#lost review

Game 71: Fix-It Felix Sr. Mar2026

Reactions are one of my new ideas for the blog expansion. I receive lots of requests to watch other shows and unfortunately I can’t write full length reviews on all of them. But that doesn’t mean I can’t watch and post some thoughts!!! Consider reactions an abbreviated review. I’m sure I’ll be playing around with format a little, so bear with me, but hopefully this another way to watch more shows and give you more great content!

First up is Lost Season 1! Let’s kind of dig in...

Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! Nov2009 I'm sadden at the thought that this was released after Punch Out!! came to the Wii. Like don't get me wrong here, more of Wii's style of Punch Out is always a good thing. It mimics the original NES game super well, and even shakes up a lot of the puzzle dynamics and timing later on when the game introduces a harder mode and even newer characters. But Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! is pretty much a full prequel to the game I mentioned, and while I absolutely love that we get some nice lore of Doc training Mac in the ring, ultimately the timing of it and lack of any more content just feels sour in my eyes.

Like this would have been an amazing demo or led up to Punch-Out!! It hits all the right beats, showcases the different fighting dynamics that entail the rest of the Wii game, and really hits home with the world building and lore that Punch Out oddly needed. Sadly, when we got Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! it felt like we were getting crumbs of what was effectively the superior meal that was Punch-Out!! Wii. So while it does all these neat things, Doc Louis as a fighter isn't particularly interesting because he's training Mac. You get a lot of call outs, a lot of openings, and not as much new content that made Wii's Punch Out so interesting.

Game 51: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy May2025 198 hours to complete it. If you were to ask me, is this game worth it, and you're not satisfied with such an answer I feel you're missing the selling point The Hundred Line sets. Do you need to complete the game to enjoy this experience? No. I certainly feel that demands too much from any single individual, but this game does require multiple playthroughs to understand it's point and ambition. For a lot of games I think the selling point of what it's trying to do isn't really enough to fly when it comes to recommending it, often ambition is a crutch to help cover flaws games make because they are trying to do something more. In The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, ambition is a statement. 100 different endings, 22 routes that get impacted by your choices, and plenty of queer moments in between all the battling and babbling. The Hundred Line is massive, has fairly great quality control with it's script, and it was all written by human hands. You don't get The Hundred Line with AI, and you never will.

As for the story itself? I feel Kodaka and Uchikoshi really out did themselves here, and they did it in a way that underlines both their strengths over their weakness that each others writing tends to show. From Kodaka making some great personable characters, to Uchikoshi's explicit attention to detail. A lot of the writing and development was handled well from the whole team keeping the characters from ever stepping out of line for the actions and decisions they make from different routes. This added to all the different dynamics and charm from both characters and routes really helps amplify the whole cast in ways that I never really expected when I started. In a lot of ways, The Hundred Line kinda feels like a kid with a bunch of toys, and they just imagine new possibilities and plots in order to keep that imagination alive. Even with the base game as is, there is still plenty that could be explored and even change with potential future DLC, but this is more of support of the cast of characters being interesting enough to carry such desires over the game actually needing to fill plot holes.

While I won't contest that their are indeed plot holes to The Hundred Line, i think the worse thing The Hundred Line does is play favorites with it's cast of characters in a way that doesn't feel like it's adding to it's true potential. We certainly get plenty of interactions and backstory for the majority of the characters, but certain ones simply don't get the same time to shine that others do. While I want to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, I do need to address that both the twins and Shouma are very heavily affected by this kind of favoritism that Kodaka kinda fosters. A few other characters are noteworthy in the sense they don't get much time to shine either, but Shouma certainly gets it the hardest, and the twins just don't develop in a way that makes them individual characters enough. For all purposes Shouma reads more as a plot device then ever a character, and only a few writers actually do something with him that gives him development at all. Add in the twins being far two similar in all routes ends up making a lot of their interactions rather dull when you have routes that would try to focus on them as they never really surprise you enough to really leave much of an impact either. This added to the way certain routes play and the allotted time you have to interact with everyone just kinda leaves a bitter taste in your mouth by the end of it. It certainly isn't something noticeable at the beginning nor does it really impact gameplay or the overall writing, but it is something to be aware of.

Thankfully, Last Defense Academy is a resourceful little video game that knows how to milk it's assets for all they are worth. From multiple use CG moments, to the in game battle system, and even a rng infested exploration board game. 100 line is going to keep you busy and entertained while appearing more polished than it actually is. By no means am I really trying to hamper down the games presentation, but I have to admit that they do a great job at using what they could to help reduce a lot of the games standing and talking moments. This ends up making the little VN feel more dynamic in presentation, and the parts that they do go bigger on leave more of a presence in your mind. This accompanied by a lot of the musical choices and sound design really help bring certain nuance to this game that I really didn't expect to happen. Then you pile on the incredible voice acting from both sides of the east and west, and you truly get some astounding aura farming and hype moments.

Game 121: The Typing of The Dead Oct2025* The Typing of the Dead is just way too silly to not work as a game. Making an entire remake of House of the Dead 2 and giving it keyboard controls just works so shockingly well that I'm a little surprised we don't get more games like this. On top of that, this game legitimately doesn't play with it's premise. No, you're getting a full meal plan with Typing as it gives you plenty of drills, tutorials, and different difficulties to choose from. By the end of this game I was a better typer, and the same will happen to you if you decide to play this game all the way through.

It really is ridiculous just how much effort they put into all the training modes and such when most people catch a glimpse of this game and shrug it off with some haha funny phrases like "Cows are watching how you drive" and "Emergency liposuction". Ya, there is a lot of charm in the phrases and they absolutely gave me a laugh when I wasn't panicking over the amount I had to type, but that's just the half of it all. There is so many interesting and helpful drills here that really do help your typing in a big way and really teach you good fundamentals in typing well that the game fully earns it's eductament branding. All these exercises help you read, type, and react better with time and effectively give you a real world skill to apply yourself later. It's honestly just really impressive that they accomplished this by giving us a few funny phrases along with a goofy retelling of House of the Dead 2.

Game 56: The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve Jun2025

It's hard to really explain why The Great Ace Attorney 2 Resolve is as amazing as it is without getting into spoilers, but largely I think the biggest reason is simply having such a great pay off from what the first game lacked while also building from said game. It's no secret about these games higher quality of 3D models, it's importance of each cases involvement with the overall plot, and mostly just the great cast of characters that adventures worked with and Resolve got to take advantage of. A lot of this game feels exactly like a part 2 of a novel that was just starting to get good, and it really rolls with it in a way that makes it easy to pick up after potentially years of waiting to play it or just a few hours after you finished Adventure. Honestly, it's only real fault I can think of is how you need to play Adventure first in order to really grip how well made and powerful it is as an art piece.

Honestly, I'm kinda surprised at how well each case lives in my mind. With a lot of the franchise, I feel Ace Attorney games usually have one or two missteps when it comes to their cases, but here, like adventures, all genuinely good and interesting cases. From the hook, to the cast of characters in each case, and the general take down of each culprit really helps carry the weight that Naruhodo is not only a better attorney now, but his cases can often be wilder and more interesting than the cases his ancestors take on. Ever since the addition of a jury from Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, I really feel there's been more fun in presenting evidence and making an argument for your client's innocence. While I don't think the 2nd game is quite on the level with it's 1st when it comes to jury duty, I am glad they build on that cast too as well as making a few references to the past game. And that kind underlines what makes this game so fun and interesting to me. As Resolve isn't just a build up from Adventures, but how they kind take all the interesting beats, twists, and turns from all over the franchise. It's an accumulation of what works with Ace Attorney boiled down to one big worthwhile mystery that gets spread around all cases in ways and parts that we aren't sure how they inter connect till we have those last pieces of evidence. As well, the presentation, cutscenes, and cast of characters just feel far more animated and more fleshed out thanks to the likes of both the 3DS and the previous game, Adventures.

Game 101: Magic Knight Rayearth (Game Gear) Sept2025 Magic Knight Rayearth is an older Isekai about 3 middle schoolers that get tasked with saving the princess of the new world while also learning to become knights. It's game gear counterpart however is basically a fetch quest to get their mascot character back to them. While I certainly knew that playing a game that I have next to no knowledge about it's source material would be tricky, ultimately it wasn't something that needed to be checked. You do learn something about each character even with the Game Gear games lack of text and cutscenes, but really this story just didn't have an actual handle on anything the anime really touches. You are just going to locations to find your little guy, and that's it. There isn't anything more interesting or deep about it's story either.

The same I wouldn't say for it's battle system though. The game uses an interesting roulette system to effectively power up attacks and decide turn order. It does take some getting used to, but ultimately it makes for what could have been a duller experience, a little more interesting. The rest of the game sorta follows suit with each area you do explore having something different to offer that challenges you in a way that most other JRPGs don't. Which is good because ultimately the game is a very short extent of what appears to be a longer journey. As two areas you end up visiting just become cutscenes, and ultimately makes a lot of the game feel very rushed or at the least had a troubled production.

Game 117: Banjo-Kazooie: Gruntilda's Mask Oct2025 Kurko mods are honestly the most interesting rom hack developer I know about. Not exactly because I know a lot of rom hack developers, but because Kurko adds a lot of polish to the games they make that I honestly feel they are just a few steps shy of an actual sequel game.

Gruntilda's Mask does a great job of establishing the Kurko brand while at the same time having a lot of charming jokes and dialogue to match thru out. There isn't anything particularly new here, but the way the resources effectively get managed and form entirely new puzzles and experiences is really just great for 3D platformers like this. If you are at all familiar with Majora's Mask and/or Banjo Kazooie you'll recognize a lot of the map and game design choices from both respectively. The way Banjo Kazooie effectively gets stripped down to having to relearn all their moves again is also a pretty inspired choice as it lets players explore the majority of the town in smaller bites that overall make it feel bigger than it once was. Majora's Mask Atmosphere is truly shining here, and Banjo Kazooie's paired 3D platformer puzzler nature really helps squeeze all that you can out of this cross over formula. Some of the stuff here can be trick to figure out, but thankfully the game does have a hint system. Really the only thing that stops Gruntilda's Mask from hitting it out of the park is simply not going a little more in on the cross over idea. No cross boss stuff or even NPCs from the Zelda series.