not straight up gross. What happened here? Why does it have gross giant veins bulging all over it? Why does it have a gross pompadour and fins made of solid flesh? Why does it have a big cartoony nose? I hate looking at it cause it's so gross. Girdurr and Conkeldurr are also pretty gross but Timburr's flesh pompadour just pisses me off.

Goodra - It's SO good. How can anyone look at this and not enjoy it? It's a big chubby slime dragon. It's LITERALLY perfect!! It's so cute and I love that it has big slug feelers on the top of its head. This thing just fills me with absolute joy to look at. Pseudo Legendaries are some of my favorite Pokemon and Goodra is fighting for first with Tyranitar in that category. My only real critique is that I wish the face was similar to Sliggoo's. I think Goodra's body type is perfect, but it loses some of the gooey charm the previous forms had.

Hoopa - Fuck this ugly thing. Idk I just really don't like Hoopa's design. It's gross, overly marketable, and its movie is one of the most boring by far. Like, no questions asked. Unchained is okay, certainly better than this fucking thing. But like, that doesn't make up for it. And there are Pokemon with worse movies. Marshadow's movie is genuinely offensive and one of my least favorite movies ever. But at least Marshadow is cute. This guy just sucks ass all around.

Turtonator - God what a cool design!! I could maybe one day see it being over taken by Vikavolt, another Pokemon I think is absolutely peak. But idk, a big fire dragon turtle with the gross softshell nose that it shoots beams from? I like it a lot!I like how jagged and dangerous it looks too. It's just a design that really resonates with me personally.

Tapu-Koko - And then there's this guy. So, I actually was gonna put Bewear here, as I think it's a piss ugly Pokemon and is way too OP in Smash Bros. But I actually think Tapu-Koko just barely beats it out. It's humanoid, it's easily the ugliest Tapu, and in Smash Bros it's SO annoying. It comes out, is relatively useless, and just screams at top volume for like 5 minutes and won't stop and NEVER leaves. I just kinda hate this thing, the more I look at its design, the more I dislike it.

Dragapult - Another pseudo! I really didn't like Galar when its Pokedex was first revealed way back when. But as time moves on, I can appreciate a lot more of its designs like Toxtricity and Eldegoss and Alcremie. And for me, Dragapult is just a personal favorite. Cool design, cool color scheme, funny concept. I love the big wide head shape and the long flowing tail. My only issue with it is the ghost typing. You can't just have the tail be transparent and be like "yeah it's extinct or whatever" and call it a ghost. I certainly think steel or flying or something would fit more, and I fear we've missed out on a pseudo that makes way better use of the Ghost typing than Dragapult does.

Intelleon - Galar has, hands down, the ugliest trio of starters. None of them are good by the end of it. Just a trio of total duds. And without a doubt, the worst of the bunch is this ugly fucker. Super gross and scrawny, it has a job, it's too humanoid, and it doesn't even work with its own motif!! What's the correlation between crying and emo chameleons that turn into super spy snipers??? Who came up with this??? How did this get approved? We haven't seen a Pokemon with this disjointed of an evolution since like, Kanto. And certainly I truly believe this gross, gangle, twig limbed weirdo is in my top 5 least favorite Pokemon of all time. Looking at it actually pisses me off so badly I'm reconsidering what's my #1 least favorite Pokemon.

Farigiraf - Sadly, Paldea is a region I am currently a little harsh on. I don't think a lot of the designs are that strong, I think it's full of stupid and gross looking creatures. But hey, it has some absolute winners. Like this thing! I actually like it more than Girafarig! I think it's so so SO cute!! I like how big it is and how it looks like it's wearing a Halloween costume. Hopefully as time progresses, I'll enjoy more of the original Pokemon and Farigiraf will be dethroned, but for now. This cutie pie is a clear winner!