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gamerspasm · 6 years

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My 2018 in Games

ARMS (Switch)

When Nintendo first broke their silence on Project NX and showed the Switch to the world for the first time, there were certain expectations of what the new console would offer. One thing people weren’t expecting was a brand new beat ‘em up IP in the form of ARMS. Though it certainly did turn a few heads, nobody really knew what to make of it at first – including Nintendo, who, despite promoting it heavily on social media and even giving it its own direct, thought it was a wizard idea to schedule its release a month before Splatoon 2 dropped. This wasn’t a one-time mistake either, as consistently since then ARMS has been thoroughly in Splatoon’s shadow – unable to catch a break. This is a colossal shame, because ARMS is such a brilliant game. Even though I picked it up a week after release, I didn’t really get into it until this year. This could have been down to vanilla ARMS having no customisable controls and trying to coerce players into using the motion controls, or it could have been that fighting games have always had a hard time keeping my attention span. One way or another, I am happy to say that none of that seems to matter anymore. The best thing about ARMS is probably its simplicity and nuance. This is not a typical fighting game, or at least it’s not one that adheres to the traditional beat ‘em up formula. For starters, there’s no combo or move list to memorise, and whilst there’s certainly a range of colourful fighters to choose from, chances are you won’t have a main. You see, every character realistically controls the same. This may seem very unorthodox at first, but it’s a genius move when you get down to it. Now there’s nothing stopping you from experimenting and playing as everyone, they have the same move sets after all. What sets the characters apart however is their individual abilities – some characters can double jump, some can heal by blocking, some can deflect incoming attacks, and some can buff themselves up. The abilities aren’t limited to those however, and as you play as each character you begin to understand their special quirks; no two characters are ever truly alike. It’s such a great thing then that all the characters are incredibly well balanced. Sure one guy may be pretty tough and can pack a mean punch, but he might also be incredibly slow. It might be difficult to hit specific people because they’re so agile, but if you can land a blow, watch them go flying. Every character can be beaten no matter who you’re playing as, all you have to do is understand your strengths and their weaknesses. Another level of the diversity comes in the form of the ARMS themselves. Every character starts out with their own distinct gloves – some are big, some are small, some are weak but have a wide spread, others are broad and can curve. There’re a lot of ARMS in the game, each with their own elemental factor – fire, ice, electricity etc. – and whilst at first they seem to be another reason to differentiate characters from one another, thanks to the handy “ARMS getter” mode, you can win other ARMS to set on your preferred fighter. Don’t like Helix’s default ARMS? No worries, play ARMS getter enough times and you can switch out for something else in no time. This opens up the game to an intense amount of customisation, something which really starts to shine when playing online. Speaking of which, ARMS deserves extra credit for its excellent online lobby format. By selecting Party Mode you’re essentially put in a room with random players from around the world. Here, rather than having the game hunting down individual players, it has you constantly fighting with those you’re sharing a room with. The rate at which you go from fight to fight is incredibly quick, leading to very little down time. What’s more, ARMS isn’t just about fighting, there are a variety of modes that help break up the constant fisticuffs. Volley ball with exploding bombs, anyone? How about Hoops where you can slam dunk your opponent? The variety is quite interesting and can keep you playing for hours – especially in the game’s “splatfest-esque” Party Crash events, where bonus rounds and special settings become addictive. If you’re looking for something a little more traditional though, ranked matches will pit you against someone at your skill in order to level up. ARMS is a simplistic game when all is said and done, but its simplicity is mined completely to create impressive depth. It truly is a gem of a game, and one that deserves better than what it’s gotten so far. That said, I do have some grievances. For starters, this game really wants you to play with motion controls, but frankly, given how intense some matches can go, playing with a controller is just a better fit. Speaking of intensity, the difficulty curve here is pretty steep; it’ll require some time investment to get good enough and I can understand if that difficulty can put some players off (it certainly did that with me back in 2017). Another issue is the rate of rewards. A lot of things in the game, such as ARMS getter, require cash which you earn by playing the game’s various modes, but the cash you earn is often pitiful. At first when playing the game’s main arcade mode, Grand Prix, I assumed that I would earn more money on the higher difficulties, but this wasn’t the case. Level’s 2 and 3 have the exact same cash prize, with Level 4 only offering an extra boon for beating it’s special extra boss fight. I imagine Level 7 (being the hardest difficulty) offers you a great reward, but understand that this game is already challenging in the early stages; I’m not brave enough to check and find out. In spite of these issues however, ARMS is still a superb game. Its style and look is full of Nintendo’s charm, and its soundtrack will burrow deep into your ears and make a nest in your brain. Its gameplay offers a unique spin on its genre whilst losing none of the skill required, and ultimately it’s just such a blast to play. I only regret not starting it sooner. 9/10

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch)

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If true, The Legend of Zelda franchise should be feeling pretty flattered right about now. Blossom Tales is a top-down, action adventure game lovingly built on the look, feel, and style of the old top-down Zelda games. This is no accident either; in the game’s opening it actually references its inspiration. It’s the heart and soul of the game, but where some may call it a homage, others may see it as a knock-off. First let me preface my thoughts with this: I think this is a good game. There’s a lot to like and I’m sure a lot of people would probably love what the developers were trying to do. With that said I can’t help feeling somewhat dejected by this game. This is a Zelda clone in every sense, from the mechanics, to the layout, to the story structure, to the items. It is a beat for beat emulation, and whilst this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its lack of nuance is. In other words, it’s okay to borrow elements from other games and build your own game around that, but if you’re not adding anything to it, you’re essentially making the same game as someone else. What’s worse because none of your own creative input in in there, the end product doesn’t have the chops to stand toe to toe with other passion projects – it’s not your passion, it’s an imitation of someone else’s. Truth be told, not every game needs to be original to be good – and as I said before, I do like this game – but if done poorly, it can lead to your game being bland. It’s very clear that the boys at Castle Pixel are big Zelda fans, but there’s a difference in playing and designing. Blossom Tales does a decent job in recreating Zelda qualities, but there are also some grave missteps along the way. For starters, Dungeon design is tedious in its mundanity. In Zelda games, whilst dungeons would always have a clear order in which you had to do things to progress, they would incorporate exploration and encourage the player to work things out for themselves. Blossom Tales dungeons however are a series of rooms put one right after the other with either combat challenges, room challenges, or puzzle challenges to slow you down. These aren’t dungeons as much as they are corridors, and they are bothersome in length. Realistically, they may actually be about the same size as any other Zelda dungeon, but their vapid structure and lack of true player involvement can make them feel drawn out and boring. What’s more, there’s never any clever use of items. When gifted with the Bow and Arrow in one dungeon, you’d think the following dungeon would include Arrow based obstacles, but this isn’t the case. The items themselves, whilst cut and pasted from Zelda, are woefully mishandled and unbalanced. Bombs can insta-kill any enemy outside of bosses, Arrows are often unresponsive for what’s required, and the Boomerang is stupidly OP, being the most versatile and also the most deadly - and none of these have any worthwhile function outside of the dungeon they’re acquired in. The player has to feel a sense of progression when they get an item - now they can get to areas they couldn’t reach before, or solve a once unsolvable puzzle – but Blossom Tales’ design seems to only have item-based obstacles laid out in the immediate aftermath of getting it. This makes the items feel ultimately trivial and so they’re treated as such. Then there are the rewards, which vary all over the map. Finding a random sealed room in a dungeon gifts you with a clover to up your magic metre, while protecting a guy from zombies as he digs around rewards you with money (which becomes irrelevant after a while); what’s that? You entered some guy’s house in a village and opened his out-in-the-open treasure chest? Well done, here’s a heart piece. Did you solve all those puzzles and fight all those monsters in a gauntlet of wit and strength? Here’s some cash. It just seems so meaningless and downplays the value of seeking out side-quests or exploring. Why bother doing task X or mission Y when chances are it’ll just be money instead of something actually useful at the end. With all of that said however, there is one aspect of this game that makes it unique – or at the very least interesting. The narrative of this game is one of a bedtime story, as a grandpa tells his two grandchildren of the adventure you’re playing. Occasionally the grandpa’s text box will appear to detail some story, but in rare instances the children interject and offer the player a choice. In these moments the player can decide how the next part of the game is going to pan out. This is such an interesting idea, and it honestly kills me that the Devs didn’t see its potential. While yes, you get to decide every so often whether you fight bowmen or rock monsters, the idea is otherwise squandered. This simple idea should have been the very heart of the game; they should have built it all from this and had they done that it would have overshadowed the Zelda comparisons easily. I mean, think about it. Why not have the players decide whether the dungeon they enter will be an underwater cavern or a swamp? And why stop there? Why not have the players decide what item they get out of each dungeon? Think of how intricate and profound you could make the game then! Your dungeons can now have two means of being overcome, where puzzles and traps have a solution for either item, regardless of what the player chose. Let’s say the player chose the Bow and Arrow over the Boomerang, the next room can be beaten with either, but it would be easier had they chosen one item instead of the other. Down the line, the reverse happens. And this can expand itself to future dungeons, and can entice replay value to players who want to see what happens if they chose something different. This single idea opens up a whole host of new doors and opportunities for excellent game design, and it’s such a waste that it’s relegated to just dictating whether the next combat challenge is with a ninja or a pirate. In spite of these grievances I feel I should repeat myself: I don’t think this is a bad game. What it does right, it does well, and uninspired and bland as it can be, there’s still a clear amount of effort on display. The graphical style is nice to look at, and the music is pretty excellent to boot. Would I recommend it? Of course. Would I recommend it to Zelda fans? Yes, actually, I would. Would I recommend it over a Zelda game? Absolutely not. Good game this may be, but make no mistake, there’s no substitute for the real thing. 7/10

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA – Wii U Virtual Console)

Honestly, when the Switch launched, I thought my Wii U days were over. This sucked because I had so many games on its hard-drive that I hadn’t even touched – one of them being Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Luckily though, I’m not ready to give up on the system just yet, and so I decided to give this game a go. I hesitate to say I’m a seasoned Castlevania player, but the truth probably isn’t far off. I’ve played a lot of Castlevania titles over the years, both classic and modern. So how does this one hold up? Well, straight away (being the second Castlevania title on the GBA) it certainly improves on a lot regarding its predecessor (Circle of the Moon). Movement is super slick – no more double tapping directions to run – and the shoulder buttons add increased movement both forward and backwards. You can storm through this game at incredible speed at times. The sprites here are also a lot bigger, allowing less room to fit things in the screen, but also allowing for combat to be a lot more focused. Speaking of combat, the game limits you to a whip again, but it does offer a fair amount of experimentation and diversity regarding the secondary weapons. So all things considered, it seems to be on par with most of the other Castlevania titles. However, it does seem to lack an identity. There are a lot of games in the Castlevania series that stand out from those around them. Hell, pretty much every DS title is unique and distinct from the others. Harmony of Dissonance though, whilst definitely improving on Circle of the Moon, lacks any real soul. Circle was the first GBA title, so that’s got that going for it, and Aria of Sorrow (Harmony’s successor) changed up the formula a lot, as well as bringing in fresh lore and plot to the stagnant universe. Harmony sits in the middle, and sadly it’s kind of forgettable. The music didn’t really stick out, and there were no real moments or mechanics that made me say that this was a unique Castlevania experience. Not to say that every game in a franchise has to be different; Harmony is still a very good game – it’s just that a lot of the things on show here come from other Castlevania titles, leading this to be more of a compilation of tried and tested ideas rather than anything fresh and new. Outside of this hokey drawback though, there are genuine issues that I have. For starters this game has a hell of a lot of backtracking. Warp rooms are way too spread out, and so a great deal of this game will be spent manually traversing the map from pillar to post. When you finally get all the warp rooms connected too, you’re right around the corner from the final boss, making their whole function worthless. It can certainly be a slog, but at least I didn’t have to grind to beat it this time. No joke, this is probably the easiest Castlevania title I’ve ever played. I died maybe 10 times in total – and half of them were for just by being careless. It certainly has its challenges, the odd boss here that’ll test you, or just running into unexplored territory with no idea how close you are to a save room, but outside of these scarce moments, you can breeze through the campaign. Even the final boss (and yes, I’m talking about the TRUE final boss) was a cakewalk – which is surprising to say the least. Altogether though, I don’t regret playing it in the slightest. Gameplay is thick and fast enough to be engaging – though the backtracking really can bring that down – and there’s at least 15 hours of playtime to be enjoyed. There’s a collectible feature as well, but that doesn’t really give you all that much outside of a slightly different end cutscene. Still I had a lot of fun, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to get into the Castlevania series – its low difficulty makes it a perfect place to start. 7/10

Destiny 2 (XBO)

Destiny is a weird series. It sort of exists in gaming limbo – with some players appreciating what it has to offer, whilst others sneer at its supposed mundanity. Admittedly, the first game was very bland in the beginning as it took several expansions to actually get going, but I nevertheless liked it; it certainly had its charms anyway. If there’s one thing that can be said about Bungie however, it’s that they generally always try to learn from their mistakes, and as a result, Destiny 2’s quality is strong right from the get go; no expansions required. For starters it has a story and an antagonist (something which the first game sorely lacked in its early state) and on top of that, its main campaign is actually pretty lengthy by First Person Shooter standards. I think this is the hidden strength of Destiny. Most FPS games these days focus more on multiplayer than single player as their audience tends to invest more time into that than anything else – but Destiny combines the two options so that multiplayer and single player are one and the same. You can play with friends and strangers, or not; you aren’t beholden to a specific line for most of the game’s campaign. There’s also a great deal to do outside of just the game’s main storyline. There are side missions labelled as adventures, Strikes and Raids that require Co-Op play to conquer, public events that demand you and strangers work briefly together to overcome a challenge, and just general hides and hovels to explore and uncover. The more you do, the more rewards you get and the stronger you become, allowing you to complete the game’s more difficult stages with ease. It can be quite a time sink, especially when playing with friends. Visually the game looks great with a variety of locations set across the entire solar system, and the music is surprisingly good; it’s actually outstandingly good, easily one of the best soundtracks of the genre. The writing is also great, giving impressive depths to a lot of the characters you come across on your adventure. This added with the excellent voice performances can lead to some great exchanges – be they dramatic or comical. Whilst Destiny 2’s main campaign is relatively beefy on its own, there are a couple of expansions that have been added since release – a few of which I received automatically when I got the game. These additional mini-campaigns follow the precedent set before them as they deliver pretty good storylines to add more to the game’s length. What I especially liked about them is that each campaign has a different alien race as the antagonist, which, on top of allowing these species to spend more time in the spotlight, also gives you the feeling that this really is an open and expansive universe you’re playing in. As enjoyable as it all is though, it’s by no means perfect. Aiming can often feel stiff, even after readjusting the settings, and half the time the game is remarkably easy – the main game’s final boss is a complete pushover. What’s more, it feels like not much has grown since the last game. Whilst it has been a while since I played Destiny 1, and whilst I stand by what I said earlier about Bungie learning from their mistakes, Destiny 2 generally doesn’t feel like a set forwards. In fact, sometimes it feels like its following the same beats. Take for example the enemies; outside of a few notable exceptions, there aren’t any new foes to encounter. Every race has its range of the same archetypes: every race has a grunt, a heavy, a shield, a sniper – there’s no true variation between the alien races. That and the fact that you encounter them all in the exact same order as Destiny 1. Why not introduce a new alien race, or how about adding some variants to each race’s battle strategies? There are also one or two BTS decisions that bug me; like how you don’t get a sparrow to help travel and explore until AFTER the main campaign and how the currency caps at a certain point - not only do you hit the max in no time, but there’s also very little to spend it on. Finally, the game’s loading times are nothing short of criminal. The good news is, once it’s loaded it rarely has to do it again until you leave the planet, but when you’re not running and gunning, it takes so long to get anywhere. Even on some of the most up to date hardware it still takes a painful amount of time. Even so, in spite of its flaws and drawbacks, Destiny 2 is a very strong and enjoyable First Person Shooter. It may not be pushing the genre’s envelope, nor its own series’ envelope for that matter, but it’s certainly fun enough and it’s sure to give its main audience plenty to do for weeks on end. 8/10

DOOM 2016 (Switch)

Doom was one of my favourite games of 2016. I’d probably even put it as my game of that year; so imagine how stoked I was to hear that it was coming to the Switch just in time for Christmas. Admittedly, I had no real intention to play it again, though the idea of playing it on the go was certainly a draw. I thought it’d be a game I got eventually, down the line when there would be a dry patch of games. I wasn’t going to argue when I got it for Christmas though. Now, yes, I am breaking my own rules by putting this game here – I have already played it, so why am I talking about it? Thing is, I do actually think there’s stuff to bring up here. Right away I have to say that Panic Button – the ladies and gents responsible for downsizing the game to work on Switch – did an outstanding job. It runs pretty slick most of the time, only really dropping in quality and frame-rate when things get pretty busy on screen. Graphically the game also looks pretty close to its PS4 and Xbox One counterparts. Okay, sure, if you look close you can point out the discrepancies, but when the game is flowing, and you’re running and gunning, the differences are so slight you can’t even see them. Playing in handheld is incredibly welcome too, and is without a doubt the number one selling point of this game. However, with all of that in mind, I wouldn’t actually recommend this version over the others. In spite of the excellent compression work, there’s no shaking the fact that the game was not initially designed to be on switch, and as a result sometimes there are a few cracks in the design. For one, graphical slowdown, whilst not too frequent, is significant and noticeable when it happens. What’s more, the game occasionally suffered from “audio glitches” during my playthrough. More than once during a fire-fight, the audio seemed to buckle and a loud buzz would sound off. I played the game almost 100% in headphones, so you can imagine how that going off seemingly at random every once in a while can be jarring. Once the audio broke so much that it just straight up vanished. The music stopped playing and the sound effects went dead too. The menu music continued fine when I hit pause, but returning to the action just led to silence. I had to reboot the checkpoint to bring the audio back. Finally the biggest and most noticeable difference is the Switch itself, or rather the controller. The right analogue stick on the Switch Pro controller and Joy-Con is just too stiff, making accurate aiming almost impossible. Truth be told, this didn’t affect the main gameplay as, if you’ve played Doom, you know that accuracy isn’t all that important. It did however effect the game’s Rune challenges which often times I beat through just dumb luck more than anything else. All in all though, the Switch port of Doom 2016 is actually excellent – I just don’t think it’s the best version of the game. I think the game is made for someone like me though; someone who beat the original on one of the other consoles before, and is just looking for an excuse to pick it up and play it again. If that sounds like you then pick it up and dive into Hell one more time, but if this is your first time with the game I’d recommend picking it up elsewhere for the optimal experience. 8/10

Fe (Switch)

Fe is the latest game in the trend of uniquely stylised indie titles to enter the digital storefront. Right off the bat the gorgeous surroundings and use of colour are enough to win you over, and its gameplay keeps it as simple as possible from that point on. One element I found particularly interesting is its entire use of visual storytelling. There is no dialogue or any clear aim or goal, but by playing you find yourself acting out of instinct based on what you’re seeing. You see a creature caught in a trap and you endeavour to help it. You see something ominous skulking through the area; you naturally keep your distance. The game flow uses your natural reactions to give you direction and purpose. I especially liked the singing mechanic, a means to which your playable critter can communicate with the wildlife. It’s pretty much the only thing you can do as you have no real weapons or defences on hand at all times, and not only is it used to explore the terrain or bypass a danger; it’s also used for puzzle solving. There are stealth mechanics in use here too, and they are brilliant in their simplicity. Essentially, tall grass hides you from any enemy you might come across and that’s it. It is basic, yes, but it’s proof that you don’t need to have a hyper detailed stealth system to be both effective and fun. All that said however, there’s no escaping the game’s clunkiness. Fe may move like a modern game, but it plays like a PlayStation One title. Button commands never really feel one to one, and general feedback is weak. Pressing a button lightly is the same as slamming it with a sledgehammer, and what you wanted to be a short jump turns into a grand leap. Tree jumping makes up a huge part of this game and whilst climbing the trees is incredibly simple, leaping off of them is so mismatched and hard to navigate. Even at the game’s end I still hadn’t cracked it. Then there are the environments themselves, which whilst visually pleasing and colourful at first, never really vary. It is very easy to get lost and lose your sense of direction, and the map doesn’t help as its topographical layout does not specify how high or low you have to be to find the tunnel to progress. You have the option to turn the waypoints off which frankly would triple the playtime as you’ll be wandering around aimlessly without some form of guide. One final note is that this game has collectibles, but with the clunky game feel constantly putting a dampener on my experience, I never felt driven to find them all. Some are needed for optional power-ups whist the other two further the general story and lore. Problem is however, because the story is told entirely through visuals and not all collectibles are found in the right order, it can lead the lore to be a little confusing by the end, and most plot elements don’t add that much. Altogether, Fe is fun enough. Sure it feels a little out of this decade, but it’s got the right amount of charm to make you play past the flaws. 7/10

Fire Emblem: Fates ~ Birthright (3DS)

Fire Emblem Fates is possibly the most ambitious Fire Emblem title ever. Intelligent systems essentially made 3 Fire Emblem games in 1, with each version being distinct from one another. In relation to the plot, Birthright sees the protagonist side with the light kingdom of Hoshido, whilst Conquest sees them side with the dark kingdom of Nohr; Revelation sees the hero choose neither side, but the differences of each path aren’t exclusive to the story. How the game plays and how it is structured is also affected. As a result, I thought it best to play each game in turn and review them all individually, starting with Birthright. Birthright is structured very similarly to Fire Emblem Awakening, and a lot of the mechanics from there are transferred over. Awakening was quite a turning point for the series as it made this cult, turn-based strategy franchise more accessible without losing any of its initial draw – so fans of that game will feel right at home with Birthright. Sadly that does mean that the opening of the game is riddled with tutorial after tutorial, but once you get through the first few maps you’ll be right on your way. The general gameplay is still classic Fire Emblem: you move your units around a map, fighting enemies as you go, until you complete the objective. Much like Awakening there are three types of missions: Chapters (that progress the game and advance the story), Paralogues (optional side-quests that usually reward you with an extra unit for your party), and Challenges (previously cleared maps with randomly generated enemies to help farm experience). I love this structure; dividing the gameplay in this way encourages you to use less experienced units, as well as elongating the overall time spent on the game. Because the Challenge maps appear seemingly every time you turn the game off, you could go weeks without advancing the plot at all and still feel fulfilled with the time you invested. Birthright also boasts that its resources are limitless and near infinite. You will always be able to gain experience via Challenge maps, and you will always have the opportunity to gain money to buy items and weapons. A lot of this won’t seem new to people who played Awakening of course, as this was the norm for that game. There are some elements that Birthright adds however. Firstly, weapons have no breaking point. This is definitely an odd choice as it takes away some of the strategy that was present in the previous games. The only things that can break are the healing staves, but even so, because the weapons don’t break, armouries become pointless and money becomes meaningless. Another thing Birthright brings to the table is a hub in the form of a castle. In this hub, it’s possible to invite units to your quarters and develop support relationships outside of battle, which is definitely a plus. One strange addition however comes when your avatar marries another unit. Essentially a dating-sim mini-game is triggered. It’s generally used to just make the support relationship even stronger, but once in a while it’ll ask you to wake your partner up using the touch screen or (yes, really) blow on them after they’ve had a bath. To be honest, it all feels very out of place in the game. One final addition the hub brings is a tower-defence type map. Because you can build and develop your hub as you see fit, you can decide what defences go where along with unit starting placements. Occasionally your hub will be attacked and you have to defend it in a traditional Fire Emblem way. It’s rather intriguing but ultimately a bit too much of a distraction from the main game. This is ultimately one of my main flaws with Birthright: it’s ambitious as heck, but that ambition goes too far. We don’t need dating-sims or tower-defence hybrid maps; we don’t need monotonous, Animal Crossing-esque interactions with units in the hub as they ask for new accessories; we don’t need any of it. It fluffs up the game in a way that isn’t necessary. On top of this, Fates Birthright is easily one of the most unbalanced Fire Emblem titles I’ve ever played. Because resources are so infinite, difficulty is all over the place. Challenge maps weren’t challenging at all and they allowed even my benched units to get buff. Because I played every challenge map that came my way, the game’s main chapters became a cake walk. At no point during the campaign did I feel truly tested; the Paralogues however, well they’re a different story. For some reason these optional missions were stupendously difficult; I only ever managed to clear a handful, and I always try to do everything the game offers me. The only explanation I have is that the Paralogues only become available when you marry off certain units and, again, because the game gave me every opportunity to build relationships on and off the battlefield, I was able to unlock Paralogues pretty early on. As such, the Paralogues were designed to be played much later on in the game and I just stumbled upon them before I was ready. Even with this in mind though, my time with the game was spent mostly in a state of difficulty limbo – the main chapters and challenge maps were easy to the point where they were hard to enjoy, but the Paralogues were so gruelling and relentless I lost all incentive to play them. Because there are no limits and constant opportunity, the game is either too easy or too difficult depending on how you play – which is disappointing because all the Fire Emblem games of the past (including Awakening) managed to hit the nail just right with this. One final bug bear with the game is that the additional Paralogue characters don’t really make sense. In Awakening, the Paralogue characters were the children of the units you married off. This made sense given Awakening’s time-travel plot. Here, it’s the same: Paralogue characters are offspring of married units, but even though it tries to explain how it all works, it just comes off as a bit of a mess. Ultimately, Birthright tries to do everything at once but what it adds beyond the main game experience just comes crumbling down. The heart and soul of the game is still there however, and Fire Emblem fans will have plenty to sink their teeth into. Its quality gameplay, killer soundtrack, and time tested mechanics shine through despite its problems. It’s still a very solid Fire Emblem title; I would be lying though if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed with my time with it. 8/10

Hollow Knight (Switch)

Hollow Knight is an excellent of example of what indie developers are capable of. I admit it; I grossly underestimated this game. On the surface Hollow Knight looks like a quaint little 2D platformer likely to be a short but sweet side-scrolling experience, but what it is instead is a tough-as-nails, Metroidvania adventure with not only outstanding gameplay and design but also a plethora of depth and content. Graphically the game looks stunning with a macabre filter draped all over its otherwise cartoon aesthetics, and, whilst at first its locations and backgrounds may seem drab and colourless, the game soon opens up to new vibrant and varied environments to explore. In spite of the change in scenery however, the game never loses sight of its grim tone, which looms over the entire world to brilliant effect, painting it with layers of mystique and melancholy. The atmosphere is incredible – most Metroidvania games excel at this, after all – but here, as you explore the downtrodden and decrepit ruins of Hallownest, you feel yourself compelled to uncover all of its history and secrets. Another great element is that the game never gives you a story or a motivation for the player at the outset; all it hands you is an enormous world, steeped in mystery. The ambiguity of Hallownest drives your curiosity to go deeper into the rich depths of this incredible universe, and over time the objectives for the adventure become clear. There is so much lore to uncover, and because you are never told exactly what happened in Hallownest, you’re left to piece it all together yourself which adds an extra layer of complexity to the game’s design. This is almost a masterclass in world building, not just because of how deep everything goes, but also with its spread of compelling characters. Throughout your journey, you’ll encounter plenty of enemies to battle with, but also plenty of friendly faces to get to know as well. Often as you explore you’ll come across the same adventurers multiple times but in different locations. It really gives you the impression that they are having their own adventures whilst you’re having yours. What’s more, sometimes these characters grow and develop over the game’s length – where once one character was cowardly, they now wish to be stronger because you protected them from enemies. It’s not just the adventurers though, as almost every character you interact with is both unique and weird in their own way, and you find yourself getting attached to the residents of this bizarre, insect world. It’s hard to believe I’ve gone all this way into this review without mentioning the gameplay, which is not only super slick and fun, but is also incredibly challenging. This game’s difficulty is no joke as enemies will body you at every opportunity. Every enemy will hurt you indiscriminately, meaning they will all do the same damage (one unit of life) but some of the more heavy villains and bosses may end up dishing out a lot more pain. Despite its unforgiving nature however, it remains balanced and no death every feels cheap or undeserved. By collecting and filling up your soul meter by striking enemies, you can heal yourself any time you want. This does leave you vulnerable and exposed however, so it’s advised to only heal when you’re in a safe spot. The game also has equippable charms which grant special privileges to the player. Some may make you attack faster, increase your range, allow you to recover from attacks quicker, speed heal – the list goes on, and with 40 charms in the game the number of possible combos is staggering. Like all Metroidvania titles the game relies on a progression system in order to advance: you go somewhere, get a power-up, progress to the next area that was previously out of bounds, etc. The level of freedom given here, however, is one I’ve not felt for a long time in a game like this. More than once I found myself at an insurmountable challenge – a boss fight or a tricky platforming section – but the game never locked me into them; I could choose where to go and what to do, and because there is SO much to do in Hallownest, I never felt that my journey had hit a roadblock or that I was wandering around aimlessly. In fact, by going away and coming back to difficult areas, I was allowed to get better at the game and upgrade my equipment. With so many options, so much to see and do, and so much content to explore I was floored to realise that this game is just over £10 on the Nintendo eShop. The production quality is through the roof for that price tag. This game is also incredibly deep on its themes. Just because there’s no concrete story outside of what it expects you to piece together yourself, doesn’t mean this game isn’t trying to say something. There are themes of death, grief, rebirth, forgiveness, and regret all crammed into this package, and each one is beautifully exemplified in the game’s soundtrack. The song’s that play during your adventure not only suit the aesthetic atmosphere of the areas in question, but also serve to back up the morose aura that permeates the world you’re in. It is so incredibly captivating and can lead to some very deep and emotional moments – especially as the game nears its climax. The only drawbacks I have with Hollow Knight are that its challenging difficulty can lead to some moments of tedium as you travel from the save point to where you died over and over again until you finally succeed, and on rare occasions the game would get so hectic that it would crash, but outside of these tiny setbacks I couldn’t be happier. To summarise: Hollow Knight is nothing short of sublime. It’s a remarkably deep and complex game with excellent visuals, a gorgeous soundtrack, hours upon hours of content, and gameplay that places it shoulder to shoulder with the genre’s best. 10/10

The Last of Us: Remastered (PS4)

Great games have a certain pattern. They release to both critical and commercial success; everyone plays them and loves them; but then – in some cases – the game gets so much praise that it becomes overrated. Yes, it’s a dreaded word with negative implications, but it doesn’t mean the game isn’t good. If anything it means the game is so good it becomes a victim of its own success. People love it so much that they create this fantastical perspective – a perspective no game could ever live up to. Enter The Last of Us, one of Sony’s most critically acclaimed games. For years I’ve heard nothing but good things about this game, but upon playing it, the preconceived notion that it was a masterpiece only led to disappointment. Again, this isn’t to say the game is bad. On the contrary it’s actually really great, but I won’t lie and say the overrated quality of the title didn’t impact my initial enjoyment of the game. The elements everyone always champions is the game’s story, writing, characterisation, and performances – and I have to agree 100%. This is without a doubt the most I’ve ever been invested in a game’s story. It’s really showing how video games as a medium can be used as a means of storytelling. Segments of this game, while playable, are practically cinematic. I also have to recognise the voice talent here. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson deliver their lines with such elegant sincerity it’s stunning. What lets this game down however is the gameplay. 80% of the time the gameplay is good; it works and it’s enjoyable to play, but that other 20% had me yelling furiously at the TV. For starters, like a lot of other Naughty Dog projects of the PS3 era, the gameplay is arguably clunky. Mobility feels jagged, and characters often get stuck on environments and scenery. Furthermore the controls are occasionally unresponsive, with button prompts not being recognised, or just not being given at all. By far the biggest sin this game has however has to be the unreliable mechanics. The Last of Us is an action game that depends heavily on stealth as well. It is in these stealth elements I found myself getting the most frustrated. Everything felt so inconsistent. Sometimes enemies would see me approaching from the side, other times they wouldn’t. Sometimes an enemy would hear my strategically thrown distraction, other times, nothing. It all felt so 50-50 in the beginning. I admit, later level design and enemy placements became a lot more manageable and my frustration levelled out, but something that got intolerable was how the game’s “listen mode” – granting you the ability to see enemies through walls – started to be less and less reliable as time went on. It stopped showing me people. Now you could argue this was intentional, that in a fire-fight it’s to make it harder for you to take these guys out; but it was happening in stealth segments too and with people who were just a few feet away from me. How am I supposed to be sneaky when the key mechanic for being sneaky is faulty? Is it a glitch? Is it intentional? I don’t know, but if the player is ever asking those questions about your in-game mechanics, maybe there’s a problem. With all of that considered, I have to say The Last of Us is still somewhat worthy of its praise. Yes, the “hype” (for lack of a better word) did ruin my experience at the beginning, and the mechanics did drag the game down from its impressive highs, but I got used to the clunkiness over time, and I found myself being rather forgiving. It should definitely be on your “Must Play” lists if you haven’t already picked it up, but just take some of that “masterpiece” status with a pinch of salt before diving in. 8/10

Mario Tennis Aces (Switch)

Mario’s sporting spin-offs have had a tumultuous run to say the least. Whilst Camelot have delivered some outstanding, engaging, and fun games over the years, so too have they released sub-par and undercooked experiences. It is with a heavy heart then that I have to put the latest sport outing – Mario Tennis Aces – into the sub-par line up. Understand that Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 was my first outing with these titles, and I love that game to pieces. Mario Tennis games since then have always been high on my interest meter, despite how few have actually panned out as I’d have hoped. I thought Aces was going to be a blast - it had adventure mode, something not seen since the Game Boy Advance days, and it all looked so stylish and polished – but the final product is not only lacking in a number of areas, but is also riddled with questionable design choices. I’ll start with the good, which fundamentally when you look at it is actually a big chunk of the game itself – the gameplay. The mechanics and gameplay of Aces are slick and very enjoyable. Controls are straightforward enough, and hitting the ball in just the right way is ever so satisfying. I admit, having never really been a fan of Mario Power Tennis on the Nintendo Gamecube, the sight of the new mechanics did have me worried, but they’re ultimately fine – to an extent. The adventure mode is interesting certainly, and it does offer a variation to the standard tournament options. It’s got some pretty fun challenges in there, and some really cool and creative boss fights as well. It also does a very good job of teaching you the controls – including the more intricate mechanics this game introduces – and it’ll have you playing like a pro in no time. Unfortunately that’s where the good stuff ends. Whilst yes, it does count for a lot of the overall game makeup, it’s still got a lot left to be desired. For starters, outside adventure and tournament mode, there is nothing else to play. Oh sure, there’s standard exhibition matches in Free Mode, and there’s always the online stuff (which this game feels very heavily steered towards), but that’s your lot. If I may draw attention to the N64 version for a moment, that game had those features (minus the online) plus more. Ring shot – a series staple – is missing, and there are no other bonus modes either. Now it may seem a little unfair to compare this game to another in the series – especially to one I love even to this day – but you have to realise something: I consider Mario Tennis N64 to be the standard! The only way is up from there, guys, but it feels like Aces goes a little backwards; stripping more and more content away until all you have is a bare bones tennis sim. It goes further than just a lack of modes though; a general lack of options plague this game. Again, on the N64 game, options were 100% versatile: you could pick your rules, your court, everything – it was 100% customisable and malleable to the players’ whim. Here the options of a standard exhibition are needlessly restricted. You cannot pick your court, instead it’s randomly generated. You cannot change the number of games per set beyond 2, and you can’t change the number of sets beyond 3 either. Doubles can only play with tiebreaker rules, and all other settings are generalised too much. Why so constricting? It makes no sense for the local play options to be so fixed. It’s such a stupid decision. The same can somewhat be said for the new mechanics. Whilst I passively enjoy them on the whole, it doesn’t mean they aren’t problematic. Zone-shots and zone-speed are all well and good, and the power meter is balanced in how quickly it charges up, but the trick shots are finicky as all hell. Not only do they not work until the ball is on your side of the court (making them often feel unresponsive and thus unreliable) but they also only function in four directions. This can lead to instances where your character will either go the wrong way, or just outright fly straight past the ball. What’s more, there are two ways to activate a trick shot: the right thumbstick, or double tapping the X button. It’s too bad though that lob and drop shots are assigned to X also, and that accidentally pressing a lob twice will cause the character to vault right over the ball for no reason. Oh, and this cannot be turned off. What the hell were you thinking, Camelot?! If there is one mechanic though that causes the most grief, it is the racket break. This feature isn’t inherently bad, but its implementation is deeply flawed for the game in question. By preforming zone-shots or super shots the players have the opportunity to break their opponent’s racket; doing so enough times will KO the other player. I can see the appeal of this in many respects, as it offers a new line of strategy to the game and can make some matches intense and exciting, but the fact that you can be winning a match only to lose by having your racket broken, is just farcical. Online is an absolute mess with this. If the other player is losing, they just keep trying to break your racket. It takes the standard tennis sim and breaks it. Many have compared this element to a fighting game, but I didn’t buy a fighting game, I bought a tennis game. Luckily this KO feature can be turned off for local matches, but no such luck with Online or COM tournament modes. Speaking of COM tournaments, this game is embarrassingly easy. Mushroom cup is a cakewalk, which is no surprise, but Flower cup is more of the same. To bring up the N64 version again, the Mushroom cup was designed to allow players to get to grips with the game. After that though, the Flower cup would up the ante substantially, and the Star cup would be a hellishly hard challenge. Here, Star cup is very much the same as what came before it, with only the final being a true test of tennis skill. This annoys me all the more because the game does nothing to prepare you for the sudden shift in difficulty. To make matters worse, there’s so much fluff that doesn’t need to be there. Overly drawn out pre-match cutscenes; Toads commentating during the match; so much waiting around in between tournament matches – it all just gets rather tiring. The worst offender of this added fluff though has to go to the adventure mode. As well as being a little on the short and repetitive side, the adventure mode takes its story far too seriously, with dialogue boxes being incredibly chatty. It’s a dumb story mode in a tennis game, you don’t have to bring logic and reason into why I have to play Donkey Kong at tennis! And to cap it all off, should you fail an objective in the story mode, you are kicked back to the map. No retry option; there’s not even a restart option on the pause screen should you feel like the match isn’t going your way and you want a do-over. Nope, you have to go back to the map screen and listen to the losing dialogue over and over again until you eventually win. It’s amazing just how quickly this simple lack of a retry option killed my desire to play the game. Failure wasn’t the problem, it was the time wasting that got me down. There’s also an RPG element to the adventure, as Mario will level up as you play – regardless of whether you win or lose – but honestly, I didn’t feel better or faster so it all felt rather empty and pointless. The lack of retry options; the lack of versatility in local play settings; the lack of modes in general; the fact that every character is unlocked from the get-go without using the adventure mode to unlock them; the overly chatty story mode - all these small decisions make a big difference when piled next to each other, and for both Nintendo and Camelot to ignore them is foolish – all of them damage the incentive to play. Altogether, Mario Tennis Aces is fun enough when just playing tennis, but the needless guff and short-sighted behind-the-scenes decisions make it feel taxing, dull, and soulless. Perfect for a quick half-hour session, but nothing more. 6/10

Mega Man Zero Collection ~ Mega Man Zero 3 (DS)

I first got the Mega Man Zero collection way back in 2014, and after I played through Zeros 1 and 2 I decided to take a break. For the longest time the latter games on the collection sat on my backlog, but I never got around to booting them up. Until now, of course. I love the Mega Man games, and (from memory) I really enjoyed the first two entries in this series. Upon playing through Mega Man Zero 3 however, I found myself in a circle of frustration. At its heart Zero 3 is an excellent game; maintaining the spirit of other Mega Man titles as it brings tight and fun gameplay. Visually it looks great, with some impressive sprite-work on show, and the music is pretty good too. I can’t deny any of that, but here’s the thing: the game has not aged well. For starters, there are archaic design choices here. Levels have an over-reliance on insta-kill mechanics to present the illusion of difficulty, and failure is not so much endured as it is outright punished. A handful of lives and a meagre amount of health is all you get, and if you lose them all, it’s back to the very beginning of the stage for you. What’s more, after every stage you get a performance review. Your efforts are tallied up and you’re given a score. The higher the score, the better the bonuses you get. You can unlock special moves, or obtain new equipment to play around with. Trouble is the scoring system is brutal, meaning you’ve got to be a downright god at the game to earn that S rank. Even more infuriating is the very design of the game makes this, A: unfair, and B: pointless. You cannot go back and get better scores once the level is beaten. You can replay levels to farm for currency or to explore for collectibles, but that’s it. You legitimately have to be amazing at the level on the first run; if not, no special items for you. Another problem this game has is its poor conveyance. Considering there’s an awful lot of hokie dialogue it certainly doesn’t do a good job of explaining what tools the player has at their disposal. One of the mechanics the game uses is the Cyber-Elf system - equipable or throwaway power ups that can help your gaming experience. Satellite elves will follow you through the level and always stay active, whilst fusion elves are a one-time deal – use them and they’re gone forever. What they give you will run until the level’s over. These are things I had to figure out by myself. The game did very little to explain how is best to use them, and when it did it wasn’t very clear. I know I could have looked in the manual, but still. All this amounted to my time with the game being nothing short of miserable. It made me not want to play it. I rage-quit over the insta-death mechanics so cheaply arranged in every level. I got frustrated at how the game punished my efforts at every turn, demanding I go back to the start of the stage over and over again. And just when I was having fun, more annoying mechanics would appear to dash my enjoyment. I couldn’t believe that I had played Zeros 1 and 2 and not had similar issues. Could it be that this game was completely different? Or is it me? Has my patience for video game nonsense been eroded over the years? Turns out it may be none of the above. You see, this DS collection has two ways of playing: either select a title and play it as it was on the original GBA cartridge, or play every title back to back via something called “Easy Scenario”. I had forgotten that ES had been the mode I had chosen all those years ago, and that I had a save file ready and waiting to start Zero 3 on it. As a result, Zeros 1 and 2 were completely different from the experience I was playing. It sucked however that I only realised this when I was half way through the game. Nevertheless, after levelling up elves to double my health and nullify insta-death traps, I was able to persevere and beat the game as the developers intended. I was still curious though at how much was different between the original and the “Easy Scenario” version, so I decided to play the game a second time on the latter setting. After seeing the credits roll in both I can now say that, despite the grief it gave me, the original was more worth my time. I came to appreciate what it offered me. Sure its design was irritating to the point of rage-quitting, but ES was downright insulting by comparison. The original tested my gaming fortitude, the ES setting treated me like a child. On ES you have: four times as much health, maximum lives, all elves unlocked from the get go, most power-ups ready right away, an easy shot at topping score cards, all collectibles found, and nullified insta-death mechanics original, and when all is said and done, I’m glad I forgot about the ES. Mega Man Zero 3 is certainly tough, and by today’s standards its design might be rather decadent or cheap, but overcoming the challenges it presents can give you a rewarding sensation like no other. I may not 100% love the game, but I nevertheless respect it. 7/10

The Mummy Demastered (Switch)

This game confused me when I first saw it. The title font made it seem like it was a tie-in game to the 2017 mediocre monster epic, The Mummy, but that can’t be right. Video game movie tie-ins are realistically a thing of the past, so it can’t be connected to the movie, can it? High review scores on both the eShop and online made me pick it up out of curiosity, and, wouldn’t you know it, it IS a movie tie-in game. That fact alone in the current gaming space is shocking enough, but the fact that it’s actually great to boot just about floored me. What I really love about this game is its chosen ascetical direction. As the name implies, developers Wayforward decided to pull away from polygonal polished graphics to a more simplified sprite affair. They took the tie-in and went back in time. The whole game is reminiscent of a bygone era. The look and the sounds all harken back to the SNES or Megadrive days. In fact, this game would be right at home on either of those systems. Much like the tie-in games of yesteryear though, The Mummy Demastered understands that it must be a video game first. Movie tie-in games of the 90′s were only very loosely connected to the movie, often doing its own thing with the movie license and assets. The same applies here. The general plot of The Mummy plays out, but it is just a string to keep you moving forward. Sure, some of the backgrounds occasionally mimic the film and the occasional pixelated Russell Crowe appears on the intercom, but besides these the game barely has any real connection to the movie. There’s not a Tom Cruise in sight. Instead, the game opts for a more classic, Metroidvania style platformer that sees you running and gunning your way through rooms of enemies. I’ve never seen a game fit so snuggly into the “Metroidvania” category. It balances the namesake remarkably well, borrowing from each franchise respectively. The level layout and enemy design seem to be right out of a Castlevania title, whilst the progression system and character control plays out like a Metroid game. Sadly, that does mean that there aren’t any real new mechanics, but that’s still fine as the overall gameplay is excellent. The soundtrack is killer as well. It’s got notes of both 16-bit and 8-bit styles, and every song somehow makes me nostalgic. It’s brilliant – and again, it’s from a movie tie-in game. It’s really a fantastic gaming package. It’s worth noting though that this game is HARD! There are no difficulty settings. This is one size fits all gaming. Enemies deal a hell of a lot of damage to you, and the health drops are infrequent and inadequate. Honestly though, the difficulty made playing this game enjoyably intense. It was a genuine challenge, and I had to play at my very best to not die. I learned early on that playing conservative wasn’t going to cut it. Using the weakest gun because it has infinite ammo may seem like the best approach, but I soon learned to switch out for the heavy weapons often – ammo limits be damned. Miraculously, I only ever died once, but believe me I came so close to pushing daisies far too many times. Interestingly, the death system here is quite unique, at least in this genre. Y’see, you play as a nameless, faceless soldier, and when you die, you become a zombie just like the ones you’ve been trying to kill. The next thing you know, a replacement soldier is spawning at your last save point with absolutely no upgrades or power-ups. Now it’s up to you, nameless soldier #2, to track down nameless soldier #1, and take back all your stuff. This extra degree of challenge right after you’ve already failed makes the fight to stay alive all the more meaningful. You know that if you die, your stats go back to square one until you find and kill your old self – who, by the way, has all your gear and weapons and will use them against you. One thing I will say though is, whilst the difficulty in all its forms is welcome, it can lead the game to being unbalanced. The damage you take versus the health you gain just doesn’t work out, and most of the time you’re losing health faster than you can replenish it. And, with no “restore rooms” to refill your life meter, I had to hide out in a safe corner of the map and farm to regain my life way too often. It was tedious, frustrating, and made me question the design of the game. Outside of this however, The Mummy Demastered was a blast. It’s a little gem of a game that I implore any 90′s kid to pick up and play. Be warned though, this game does not pull punches as it tests your gaming skill. 8/10

Octopath Traveler (Switch)

Octopath Traveler is one of those rare games that’s beautifully able to merge elements from the past with more modern ideas to create something entirely new and unique. Everything, from the game’s graphics, to its structure, to its versatility, to even its name, makes it stand out from other RPGs. Just looking at this game’s visual art style tells you there is nothing else like it as it takes old-school 2D pixel sprites and puts them in a vibrant, 3D model-esque world. The whole thing looks like a gorgeous pop-up book, and thanks to the unreal engine, the game has a depth of field that blurs both the background and foreground, adding to the game’s immersive scope. The music too is absolutely superb, with perfect songs across the board and wonderful, tone-setting melodies you’ll be humming long after you’ve put the game down. There’s more to Octopath Traveler than the visuals and sounds though. The game focuses on 8 protagonists, each with their own storylines, motivations, and goals. Over the course of the game these characters join up to “assist” one another on their own individual paths. What I really liked here is that no two characters are the same; each has their own personality, as well as their own objective. For example: Ophillia the Cleric is on the path to bring a sacred flame to the churches around the world, whilst Olberic the Warrior is on a path of self-reflection as he searches for a purpose now that his home and kingdom are gone; Primrose the Dancer seeks revenge on the men who murdered her father, whilst Cyrus the Scholar merely pursues the mystery of a missing tome. This really makes each protagonist stand out from the others. An unfortunate downside to this otherwise excellent move is that the 8 characters never interact with each other within their individual stories. This is down to the level of amazing freedom and choice that the game gives the player. The characters’ storylines never cross paths unless you decide to make it happen. You could technically go from start to finish with one character and never once add people to your party; the choice is yours. As a result every story is designed to act as though you are lone wolfing your way through the game, with the characters standing alone as they face their individual dilemmas – which does kind of suck. There are plenty of moments where characters do interact with one another, but these have to be initiated by the player at certain times and are entirely optional. Plus, despite how these characters never really have a “meet up moment”, when they later talk to one another about their predicaments, they sound like life-long friends. It’s jarring at times, but better than nothing, and a worthy sacrifice considering what we get in return. This game is entirely the player’s oyster. Each character has 4 chapters, but you can decide whose chapter you do next; you might decide to do Alfyn’s third chapter before doing Therion’s second for instance. Everything is down to the player, and what’s more the game doubles down on this structure. The world map is divided up into 8 segments, each a respective homeland for each character. On top of these 8 “wedges” the map is further divided into what I called “Tiers”. Tier 1 is where your character’s journey begins, Tier 2 is where things start getting a little dicier, and Tier 3 is typically where each journey concludes. Naturally, the higher the Tier, the harder the enemies and battles will be. That being said, this game offers an incremental structure that allows these Tiers to grow as the player grows. For example, Tier 1 areas at the start of the adventure will have a level warning of around 1 or 5, but as you get stronger and recruit the other protagonists, that level warning increases and battles get a little more intense. Each Tier’s level warning does have a cap however, so it doesn’t just grow forever, but because of this versatile design it means that grinding is essentially moot (provided you use all 8 characters often and wisely). It also makes the game startlingly well balanced – one of the most balanced RPGs I’ve ever played, in fact. On the subject of battling though, this is the game’s true golden centre. The battle system in Octopath Traveler is simple but remarkably deep and intuitive. Everything is turn based and the order of who goes when is shown at the top of the screen – both for the current turn and the next, allowing you to effectively strategize your attacks. The complexity of these battles comes down to the enemies’ shields and vulnerabilities. Every enemy you face will have something they are weak to (fire attacks, swords, daggers etc.) and they will each have a “breaking point” marked by a number in a blue shield. Hitting these enemies with their weaknesses the number of required times, will break their shield and render them temporarily immobile; all attacks on their stunned state will then deal more damage. Who you bring to the fight will have an impact on how it goes as some characters will be better equipped to deal with certain enemies than others. Of course to save you constantly swapping out characters at the nearby town’s tavern (which is incredibly inconvenient, by the way) the game gives you its job system. Every character has a job and each job comes with its own set of abilities. Over the course of the adventure you can discover shrines that allow you to assign a secondary job to each character. These can be swapped out at any time and can only be equipped by one person. Fighting battles rewards you with Job Points (JP) which in turn allow you to unlock new abilities for both primary and secondary jobs. ON TOP OF THAT, unlocking abilities rewards you “Passive skills”. These are equippable bonuses that impact your character during battle – and they don’t need to be assigned a specific job. These passive skills can really turn the tide of battle in a pinch and can really be a boon as you go against tougher enemies. As you can imagine, with all of that going on, battle tactics can be extraordinarily customisable. Finally, each character has a special ability that they can use outside of battle - these are mostly used for the game’s optional side-quests. Speaking to people with an orange speech bubble above them will add their quest to your journal and then it’s up to you to figure out what you need to do. Whilst all 8 characters have a special ability, in truth there are only 4: Fight, Lead, Purchase, Investigate – the latter of which will be the most integral to doing any side quest. These 4 abilities are shared but they are they are not the same. For example, choosing to fight a bystander as Olberic will be easier than choosing to fight as H’aanit the Huntress, but as a result, some people cannot be fought until Olberic has reached a certain level; H’aanit has no such restriction. Likewise, Tressa the Merchant can buy things off of anyone without issue, but Therion the Thief runs the risk of being caught for trying to take the goods for free. Playing around with these differing options can be a joyful change of pace as you play detective to figure out how to accomplish the tasks at hand, some of which have more than one solution. Speaking of the game’s pace, not only is everything structured around the player’s choice, but it’s also designed to stop and start at the player’s discretion. Save points are incredibly plentiful and chapters all follow similar beats to the point where the game almost feels episodic. This game can be played for any length of time and still be thoroughly enjoyed (I think this is down to the portability factor that the Switch brings to the table). Again however, due to many of the chapters following the same story beats over and over again (go here, use ability, go there, dungeon, boss) it can lead to a lot of the gameplay feeling a little repetitive and arguably stagnant. Thankfully, the episodic nature of the game helped to alleviate some of that monotony. Realistically, the lack of narrative character interaction, the inconvenience of swapping out your party, and the uniformity of the chapters are my only problems with the game – although there is one more issue I have. After the credits have rolled, and after you’ve completed the right side-quests, you’re able to go against the “post-game final boss”. This is the true finale to the game, and it fills me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I love how it is able to connect the 8 characters’ individual stories together to create a very satisfying and chilling culmination. On the other hand however, the game’s final moments are needlessly archaic. It is reminiscent of the old NES Final Fantasy’s, complete with points-of-no-return, no saves, and a cheap final battle. It is bizarrely the anti-thesis of the very game it’s in as it goes against its own structure and design, not to mention it doesn’t really work in today’s gaming world. In spite of this frustrating conclusion however, Octopath Traveler is still an absolute marvel. It is a triumph as far as I’m concerned as it not only does what it sets out to do but it also sets a new standard in the process. One of the best RPGs I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, if marred by one or two disappointments. 9/10

Picross S (Switch)

What can I say about Picross that hasn’t already been said? Every game follows the same idea and there is 100% nothing wrong with that. Whilst this edition does exclude Micross puzzles, there are nevertheless still 150 puzzles to play through, plus the same 150 remixed with Mega Picross settings. Playing with hints is now literally a button press away as hitting the shoulder buttons toggles the assist navigation off and on, or if you’re a purist, you can turn them off completely and fly solo instead. It’s basically a really streamlined version of the Picross formula we all know and love. There’s no real reward for beating everything, outside of a medal on that particular mode, but that’s still fine. This is a game that’s all about the journey. It’s addictive as ever as well, and whilst it can go stale after a while, it can reach the point where you see boxes and squares every time you close your eyes. That’s what happened to me at least. I also love just how accessible the game is. You don’t need to make time in the day to play, or sit there for hours at a time. If all you’ve got is 10 minutes you can turn it on and enjoy every second. Speaking personally though, Picross to me is the perfect downtime game. Everyone has a certain thing they do to relax, and for me that thing is Picross. I switch it on, turn the volume down, slap on some music, and just sit there perfectly at ease as I play. It doesn’t matter which Picross I play either, it’s the same feeling every time. To that end I recommend Picross forever and always, and whilst Picross S doesn’t really further the formula (bizarrely stepping back with the omission of Micross) the fact that it still gave me chance to unwind means it’s just as recommended as its brethren. It is strange playing on the tele though. 8/10

Shantae: Half Genie Hero ~ Pirate Queen’s Quest (Switch)

It’s no secret that Shantae is one of my favourite gaming franchises and I feel it’s a shame there aren’t more games in the series. Thankfully, while Wayforward may not be making a new Shantae game right now (at least to my knowledge), they are nevertheless delivering DLC for their latest outing. Pirate Queen’s Quest sees the titular hero swapped out for her long-time nemesis Risky Boots as she makes her way across Sequin Land. This isn’t just a skin swap either as the whole game gets a little restructured. For starters the DLC package features mechanics and gameplay elements from the Shantae instalment prior to this one, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. So goodbye, magic transformations; hello, pirate gear and weapons. It’s an interesting gameplay shift as Risky is way more limited in what she can do compared to Shantae, and yet the devs have stepped in and tweaked some of the levels to make them more accessible without losing the challenge. There are new enemies to fight, as well as new platforming layouts to traverse with the skills at your disposal. All 5 main stages are available to play from the get-go, letting you play them in any order, and at the end of each you get a power up to help you explore the later stages easier. Exploring is downplayed a lot here though. While there are things to track down, such as the mandatory Genie Crystals and the Dark Magic Upgrade tokens, that’s your lot. There are no special items or treasures to find like in the Main Quest, and even the subject of money is removed. Upgrading equipment and health is easy-peasy now that you don’t have to farm for gems, and there’s no Scuttle Town hub either, so there’s no added fluff to bulk up the longevity. It’s literally, pick a level and go there. As a result the time spent with this game will be a fraction of that of the Main Quest. Add to this the fact that, even though the stages are edited to compliment Risky’s mechanics, they are by and large the same levels. This isn’t a problem really, but when a lot of the hidden collectables are located in more or less the same places, it makes tracking them down less about exploring, and more about waiting to get the required power-up. I would argue that 99% of people playing the DLC will have beaten the Main Quest first before jumping into this (so they’ll know these levels well) and a majority of that percentage will also have beaten it 100%, so the hiding spots ain’t so hidden anymore. It all means that outside of the new play style and the redesigned stage sections the game offers very little else. It took me a little over 3 hours to complete, which is less than half the time I spent on the Main Quest. I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time and money though; revisiting the old gameplay of Pirate’s Curse was fun and required me to rethink my approach to playing, it offers an “area select” menu on a completed stage, meaning you can bypass earlier stage segments if you don’t need to play them, and the redesigned final level is no joke as it demands that you be an expert with every mechanic and power-up it has given you along the way – but I’m just concerned that there’s not enough new on show to truly make the £10 price tag truly worth it. Still, its gameplay and platforming is excellent. Everything great about Half Genie Hero is here on full display, and if nothing else this DLC gives you a reason to pick that game up again and play it once more – which is never a bad thing. Perhaps it’s entitled of me to have wanted more from this, but regardless I still had fun. 7/10

Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)

I really liked the original Steamworld Dig. It caught me by surprise with its quality, and when the sequel was announced I was really looking forward to it. Steamworld Dig 2 follows most of the trends of its predecessor. You dig. You dig your way through the mines and caves, finding treasure, artefacts, and ore as you progress through the story. At first, this somewhat disappointed me. It’s strange. The gameplay was great, the style was excellent, the wit and writing were on point, and the music this time around is a lot more noteworthy – tapping into my brain with its earworms and reminding me of a classic early 2000s gaming genre. So why was I disappointed? I think it was because there wasn’t much progression from what we’d already seen the first time around. Nothing really grabbed me and kept me playing. Thankfully after playing more I started to see that this wasn’t just a re-tread of the old. First of all, this game is huge by comparison. I’ll admit it’s been a while since I played the original Steamworld Dig, and perhaps it was because I was playing this one on more of a home system as opposed to the 3DS, but it definitely felt bigger. In the first game you just dug and dug and dug until you reached the end, but this game will see you going in all directions – branching off into neighbouring caverns, and sometimes travelling to a whole new mine shafts to explore. By the endgame I was amazed at the size of the map when I zoomed out. Secondly, the game introduces new equipment to help you traverse the depths of the earth. These range from a jackhammer to help you smash through brick walls, to a grappling hook, to a jetpack. Those last two of which lead to some of the most fun and excellent platforming mechanics I’ve played in a while. Zipping this way and that is just a blast, and by the time you purchase all the upgrades you’re an unstoppable machine. Speaking of, the usual means of upgrades are herewith you mining ore, selling it for cash, and using the cash to upgrade equipment; but now there’s a lot more to be done. On your journey you’ll collect cogs, which can be used to add additional fluff to your gear. This fluff isn’t permanent either if you don’t want it to be, so you can pick and choose what extra advantages you want. In the early stages of the game, with cogs being thin on the ground, you might not be willing to use them so frivolously, but as you play more, not only do you find more cogs, but you unlock skills that are invaluable. How about a light that never runs out? Now you can stay in the caves as long as you want. What about armour that hurts enemies if they touch you? Done. Half the time you feel like you’re playing with cheat codes, but regardless it’s a great thing that the game rewards you for tracking down and finding the cogs that are scattered all over the map. What’s more, mining ore feels good – just as it did in the first game. You don’t need to get all the ore in the game to beat it - hell you can leave a good 50% down in the mines, really, especially when dying makes you permanently lose all your collected ore - but it’s satisfying to break apart the deposits and gather as much as you can. There are one or two slight drawbacks however. For one, there are a handful of frustrating moments in the game. Obstacles and objects in your path start to be a little poorly placed, and it can lead to a lot of unfair error. These are few and far between but boy did they suck my enjoyment right out when I came to them. The other downside is, whilst the game is a satisfying length (taking me just under 10 hours) and whilst mining and collecting feels good, there’s no real incentive to find everything in the game. You get a scorecard at the end, detailing out how well you did in each field (time, deaths, ore collected, etc.) but that’s about it. I don’t know, it’s not that big of a deal, but I just felt like there wasn’t a strong enough reason to keep playing this game after I’d seen the credits. Ah well. Steamworld Dig 2 is definitely an exceptional game though. If you loved the first one, you’ll love this one possibly more. It builds on the idea and really sets itself apart from its predecessor. I implore you to check it out. 8/10

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exactly that: the ultimate edition of the Smash Bros. franchise. Fulfilling the promises that “everyone is here” in its initial trailer reveal by having every character from previous Smash entries as well as new ones is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a LOT to this game, both in what you can do and in what exactly went in to make it all happen. The technical specs are through the roof here as Sakurai and his team have put every ounce of their passion and effort into this game and the result is a programming marvel. There is so much attention to detail, so much craft, and so much variety its practically witchcraft. To do this game justice though I’m going to have to discuss all its elements one by one, using the game’s main menu as a guideline for structure. Starting off in the top left of the menu we have “SMASH”. This is the core of the series, when all other modes and add-ons are gone, this is where the true soul and essence of the game lies. Set your rules, pick your stage, pick your characters, and go! Fight and brawl to your hearts content, either alone or with friends in the room. It’s really refreshing to be able to make your own rule sets and set them as default (something that was missing from past Smash games), and it’s incredibly useful to have them so in depth. In the “SMASH” window however, you’ll find more than just the standard battles; you’ll also find additional modes. As well as old classics like special smash, which allow you to customise battles in a variety of crazy ways (i.e. make all the players metal, have them move super-fast, have them breath fire, and so forth) you’ll also find the tournament mode – for if you wanted to play battle after battle without returning to stage select every time – and also the game’s two newest additions: Smashdown and Squad Strike. Squad Strike in particular has been on my wish list for a while now, ever since they did a very poor job of it in the Smash Tour mode on the Wii U. Pick a team of 3 or 5, pick their order, and fight until there’s a winner. It’s such a fun way to shake up the standard battles and allows you to show off your skills as multiple fighters. But if you really want to diversify your play sessions, especially with friends, Smashdown is the mode for you. Set how many rounds you’re going for and then select your character - but choose wisely, once they’ve been used, they’re gone, and you can’t pick them again until a winner has been crowned. This goes for the other players too, meaning the more rounds you play, the smaller and smaller that roster gets. This forces you to mix up your mains and explore other fighters. These two modes are an excellent way to keep the battles fresh and can last for hours. If you want more structure to your play sessions however, then “Games and More” in the top right of the main menu is the place for you. Here is where you’ll find most of your single player needs – though granted it is possible for a friend to join in on these in co-op. The main attraction of this window is the Classic Mode. Here you’ll play a short, arcade style campaign where you go from battle to battle on your way to your goal, just like in previous Smash iterations. But this isn’t the same as Smash games past. For Ultimate, every fighter has their own specific path. They’ll fight specific battles in a specific order, usually based around a specific theme (Fight against “dark” characters, only Pokémon battles, fight with a partner, etc.). Sometimes some characters will even get to fight a boss at the end of their journey as opposed to the traditional Master Hand battle. With the game having over 70 fighters in the roster, it pays to have variety like this. Plus, with the high-risk-high-reward difficulty slide, it’s got plenty of versatility and challenge. This is probably my favourite version of the Classic Mode formula to date because it keeps the game from stagnating and allows you to enjoy every fighter comfortably. If Classic Mode starts to wear thin though, “Games and More” also offers Mob Smash. Here you’ll find three extra modes: Century Smash (take on 100 lightweight enemies); All-Star (take on the fighters you’ve unlocked in a constant stream until you’re the last man standing); and Cruel Smash (similar to Century Smash but now YOU are the lightweight and the CPU is cranked up). These modes offer a nice little break from the other single player modes, as well as giving you and a friend more variety in multiplayer. I can’t help being disheartened at these modes, however. Whilst Century Smash is a tough but fun challenge, All-Star and Cruel Smash are just broken. Cruel Smash particularly is designed purely for the absolute hardcore, setting a huge bar of entry right out the gate, and All-Star is nigh-on impossible once all 73 fighters are unlocked. It’s disappointing as All-star has been a series staple since Melee and here it’s just not enjoyable given how much more capable the fighters are when put up against the usual Mii combatants. What’s more, series fans may notice that there were more “Mob Smash” options in prior games. “Timed” and “Endless” Smash are no-shows, sadly, as are some of the old-school stadium games like Home Run Contest and Target Smash. Its unfortunate that they’ve been omitted, but their absence is more than understandable given everything else that this game to offer. We lose a few modes here and there, but we get more fighters, more stages, and more content overall. That’s the trade off, and it’s ultimately forgivable; especially since these modes may yet make an appearance down the line in the form of DLC or perhaps even free updates. Besides Classic and Mob Smash, there’s the detailed Training mode to help you understand character traits, strengths, and weaknesses to better yourself as each fighter, and then there’s the Mii Fighter menu. Wii U and 3DS players may remember those games had customisable move sets and buffs for every character. This aspect doesn’t make a return here; which I personally am grateful for given how clumsy and convoluted it made the previous Smash games. Instead, the custom move sets are reserved specifically for the Mii Fighters, which of course makes perfect sense. Amiibo options are also available but given that they seem more than ever to be a relic of the Wii U days, it’s uncertain how many people will use them. Moving on clockwise from “Games and More” we have the “Vault” and “Online” sections. Vault is where you’ll find all the extended cosmetics to the game. As well as the in-depth Records window, which has every in-game statistic you could hope for ready to view whenever you want, there’s also the Shop - where you’ll be able to buy things from stage music to Mii costumes with in-game currency - and the Replay section - where you can save and edit replays from regular Smash battles. This is a sticking point for me though, as the Replay options here are abysmal. Problem number one: at present Smash Ultimate does not allow video capture using the “Capture” button on the controller, so replays are the only way to save the fun and cool things you do in game (only in regular smash battles though – classic and mob smash are no go’s). But, problem number two, you cannot share replays, nor the videos you can create using them – so the replays are effectively pointless. Problem number three: the editing tools in the replay sections to help convert them to videos are shambolic. You cannot fast forward or rewind replay footage, so when you want to make a quick ten second video of that one amazing combo you pulled off, you have to wait for the replay to play to that point, hit record at the right moment, and hit stop when you’re done. If you miss your mark, tough. This is atrocious and is ultimately a defunct option in the game that will gather dust fast in its current state. Although the Replays mode is awful, there’s luckily the “Music” mode. Buckle up, guys, there’s a lot of music packed into this game. On top of tracks and arrangements from the Wii U and 3DS versions making the jump over, there’s also a great deal of Smash history packed in here as well, as songs from the original N64 game, Melee, and Brawl all make an appearance. That’s not to say that there isn’t any new music to enjoy though as there’s plenty of new remixes to treat your ears to. There’s a lot of choice to be had, and what’s more, through this mode you can make playlists of your favourites, and even set which tracks appear on which stage and how often. It is series specific of course, you can’t just have a Donkey Kong song playing on the Castlevania stage, but there’s still a lot to choose from regardless. It’s honestly dizzying to behold sometimes. Next up after the Vault we have the Online stuff, and I have to say if you’re reading this hoping for an in-depth analysis of Online features I’m going to have to disappoint. Whilst it’s true that this version of Smash does a better job at Online than previous versions, with a more curated set of modes to help bridge the gap between beginner and expert players, I myself am not a big Smash Online player. The gulf between casual and hardcore players is too vast these days, and for me, Online is just not enjoyable. Personally, Smash has always been a couch multiplayer game, and it always will be. Finally then, we come full circle to the bottom left icon on the main menu: “Spirits” mode. Spirits are essentially equippable buffs that you can assign to yourself to help you in battle and are pretty much replacing the trophies that used to appear in previous Smash games. These Spirits can also be equipped in regular Smash should you so choose and can be given as rewards in Classic mode or bought in the shop. Where you earn them however is in Spirits mode itself. There are two types of Sprits: Primary and Support. Your Primary spirit is essentially your main guy; this fella is the one who will give you your main attack and defence stats. These stats are helpfully conglomerated into a simple “Power” box – the bigger the number in the box, the more powerful you are. Support spirits are more tailored for specific scenarios. Some make you more resistant to fire-based attacks, others increase your firepower. Some make you hard to launch, whilst others make you a nightmare for Metal fighters. The Primary Spirit you equip determines how many supports you can tag along and all of them contribute to the Power box. In short, the more spirits you equip, the stronger you get. There are a lot of both Primary and Support Spirits (1167 in total to be exact) and as such there are a lot of combinations to experiment with. You can even save specific teams, so if you have a favourite set of spirits you can log them in the game and have them ready to go straight away. What’s more these spirits can be levelled up by using them, which in turn makes them stronger, and some Spirits can even “evolve”, as it were, into better spirits once they max out. But what exactly are these spirits? Well, they’re video game characters from all over the gaming space. No series too obscure, no character too forgotten. If these people appeared on a Nintendo system, they’re in this game, and the way to get them is through the two modes in the “Spirits” window. The first mode is the “Spirit Board”. Here, spirits will appear for a brief period and be switched out if you take too long to pick them up. Select a spirit you want, organise your spirit team, and then get ready for battle. What? You thought you could just take, take, take? Like I said, you must earn these spirits if you want them for your team and collection. Win the fight and the Spirit will be up for grabs. It won’t be easy though as every spirit is inhabiting the body of a fighter, and there are conditions to each battle. Some battles have you start with max damage, others will have the floor on fire. Some battles have reinforcements drop in, others are timed stamina matches. Bringing the right spirit team to these fights is crucial to success. I don’t care if you’re an absolute beast as Bowser, if your Spirit squad isn’t up to scratch, you’re going to have a rough time of it, and if you lose, the spirit leaves the Spirit Board – no immediate rematch. Oh, don’t worry, they’ll be back but you’ll have to wallow in your defeat for a bit first. Furthermore, there are four levels of difficulty which are depicted via stars. Naturally, a four-star fight will demand nothing but your best, but in return you will be rewarded with an incredibly strong spirit that may prove invaluable in certain battles down the line. It’s not enough to win though as success sees you having to shoot the spirit through rotating shield. Miss your chance, and you’ll have to fight that spirit one more time at some point to try again. Luckily any damage done to the shield will carry over, and if it’s difficult, you can use items to slow the shield down or make its gaps wider. Yes, it does sound a little frustrating, and it can be, but as you get stronger and better at the game it won’t bother you so much. What’s more, Spirit Board has so many Spirits on display, and it has such a huge in-and-out quality to it, that you won’t have time to get truly worked up by it all. It’s very addictive, actually. I lost count of all the times I said “just one more”. Spirit Board isn’t the only way to earn spirits though, as you can also earn them by playing Spirits’ second mode: World of Light. That’s right, Ultimate has an adventure mode, and it’s a doozy. In this single-player campaign, all 73 fighters have been wiped out and duplicated to house Spirits by the Lord of Light, Galeem. Only one fighter survives, Kirby, and its up to him to work his way through the massive overworld, battle spirits, and rescue his defeated comrades from Galeem’s clutches. The more fighters you save, the bigger your adventure-specific roster becomes. The Spirit battles here are the same as they are on the Spirit Board, but this time you don’t have to shoot through a shield should you win – beat the spirit and it’s yours, no strings attached. This is definitely the preferred route to get Spirits, and it’s probably best that you beat World of Light first before moving on to the Spirit Board to reduce the chance of duplicates. This campaign is no little distraction either; if “SMASH” mode is the soul and essence of the game, World of Light is the meat. It will take you some time to see the credits. There’s so much to explore and the general world is just so huge! There’s also no true path to go as so many roads wind this way and that around the entire map. So much so that 2 different players may not have the same experience as one another. There are even sub-worlds with even more spirits hiding away in them. In short, there’s a hell of a lot to do, and I love it. What’s more, the map itself looks to be made up of areas specifically referencing certain franchises, and this makes it all the more engaging as you draw connections from the fighters to the world. There’s more to the campaign than just go here, fight that, move on though; there are also Gyms, Dojos, Shops, and Explorers to encounter. Dojos allow spirits to buff certain qualities whilst trading off others; Shops give you the chance to buy consumables for levelling up in game; and Explorers set out for a period of time to find treasure to help on your quest. By far the most useful of all these however is the Gym, which allows up to four spirits at once to “train” themselves and level up over time. That’s real time by the way, so you can literally leave a spirit in the gym, turn the game off for a full day, and when you go back on it there’s a chance that spirit will be maxed out (depending on star rank). You don’t even have to be in World of Light to access the Gyms and such either, as they’re all accessible from the Spirits menu. So, to quickly recap Smash Ultimate has: a hell of a lot of versatile options for regular battles; a decent array of single-player content; a crazy number of fighters (73), stages (103, not including variants), and songs (no idea); and an entirely new Spirits system that can be used in both regular battles and the main campaign. In case it wasn’t obvious, this game is enormous! Before I wrap this review up though, let’s quickly discuss the gameplay. First and foremost, Sakurai and his team have done their best work yet with these move sets, as now every fighter feels unique and – most importantly – balanced. Even the fighters who, once upon a time, had identical move sets have been diversified enough to have their own identity. What’s more, the way this game controls is honestly inspired. Every character has the same inputs but there is so much being mapped to the controller that it’s a technical wonder. Finally, giving the players so much choice in menu, match, and stage customisation is welcome and allows people the chance to make the game their own. As truly outstanding as this game is, however, I do have a handful of drawbacks that did put a dampener on my experience from time to time. First, whilst not a deal breaker, the roster and stage lists aren’t laid out that well. The characters are all arranged in the order they arrived in the series, but when all 73 fighters are laid out in front of you, finding the character you want is a pain. Some Pokémon are together, others aren’t; some Fire Emblem characters are here, others are there. Even people who are in the same series that debuted in Smash at the same time are separate. Why? Arrangement by series was a much more effective way of finding the fighters we want to play as, this just looks disorganised. As for the stages, having all 103 of them boxed in side by side in order of their debut may not have been the best approach. Finding that specific stage you want may take a while to track down. The icons are so small and some look so similar that you’ll be getting very frustrated before long. What’s worse is that some of the returning stages are just bad, and they’ve always been bad. Thankfully there’s not that many and they can be nullified with the Battlefield and Omega options, but there’s enough to make certain battles – especially in World of Light – utterly infuriating. Another aspect that kind of bugs me is the unlockable fighters. You start this game with the original 8 fighters from the first Smash Bros. back on the N64, but by playing the game, more and more are unlocked via challenge matches that happen randomly during play. These fights are tough and challenging, but I can appreciate that. What I can’t appreciate though is having to wait for a rematch should I lose to them. I can challenge the new characters again via the “Games and More” section, but I must wait for them to become available. It’s irritating. What’s also somewhat bothersome is the rate at which these challengers appear. They are so frequent and regular that its strange that they’re even unlockable to begin with. I can understand that the Devs didn’t want peoples’ favourite fighters to be locked away for ages, and I can understand that they still wanted to have unlockables despite this, which led to this compromise, but it can make the unlockables underappreciated. Maybe that’s just me. Finally, whilst the controls are so intuitive and complex, there are some moments where the game gets…confused (for lack of a better term). Because there is so much mapped to the controller, sometimes the character doesn’t do what you ask them to do, and sometimes there’s a delayed response to the inputs if you’re being attacked whilst you press them. You ask a character to turn around before attacking and instead you attack the wrong way. You ask your character to drop through the floor of a semi-platform to get a better shot at your opponent, but you end up just crouching over and over again. You ask your character to run, but they walk and get hit. You ask your character to pick up that item but they’re either just not close enough or they attack it. These are a handful of examples where my efficiency at the game was held back by the inputs getting confused. It is relieving however to say that as infuriating as this all can get, the overall experience is not too hindered. This is still an absolute blast to play and is full of some of the most joyful gaming moments you can ever have – especially in multiplayer. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is without a doubt the ultimate package. It offers a flurry of content for everyone to enjoy in their own way and delivers the kind of tight and crisp experience that only Smash Bros. can. On top of being an absolute must for any Switch owner, it may go down as the best Smash game yet; if not, of all time. 9/10

Toki Tori (3DS – eShop)

Y’know those games that are just never available? Like, they were on that one console that one time but now you can never get hold of them? Well Toki Tori is nothing like that. This game is on every system currently on market and even on some from last gen. It’s easy to understand why, it’s super basic and super versatile meaning it can be mapped to any controller or screen resolution. With it being so widespread I was bound to pick it up sometime and give it a whirl. Toki Tori is about as standard a puzzle-platformer as you can get. Each stage is an enjoyable brain teaser and, whilst they may start off pretty straightforward, towards the end things really start getting challenging. There are only 4 worlds to play through, but each one has 12 stages, plus additional harder stages that are unlocked upon completion. These special levels can be especially taxing, something that caught me off guard given the game’s child friendly, arguably babyish aesthetic, but they’re enjoyable nonetheless. Every level gives you a set number of items or abilities that you’ll need to use efficiently to succeed; it’s kind of got a resource management edge to it. There’s a lot of forward thinking and planning required, which is where your camera options can come in handy. Though the gameplay doesn’t pause (meaning enemies won’t freeze) you can survey the stage in its entirety at any time, allowing you to structure exactly how you’re going to tackle it in advance. The real godsend to the gameplay here though is the rewind feature. Toki Tori can’t jump and there may be some obstacles and pitfalls that will effectively trap you; there’s also the fact that you might use one too many items and abilities causing you to run out. In these moments, you can rewind the game to a point before everything went wrong – hell, you can even rewind right back to the beginning if you so choose. It’s such a big help, especially in a puzzle platformer, to be able to just undo mistakes like this whenever you want as opposed to restarting the whole level. Though there’s certainly a lot to enjoy with this game it struggles to hold your attention for very long, especially in the later levels. When stages start taking nearly 20 minutes to figure out, you may find yourself little exhausted and drained by the end of it all. Beating a stage is pretty rewarding, but when immediately faced with the next, equally challenging level, it can be hard to motivate yourself to press on. That and the archaic control scheme can often deter you from playing. Toki Tori essentially runs on a grid, which is to say he will move either a full square or half a square in the direction you choose, and whilst this isn’t necessarily bad, it can make the game feel clunky at times. For instance, when Toki Tori refuses to mount or dismount a ladder you’re just not quite near enough yet, or when you want to deploy a box to stand on only for you to not be close enough to the edge of the platform for you to drop it. With all that in mind, Toki Tori is still a decent game. Its style is a little basic – with both its visuals and music being very unremarkable – but there’s still some fun to be had. It’s nice for a few hours of gaming at least, and best of all there’s no excuse not to pick it up. 7/10

WarioWare Gold (3DS)

The WarioWare series has had a lot of ups and downs over the years. Whilst its core design hasn’t changed, it’s been utilised as more of a demonstration tool for the newest of Nintendo’s devices and gimmicks to varying degrees of success. I became a fan as soon as the first one dropped back on the GBA, and since then I’ve done my best to keep up with the series in the hopes that the latest in the line-up will live up to the quality of the original. WarioWare Gold is the most recent series entry, but this isn’t so much a brand new game as it is a greatest hits, taking microgames from previous instalments and upgrading them for the 3DS. Pretty much every game in Wario’s back catalogue is referenced – including the likes of WarioWare Twisted which never actually saw a western release. In short WarioWare Gold is a celebration of the WarioWare series. It’s a shame therefore that it doesn’t quite feel like the best game it could be. Don’t get me wrong this game has a lot of good elements. For starters, this is the first WarioWare title to have full voice acting. This is actually pretty huge. Nintendo rarely fully voices a game, so for every line of dialogue to be fully voiced by professional voice actors is impressive to say the least. On top of that, the updated games look mostly pretty good, with only one or two somehow looking worse than their original counterparts. The music also has some of the classic WarioWare songs amongst its tracklist, which is welcome for people like me who loved the catchy and instantly recognisable songs of the past games. It is very clear that a degree of effort went into this game, and I am in no way calling the Devs lazy. That being said however, there are three main issues and it’s a shame they’re pretty big. First of all, WarioWare is not the first game on 3DS to do a compilation piece of its history – Rhythm Paradise did it two years ago. Unlike Rhythm Paradise Megamix however, this game feels like it’s missing a great deal of content. Given just how many WarioWare games there have been and just how many microgames were included in each, this line up is actually pretty underwhelming. I don’t mean to sound entitled, but it’s just how I felt when I beat the game. Speaking of, that is my second point. Given that price is always variable and that to complain about a high price now doesn’t mean it will be justified in years to come, this game asking for £35 for what it offers is a little steep. The game’s main campaign can be beaten in a single sitting (it took me less than 4 hours) and beyond that there isn’t actually that much to do. I suppose you can play the extra modes, which are pretty fun and do have some excellent returning modes (like the infamous Gamer from Game and Wario), but outside of that all you have is the gumball machine which takes way too much in-game currency to get anything out of it. Just be thankful this game doesn’t have micro transactions. The third and final problem with this game is its use of both Gyro and Touch options. Since WarioWare once had motion controls and touch screen based microgames, it makes sense to see these among the rest of the crowd. It’s a shame that they are so unresponsive at times. An example of the Gyro controls being poor is when you turn the 3DS one way *thinking* the object on screen will follow your motion, only for it to go the other way which causes you to fail the game. As for the touch controls, problems start arising the moment you have to trace something or write something specific only for it to not be good enough and in fact to be nowhere close to what’s required. No joke, one time all I had to write was the number one - a straight, vertical line - and the game had no clue what I had drawn. It’s so frustrating because with these control methods backfiring in the way that they do you can’t help but feel as though you’re being punished for something out of your control. Whilst it’s true that not every game in these categories is bad, and every basket has its bad apples, all it takes is one bad game to ruin your experience. Overall, WarioWare Gold is a good, if a little lacklustre compilation title that is enjoyable some of the time and frustrating the rest of the time. Whilst I can recognise its quality, it’s still not reaching the series’ best heights, and at the end of the day it left me wanting a proper WarioWare title more than ever. 7/10

Yooka-Laylee (Switch)

One of my absolute favourite games of all time is the N64 classic Banjo-Kazooie. I love that game, and even today, after all these years, I’ll still boot it up and complete it just for kicks. I know for a fact that I’m not alone in this, and I know that I wasn’t alone when it was announced that former Banjo devs were reuniting under a new banner (Playtonic Games) to bring about a spiritual successor to the 3D platforming masterpiece. That title was Yooka-Laylee. Now it’s no secret that this game has received a lot of criticism since its launch, and it made me a little nervous. Nevertheless, after waiting the best part of a year, the game finally arrived on Switch and I got to play it and see the “damage” for myself. The reality? Yooka-Laylee is fine. Hell, it’s actually quite good, but it is far from perfect and there are a lot of disappointing flaws. What is excellent here though is the spirit and the soul. Despite this being a beat for beat clone of the Banjo-Kazooie formula, Yooka-Laylee still has enough charisma to feel like its own game. There’s still plenty from the past to love though, from the style and ascetic, to the character design and dialogue – the latter being arguably my favourite aspect of the game. The humour on display is some of the best I’ve read, and it’s full of the old familiar and cheeky wit. It truly does feel like I’m seeing the ghost of Rare every time Capital B pops up and makes me chuckle. The music needs a mention too, as Grant Kirkhope returns to deliver a Banjo-kazooie-esque OST that will make every Banjo fan nostalgic in all the right ways. Grant isn’t alone in the soundtrack, with composing wizard David Wise also contributing; but it’s pretty much 75% Kirkhope – and I’m completely fine with that. Sadly however, the game has one too many drawbacks. The internet consensus says that its flaws stem from its archaic roots – that it’s too much like the “poor” quality of the Banjo-Kazooie and the camera is too outdated. I agree to an extent on that last one. Whilst the camera is a lot better than the olden days, it’s still problematic at times. Saying that, it only truly became a burden once or twice. I strongly disagree with the idea that this game’s flaws are the same flaws as Banjo however, because Banjo-Kazooie was tighter than this. The feel of this game is somewhat slippery by comparison. Controls are occasionally unresponsive – with mini game controls being a joke at times – and general character feedback is weak. I never really felt that Yooka had any weight as he moved and struck enemies or environments. Speaking of environments, these have to be my biggest downer. Yooka-Laylee takes too much out of Banjo-Tooie’s book and sticks to the belief that bigger equals better. But this is not the case – especially here in a collect-a-thon game. The stages are too big. Sure there’s a lot to do in them - what with 25 pagies to gather, 200 quills to collect and so on and so forth – but these worlds are so large that they make these collectable quests quite tedious. The quills for a start are way too small and way too spread out. Truth be told you could actually fit close to 500 of these in one level – that’s if they were laid out like Banjo-Kazooie. See, that’s what made Banjo so great. The levels were smaller, more compact, and thus more focused. Finding everything in a level wasn’t a chore, it was exciting because it could be done. The greatness of Banjo was its simplicity – something Tooie later trampled. Another aspect of Banjo that was a masterstroke was the illusion of choice. A level was more or less 100% beatable - with all collectibles found - from the moment you stepped into it, but the choice remained with you, the player. Do you stay and get everything, or get a few things and leave? The best part was that the game rewarded you for sticking it out. You progressed through the game easier and no door was ever locked for you. Here, no such reward exists, because the levels cannot be beaten in a single run. You have to leave and come back multiple times when you’ve acquired the right abilities. This frustrated the hell out of me, because the game was making the decision for me. It conflicted with my chosen method of play, and I resented it for that. Playing these levels was just so disheartening because I couldn’t help feeling as though Playtonic had missed the mark so much. If they had made the levels smaller and put fewer collectables in them, not only would it have made the worlds all the more enjoyable, it would’ve also allowed the devs to add more levels, expanding the heart of the game. Overall though, even considering all of that, Yooka-Laylee is decent. Sure it’s got flaws, but it does have its joyful moments. I just feel (now more than ever) that Banjo-Kazooie really was lightning in a bottle; because no one, not even the devs that made it, seem to be able to emulate it perfectly. 7/10

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