First Impression: The Legend Of Zelda – Breath Of The Wild (Wii U) ~ Hyping Hype

Official website

Hype, hype and even more hype. That was the internet right before this game dropped onto store shelves. While many reviewers already finished the game, I’m only 10 hours into the game. But, I have played enough to talk about this game. While this game was in development, I tried to read as little press material as I can. To avoid spoiling myself. But I couldn’t avoid it, every social media I went to was full of the latest rumors and articles about this game. In any case, I picked up this game right after the launch weekend. During the launch weekend, I was out of town. For those who missed it, why I’m not playing this on the Nintendo Switch. Well, that’s because budget reasons and I’m waiting to buy the Switch until more games have been released on it. At the moment of writing this article, there are too few games being released on the Switch that I actually want to play. And because I already own a Wii U and the game has been released on the Wii U, why not.  Also, this article will be spoiler-free. Since, honestly, I haven’t finished the game myself. So, yeah. No worries about that. So, enough rambling… two weeks after the release of the game, it’s time to talk about my first impressions of this game. And as usual, feel free to leave your opinion on the game and/or the article in the comment section down below.

Stop that hype train?

 

When this game was announced, the hype train was real. Everybody and their dog were hyped for this game. An open world Zelda game that took inspiration from games like FallOut and Skyrim, what’s not to love. Well, To be really honest, I wasn’t hyped. I honestly was disappointed.  At first, I was afraid that Nintendo was making a Skyrim-clone in a Zelda coat of paint.

Maybe I’m unable to let go of the past, the at first, this game didn’t feel like a true Zelda game. In my eyes, a typical Zelda game was like the old-school Tomb Raider games. A linear adventure game with a big central world that you could explore. But after a few hours of playing this game, something started to click in me.

If you are skeptical of this game and you are afraid it changes way too much from the Zelda-formula; don’t worry too much. Since this game changes a lot of things but some changes are for the better. Something I truly love from this game is how you can do dungeons and quests out of order.

But, something that was truly lacking, a more alive overworld. Everything has been made more interesting in this game. But, I’ll talk more about that later in the article. Let’s take a quick look at the story first.

I was pleasantly surprised how this game is able to tell an interesting Zelda story. Especially since you can explore wherever and however you want. The story of this game has all your typical Zelda lore. The narrative is present wherever you go. You decide the pace of the story. When you want more story, you do the main quests. When you want to take a break from the story, you do side quests or explore.

Something I was both hyped and let down by is the voice acting. While the voice acting is very well done, I’m let down that it’s underused. It feels like every voice actor only had one or two sheets of papers with lines, and that was it. And so far I have seen, it’s all a monolog talking to Link. What a missed opportunity there. But, maybe I haven’t advanced far enough into the main story yet, but so far, I find that the voice acting is underused. But when it’s used, it’s amazing.

Run around

In the past, I stopped playing games like Skyrim because I was too overwhelmed by the skill and tech trees. Where was way too much to do in that game. But, in this game, you get a sort of tutorial in the first area. You get your first taste of the shrines, the world, the story, the gameplay and the controls. Right after you have beaten the first four shrines, you get the paraglider. And then, you can go out into the world and explore your heart’s content.

So, in this game, you play as Link. And in this title, he is equipped with a lot more abilities than before. You don’t have to wait to unlock the spin attack or something amongst those lines, Link can do them all from the word GO.

Honestly, I was able to learn the controls quite quickly in this game. The more advanced tricks were learned naturally or with a quick tutorial. The controls of this game are quite responsive and I rarely have trouble with them. Apart from some gyroscope puzzles in some shrines, I don’t have any issues with them. The only thing I always confuse are the buttons for your inventory and your map. I can’t count on one hand anymore how many times I have opened my map in the middle of a battle when I only wanted to change my weapon.

That reminds me, the combat in this game is almost perfect in my eyes. Apart from some weapons doing way too much damage, it’s quite alright. Something that frustrates be beyond believe as well is that some weapons do so much damage and when you pick them up, they are weaker then your current weapon. Annoying spears, ugh.

Time for nitpicking

 In general, I think this game is pretty great. While it’s not 100% Zelda in my eyes, it’s growing more and more in my heart every hour I spend on it. I start to notice the attention to detail the developers put into this game. To create a living and breathing world that every Zelda fan would feel home in.

Something that also helps are the gorgeous visuals and the amazing soundtrack. Seriously, the presentation of this game is perfect. But, it does come with a price. The frame rate isn’t always stable. In some cases, the game drops under 30fps. And one time, I almost had a game crash. While the game always quickly recovers itself, it’s a letdown. Maybe with patches in the future, this improves.

Oh, that reminds me. Something I wish is also improved in a patch is the loading times when you enter and exit a shrine. The loading time isn’t that long, but it breaks the immersion. If those loading times could be improved, I would be so thankful. Something like an unskippable animation like in the older 3D Zelda games would do just fine.

Speaking about loading times, I wish you had an option to have to press a button when you want to re-enter the game. I had more than once, that I was reading the tips and the game loaded and I was thrown right into the game. I wasn’t done reading those tips just yet.

While I have a lot more to say about this game, I think I’ll leave those things for the review when I have finished the game. But in conclusion, give this game a chance. Sure, this game has flaws and changes a lot of the traditional Zelda formula, but it presents the original Zelda formula with a lot of improvements. Veteran Zelda players will feel right at home and enjoy themselves with the setting and the story. Everything feels so alive and much more realistic. I recommend this game already, but I’m curious if the game holds up when I have beaten it. Like I told earlier, at first, I wasn’t a big fan of the concept of this game. But, it’s winning me over. The charm of this game, it’s something I didn’t know I was missing from my Zelda gaming life.

So, thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day.

First Impression: Paper Mario – Color Splash (Wii U) ~ A Quick Paintjob Should Fix It.

Official website

So, last week, I bought this game. I tried to avoid as many spoilers as I could. After I play most of Paper Mario Sticker Star, I was rather curious what the next game in the Paper Mario series had in store for me. When I came home, I set up my Wii U and popped the game in. And then I started playing and I started to take notes. And with these notes, I’m now writing this first impression. But what do I think about it? Is this game any good? Should people buy it? Is it a better game than the mediocre-received Sticker Star on 3DS? Well, I’m going to tell you my opinion about it, so I hope you are ready. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

Paint the world

 Finally, a story that doesn’t start with Princess Peach being kidnapped in any way sort or form. This game starts with Peach and Toad going to Mario’s house during a storm. She brings a Toad that’s drained of its color. On the blank paper Toad, there a postage stamp that leads the gang to Prims Island. Here you discover that somebody is stealing the color from the world. After you meet a living paint bucket named Huey, your adventure starts to find the missing and stolen paint stars while also restoring the world’s color.

So far, the story in this game is rather enjoyable and light-hearted. I love the humor in this game and the writing is top-notch. While I could see that some people who have liked that some characters had a bit more development, I don’t mind it that much.

Something that really helps the story is the world design. For some reason, I’m drawn into this world. The setup of the story that you need to color certain areas of the world is just very interesting to me. But more on that later in this article.

Cardboard and effort

I’m quite sure I’m not the only review who is going to say this, but this game is eye-candy. Sometimes I put my gamepad down and look at the game. This game is beautifully crafted from cardboard and cardboard boxes. It looks like an art project that came to life.

Also, the game knows how paper works. It flies away in the wind and you can roll it up amongst various other things. Also, the animation in this game is very well done as well. Take this screenshot for example. You see Mario running from the road that’s getting up. This scene is pretty early in the game but it’s one of the most memorable scenes in the game so far.

So far, I have played 5-6 areas. All of them had a certain theming. Also, all of them were as beautifully crafted as all the other ones. It really shows that the developers really put a lot of effort into the visual presentation of this game.

In any case, I think it’s time to talk about the music in this game. The soundtrack of this game is lovely. It even has some remixes of old-school Mario games. Now, pulling on the nostalgia strings; that’s something I really like! Like the vibrant presentation, the soundtrack is really upbeat. If you like Nintendo / Mario soundtracks, this one is worth a listen.

Now, the sound design is pretty good as well. It’s another element that helps bring the game to life. This game has almost no voice acting. Apart from some samples for the Toads. So, yeah, thanks to the sound design the character’s emotions shine through. To give one example.

Oh, now that we are talking about the presentation of this game, I would like to talk about the UI. The UI is decent. I would have made a few changes. One of them is that the options menu is more accessible. It’s a bit too buried to my liking.

And the final thing I want to say about the game’s presentation is that the digital manual of this game really takes me back to old school paper manuals. If you have this game, seriously, give it a look. It’s worth your time.

Battlecards and such

 Ah, I’m forgetting to talk about the controls. So, they are pretty good. I had some minor issues with them, but nothing worth talking about in an article. For example, one or two times, my attack didn’t really land even while I pressed the attack button right on time. Also, the fact that you have to color the cards and after that swipe them to use them is just pretty annoying. But I got used to it.

So, I have avoided talking about it for long enough. How does this game play? Well, you have two styles in this game. The exploration and the battle segments.

Let’s start with the battle segments first. I have already talked about the control issues I have, so I won’t repeat that now. So, the battle system is really similar to Sticker Star. The only difference is that you have battle cards instead of stickers. Also, these battle cards aren’t that easy to find in the world.

A big flaw, in my opinion, is that it’s rather annoying to find the card you want to attack the enemy. Since they are all displayed in a horizontal fashion. The stickers were easier presented in Sticker Star!

In this game, there is something that makes the battles more interesting. In the world, you find blank cards. If you have enough paint, you can paint the cards to do more damage. But that reminds me of another issue I have with the battle system. And that’s that you can’t really choose on which enemy to aim your attack. If that feature is in the game, I’m looking over it.

Before I ramble too much about it, the battle system is flawed yet enjoyable. It’s interesting but I can understand why it puts people off. It can be annoying to back to the world map in the middle of a level so you can go to the shop to buy some new cards and etc. It could use a bit more polish, but the concept itself is interesting to me. It’s almost like PP in Pokémon.

In any case, I still want to talk about the exploration part of this game. So far, I’m enjoying myself. It’s a blast to run around in the beautiful world presented to me in this game. There are various side activities you can do to earn various rewards. Also, in most levels, you can try and pick up the stars in any order you like. Also, looking for the spots to color back in is fun. It’s also the basis for most puzzles in this game.

But I think I’ll go more in-depth about the exploration gameplay in the review. (If I ever write it) Otherwise, take it from me, the charm of the world fits the exploration gameplay perfectly. And with an interesting story, you can’t go wrong!

In conclusion, so far, the only big flaw is that the battle system has some annoying flaws. Flaws that could have been fixed by more battle card shops and a better way to sort and display your cards. If you can look past that, I honestly think that this game is worthy of a purchase. Otherwise, wait for a sale.

In any case, I think I said everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Review: The Legend Of Zelda – Phantom Hourglass (DS) ~ My first DS game

Wikipedia entry

This game has a very special place in my heart. I love the Zelda series and Nintendo’s handhelds. In my eyes, they couldn’t do anything wrong. So, when the DS was released, I waited until the upgraded DS Lite was released  to buy it. My first game was this game. But, does it still hold up today? If you are a fan of the Legend Of Zelda series, should you play this game? Well, let’s take a lot at this game. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

The Ocean King Temple

While sailing with Tetra and her crew, you are talking about a ghost ship that’s sailing the seas. Wouldn’t you know it, you run into said ghost ship. Tetra jumps from her ship to the ghost ship. After you hear her scream, you want to you over the ship’s railing to try and rescue her. But, you fall into the water. A fairy awoke you and your adventure began. Your objective is to save Tetra from the ghost ship.

The story is refreshing in my opinion. Since it breaks from the usual Zelda story where you need to save Zelda from Ganon. In fact, Ganon only gets introduced in the opening. When the story of The Wind Waker is recapped.

In any case, the story consists out of two main quests. But, I’m not going to spoil them. Both quests take you on a big adventure and prepare you for the big final battle on the ghost ship.

The writing in this game is perfect in my opinion. I wouldn’t change anything about it. But I didn’t expect less from Nintendo. When I first played this game, I played some parts of the ghost ship late at night. I was supposed to be sleeping, but it was in the middle of the holidays. That night, I had nightmares. The story pulled me in that much. And the fact that I remember an event from almost 10 years ago, is saying something about the game.

If you talk to people who have played this game, a common complaint comes up. That’s the Ocean King temple. It’s a nice idea in concept, but it was done a lot better in Spirit Tracks. It’s a central temple you go through to get a new part of the ocean map. Yet, you have to redo the temple several times making it boring from time to time. Thankfully, some floors had shortcuts with newly acquired items. While the puzzles in this temple are great, the central dungeon in the sequel  had one major upgrade. You could skip to the last floor easily.

Draw on that map

The controls are not perfect. If you are used playing Zelda games with a controller in hand or by pressing buttons, you will be in for a surprise. Apart from some functions, this game is fully controlled with the touch screen. You can swap between the screens by tapping down on the direction pad. It does take some getting used to, but as a right-handed person, it works. But, it’s a bit awkward to control sometimes. Also, I had issues trying Link to roll. I wasn’t always able to roll him out of harm’s way, which lead to some cheap damage. But that might be just me.

So, in this game, you can make notes on your maps. A feature that returns in a few other Zelda games that followed. This is really helpful since you don’t have to remember sequences or where a certain treasure is buried. You can even find an unmapped island, where you have to draw your own map. This island has a special reward on it, so look for it while you are sailing on the wide sea.

So, you have two major gameplay sections. Firstly, I want to talk about the boat sections. While exploring the endless ocean can be relaxing and fun from time to time. I sometimes wished that the boat you sail on was a speedboat. In my opinion, it goes slow from time to time. Yet, if it had a speedboat feature, some parts of the story wouldn’t have been possible.

You can upgrade your boat by finding parts in dungeons or in caves. Well, honestly, customize the look for your ship. The more you had of a kind, the more hearts your ship has. Your ship gets automatically repaired as soon as you dock at an island. The sailing gameplay works similarly to the gameplay in the Wind Waker. You can jump, shoot cannonballs and similar things. You can also fish for fish and sunken treasure. The fishing mini-game for sunken treasure is different from the mechanic in the Wind Waker. In this mini-game, you have to avoid obstacles and guide your grabbling hook down to the bottom and back up.

The second gameplay part is the exploring of islands and the dungeons. Each area has two major dungeons. Apart from the Ocean King temple, I greatly enjoyed this part of the game the most. The puzzles were creative and they forced me to use some old-school Zelda items in new and interesting ways. It also has a puzzle that took me too long to figure out. One that is solved by a mechanic of your DS itself. That’s all I’m going to say.

Look at that

For some reason, when I got this game all those years ago, I was convinced that this was a port of The Wind Waker to handhelds. But, now I know that it’s set in the same universe. Visually, this game gives off a Wind Waker-vibe. And it honestly works amazingly well on the DS. I played this game on the DS Lite and on the 3DS. The game doesn’t look dated in my opinion now-a-days, if you have some love for retro games.

The world is colorful and bright. The color pallet makes the world pop even more. While some character models look a bit sharp and early 3D with a lot of polygons, I honestly don’t mind it. This game is eye-candy in my opinion. And the animation is even better. Before this game, I used to play the 2D Zelda games, and seeing everything animated in a 2,5D was amazing. And when the 3D cut scenes came on, man, I couldn’t stop watching them.

The soundtrack for this game is good yet… There were a few tracks that really got on my nerves if I listen to them for an extended period of time. But, these moments were so far and few, I’m not going to fault the game for it.

The sound design of this game really shines when you play this game with a good pair of headphones. Together with the visuals and the soundtrack, it helped to pull me into the game even more.

If you are a veteran Zelda player, this game isn’t too difficult. Yet, to first time Zelda players, this game might be difficult here and there. I think I have died 10 times tops in my whole playthrough. So, yeah. Most of the challenge lies in the puzzles you have to solve.

So, this game also has multiplayer. And I highly recommend it! It’s a lot of fun and it can be really hectic. It’s a two player game. One player controls phantoms and another player controls Link. Link’s goal is to try and get as many gems in the safe zone as possible. The phantom’s goal is to stop Link from doing just that. If you get Link gets hit by a phantom, you have to swap sides.

And that’s everything I wanted to say about this game. It’s time to wrap up this review with the conclusion and my final thoughts.

Conclusion

The good:

+ Great art for the DS.

+ Good soundtrack and sound design.

+ Great design.

+ Lovely story and writing.

+ Great puzzles and items.

+ Great multiplayer

+ …

The bad:

-Sailing can be boring sometimes.

-The Ocean Temple could have been so much better.

-The controls aren’t for everyone and need to get used to.

Final thoughts:

When I got my DS back in 2007, I got this game as a bonus present. I tried to avoid being nostalgia-blinded in this review, but I failed in my opinion. I played and replayed this game a lot. It’s one of the favorite DS games ever made.

While I admit that this game has flaws, I had an amazing time with this game. The flaws didn’t hinder my personal experience with the game too much. But, I can understand that some gamers are going to have less fun with this game today. Personally, I highly recommend this game to everyone who loves the handheld Zelda games since it’s a blast to play. There are a lot of collectables to keep you going after you finished the main story.

Also, if you want to play or replay this game… This game can be easily found as a eShop download on the Wii U! Just saying. You can easily start playing this game.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing this one. Thank you for reading this review and I hope to be able to welcome you another time on my blog. Have a great rest of your day and take care!

Score: 90/100

Review: Kirby Epic Yarn (Wii) ~ Hiyaaah

Official site

I have promised to review this game, so here I am. I really thought I had reviewed this game last year. But it turns out I was mistaken. In any case, let’s talk about Kirby Epic Yarn. The first game in the “Epic Yarn” series. I have beaten this game quite a while ago, so I have replayed a few levels to remind myself how the game played. So, I hope you are ready to dive into the wooly world of this game. I have played this game on the Wii and almost 100%’ed it. For those who are curious, why I called this game a part in a series is because two years ago, Nintendo released a spiritual successor to this game called Yoshi Wooly World. I haven’t played enough of that game in order to write about it. But hey, I’m getting off topic. Back to reviewing this Kirby game. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

Wool, wool and wool everywhere!

In this game, Kirby is having a peaceful day in Dreamland, when suddenly; the fire nation attacks. Oh, sorry. Wrong game. I meant, an evil wool named Yin-Yarn wizard attacked.

After Kirby has eaten a tomato that was possessed by that Yin-Yarn, the evil wizard uses his interdimensional sock to transport Kirby to Patch Land where his adventure starts.

But Yin-Yarn wants to take over the world (of course!) and possesses Meta Knight and King Dedede. This way, Yin-Yarn tries to take over DreamLand, Kirby’s homeland. Surprisingly, there is a narrator in this game. Usually, in Kirby games, everything is told through text boxes. There is only one voice though. That’s the one of the narrator.

As is tradition in these kind of platformers, the story tacks a backseat during gameplay.  Apart from some cutscenes between sections, the story isn’t that present. While I prefer deep an interesting stories in my games, this was a welcome change of pace. It was relaxing to play a game with a light story and more focus on gameplay.

While this game supports a two player option, I haven’t played it much. So, I can’t review that mode. So, in this review I’ll only focus on the single player mode.

If you are looking for a traditional Kirby game, this game isn’t it. In this game, you can’t use Kirby’s copy ability. This game is centered on the wool mechanic. In some levels, Kirby can transform in various vehicles. But how that works, I’ll leave as a surprise if you still want to play the game.

Creative ripping

This game is a platformer. Yet, in some areas you need to think outside the box. Since Kirby doesn’t really have his float ability in this game, you need to jump over all gaps. And some gaps are very wide. So, you need to find a way to get into the background to move over the gap or use your new wool abilities to pull the other side closer to you. It’s hard to explain in just text, but when you look at some screenshots, it will explain itself.

In this game, you can’t die. The challenge in this game is in the collection of gems in each level. At the end of each level you get evaluated by the amount of gems collected. You can earn a bronze, silver or gold medals. But completionists, beware! This game hasn’t a completion bonus. But, it can keep you busy for a while since trying to earn a gold medal in each level can be difficult and finding each collectable isn’t an easy task either. The collectables are extras like movies and the soundtrack.

The wool mechanic is used in very creative ways. Like I said before, it’s used to “rip” the world. And not only that, the game is presented beautifully. The wool theme is present throughout the whole game and it looks amazing. It’s colorful and relaxing.

When I was playing this game, I felt in a relaxed state. This was a game to wind down. Overall, this game isn’t very hard for a more veteran player. If you aren’t a stranger to this game, you won’t have a lot of trouble with this game. There is one minor issue with this. I wasn’t able to play this game in long sessions. After an hour or two, I usually stopped playing this game. I got bored. This might be a personal issue… Since I had a great time with this game.

The music in this game is amazing. It’s amusing to see that Nintendo labeled the soundtrack CD of this game as the “Epic Soundtrack” like the title “Epic Yarn”. When I was playing this game I saw the soundtrack to this game as my most favorite Kirby soundtrack ever made. Now-a-days that title has been taken by the more recent 3DS games. But that doesn’t take away the fact that the soundtrack is amazing.

The sound design of this game helps a lot with the atmosphere. It adds to the design of the game and I have no complaints. Sometimes I even felt that the game almost came alive.

Hiyaaah!

Now, let’s talk about the menus and the UI. And honestly, I didn’t have any problems with it. This game works perfectly on the Wii. I have no issues about the UI. One thing I would have changed was that the menu and the area select menu were integrated into one menu, but that putting it into two different menus works just fine.

The controls of this game are perfect. I have played this game with the WiiMotion Plus and I barely had any problems. Again, I have no complaints about it.

The mini-games are a lot of fun when you have some time to mess around. They don’t add a lot to the main game.

This game has a rather decent length. This game has 8 worlds with a variable amount of levels. So, no complaints here.

Well, so far you would think that this game doesn’t have any flaws. But, there are some things I didn’t like about this game.

It’s nitpicking but… I found that some moments of the narrator weren’t that good. They felt forced or too much focused on a very young audience.

There is one thing that got underused. And that’s the decoration of your own apartment. I wish you could do more decorating.

And honestly, that’s about all that I can say bad about this game. When you like to play charming platformers, you can’t go wrong with this one!

So, the pink thread ends here. Because I have said everything I wanted to say about this game. So, it’s time to make the summary of this article, for those who are just looking for a quick review of this game.

Conclusion

The good:

+ Very relaxing game.

+ Amazing soundtrack

+ Light story

+ Amazing visuals

+ …

The bad:

• Sometimes mixed performance of the narrator.
• The apartment is very underused.

Final thoughts:

This game is one of the best games I have played on the Wii. This game deserves its spot on various top 10 Wii games list. It got 8^th place on my list.

While the visuals might turn some people down, for those who give it a try are in for a very relaxing and enjoyable game.

This game has a lot of polish by the developers and a lot of love was put into it. And it shows.

I loved to play this game and I hope that this review might win over some people who haven’t tried it.

In any case, thank you for reading my review and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then; have a great rest of your day and take care!

Score: 100/100

Review: Kirby – Return To Dreamland (Wii)

Wikipedia entry

It has been quite some time since I looked at a console game. Well, honestly, I do play console games here and there… But mostly, I play games on my handhelds and my PC. In any case, a few days ago, I have finally beaten a Kirby game I have been playing on and off for the past few years. It’s called Kirby’s Return To Dream Land on the Nintendo Wii. Before I begin the review, I first want to address something about the name of this game. In Europe, this game has a different name. It’s called Kirby’s Adventure Wii. This is really annoying to me since the first Kirby game on the Gameboy is called Kirby’s Adventure. Why didn’t we Europeans got the same name as the Americans? Such a shame. In any case, enough stalling. Time to get into the review. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article in the comment section down below. Thanks in advance for that. 

The story of Kirby

In this game, Kirby’s adventure has two big parts. In the first part of the game, Kirby helps a stranded alien to repair his ship. In the second act, Kirby helps to defeat the evil overlord in on the alien’s home planet.

That’s all I’m explain about the story. You rarely find deep story lines in a Kirby game. From all the Kirby games I played, the story is just there. Yet, the twist at the end is nice. While I honestly saw it coming, I didn’t mind. The story is fun enough to play through. In my opinion, the story isn’t that memorable. It doesn’t bother me since the game has a lot more to offer than just the story. I found that the journey was more fun than the actual story.

The writing of the story was great. I’m so glad that they used text boxes in this game since I feel that’s how Kirby stories shine the most.

4 players

A moment of honesty here, I haven’t played this game with 4 players at once. But I have played this game with two players at once.

Together with my cousin, we have played this game a lot. This game is what I call a “sibling game.” The difficulty of this game is just right. It’s challenging for the younger players but it’s not too hard. Yet; it can be challenging to the older sibling if (s)he let’s his or her guard down.

Speaking about the difficulty, the last boss battle is rather brutal in my opinion. Since it’s mostly in a totally different gameplay style which I’m not an expert in. Then this game can become rather difficult.

In any case, the gameplay of this entry in the Kirby series is what you can expect from any other Kirby game. It’s a fun platformer where you can copy (some of) your enemies powers. The powers in this game are fun to use and every single one of them are useful. Apart from one, the sleeping one. Still as unuseful as ever.

In certain points of the game, you can receive a special powerup. This one transforms Kirby into a powerhouse. The way this powerup is used makes for some fun(ny) situations. But, that’s something I’m going to leave up to you guys and girls to discover.

Also, in each level, you can find some wheels. With those wheels, you can unlock power-up rooms. In these rooms, you can easily get any copy ability you want. On the top of those rooms, you have a doll where you can practice them.

With those wheels, you can also unlock challenges. In these challenges, you have to complete a course using one copy ability in a certain time.  These are fun to play since I love that kind of challenges.

Actually collecting the wheels can be rather challenging since some of them are very well hidden. Also, in some levels, you have a sort of bonus stage where you fight a boss at the end to receive two or more wheels. Those are really difficult and some of them, I wasn’t able to beat in few tries.

Since this is a Kirby game, I have to mention the mini-games. And man, they are a real blast to play. I have lost hours playing those with my niece. Mostly the ninja star throwing one is a real blast to play in my opinion. I had a lot of fun with it.

In any case, I think I prove my point that there is a lot of fun gameplay in this game. But I still have to talk about different aspects of this game so let’s do just that.

Kirby and more Kirby

So, first of all, the length of this game is perfect. This game has 7,5 worlds. Each world contains around 5 levels, with the final level being a boss.

The 8th world is actually a long level with the final boss of the game. It doesn’t have multiple levels. That’s why I count it as a half world.

In Kirby tradition, each world gets a funny name. And yes, most of them have to do with food.

The presentation of this game is one of the strong points of this game. I really love the art style in this game. It’s very bright and colorful, yet sometimes the game uses a way darker pallet to suit the story.

The animation is really top notch. I have no complaint about them. The world design and the animations are really well crafted. Combined with some amazing level design, this game is almost perfect.

The music in this game is really catchy. I wish I was able to buy the soundtrack somewhere since it’s that good in my opinion. But hey, I didn’t expect anything less from Hall Laboratory.

The controls are very responsive and I have nothing to complain about there. If you doubt about the controls, you can see them in the pause menu.

Up until now, it seems that I haven’t anything bad to say about this game. Well, there is one nitpick. That’s that the first player always leads. When the first player dies, the second player dies as well. That’s the only negative I have with this game.

It’s time to wrap this review up. Here comes the conclusion!

Conclusion

The bad:

-The first player dies -> Everybody dies.

The good:

+ Amazing presentation. (Visuals & animation)

+ Very nice controls.

+ You can play with up to 4 players.

+ While this game can be rather easy, some challenges can be challenging to veteran players.

+ Great level design. And it’s fun to play more than once through some levels.

+ …

Final thoughts:

If you are looking for an amazing Kirby game, look no further. This Kirby game is one of the best in the series. The gameplay returns to its roots (like in the first Kirby games) and it’s a blast to play.

I had so much fun playing this game with my family and friends that I would love to recommend it to every Nintendo fan.

When you like what you saw on the screenshots, give this game a shot! I also heard that this game came out on Wii U Virtual Console, so there is no excuse to not pick up this gem of a game. It’s released in the summer of 2015. So, go ahead and pick up this game. It’s totally worth it.

Score: 100/100

Review: Rayman Legends (Wii U) ~ Amazing Platformer Gem

Official website

As a kid, I had a PC game called Rayman M. I enjoyed it from time to time, but my real interest with Rayman started when I heard so much about it from the YouTubers I watch and the other blogs I read. When my family was asking me what I wanted for Christmas, I gave them a whole list of Wii U titles I’m interested in. Honestly, I placed this game as an afterthought. But on the 1st of January, my grandparents surprised me with actually buying this game for me. I played a few levels just for fun, but then I stopped playing. But at the start of February of this year, I was together with my friends for a whole week and this game… Man, it changed the whole week. I think it’s time to take a good look at this game and talk about what I think of this game. Oh, and as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the review and/or the game in the comment section underneath this article. 

Teensies & lumps

This game is a platformer. I haven’t played a lot of platformers, so in this review, I’m going to judge this game purely at what experience it gave me.

This game’s story, was in my opinion, a sort of an after-thought. The story is rather absent. Because this game is a sort of gallery of smaller separate games. Compare it to Kirby Super Star on the SNES. It has a compilation of different Kirby games which each have a separate story.

If you are into platformers with a decent story, you aren’t going to find it here. But it’s no negative for this game. The reason for that is, the game’s charm and presentation is enough to make a fun experience.

Everything in this game has meaning. Every collectable, every level and every challenge. When you beat a level or collect a certain amount of teenies and/or lumps, you unlock something or something happens. And sometimes, more then just one thing unlocked.

This makes the game very replayable. Since it’s very easy to miss a teensie in a level. They are hidden quite well. Too bad that missing one doesn’t stop you from reaching a golden cup on the level.

That touchpad

This game is made with multiplayer in mind. Since in some levels, you can really benefit from a helper character.

Also, this game is one of the few games I have played where the Wii U gamepad isn’t used as a sort of second screen for the game or something among those lines.

When you play with more then one person, the person playing with the gamepad is a sort of helper character that needs to pull switches, move platforms or keep the characters from harm. And honestly, this can get pretty though. Sometimes, you need to react very quick.

At the other hand, the people who are playing as the non-helping characters have some separate levels that tests their reflexes. These are mostly time challenges or stages where a whole building is collapsing.

The two completely different playstyles is something I haven’t seen before that much. Surprisingly, it works flawlessly. I have beaten most of this game in multiplayer. And I can’t imagine how the singleplayer plays in some levels. Since this game is better played with at least one friend.

Something I really liked about this game is the presentation. Each area plays and feels very different. You have stealth sections, you have fast moving sections, you have sections where you need to “eat through candy” and so much more. Every area is extremely colorful and some stages felt very creative.

The animations of the stages and characters reminded me of the previous times I saw a Rayman game. They are really well done. I have no complaints there.

There is one part of the design that I didn’t like that much. While you have a lot of playable characters, there are just too much clone characters. They don’t play a lot different on the surface. They are just the same character in a different skin to me.

Jump that music

The levels that were the most creative to me are the levels where you needed to you were playing through a music song and famous songs at that. Black Berry by Ram Jam is one of the first I came across. They were so much fun to play.

Speaking about music, the soundtrack and sound design of this game is very well crafted. The help to build the atmosphere of the game. In some levels I was actually sitting on the edge of my seat, cheering my friends on.. so we could beat that one level.

The difficulty is something I’m on the edge about. Some levels are pretty cruel and are impossible to win when you make one mistake. But there is a problem in there. Sometimes the controls work against you. But then again, the punishment for dying is just restarting the stage or starting for the last checkpoint. I always felt like we could try again when me and my friends failed a level.

Something that also provided hours of fun was the one true mini-game in the collection. The soccer game. It’s truly chaotic and it makes for hours of fun matches with friends. While I struggled with the controls sometimes, when I got the hang of them… It was extremely fun.

Until now, I was mostly praising the game but there are some things that could use some improvement. The digital manual is way too basic in my eyes.This is something that could help inexperienced players. But the biggest issue I have with it, is that it’s so barebones. I miss the color, screenshots and various other interesting things that other companies put in those manuals. Like Nintendo and Hylure Warriors or Super Mario Maker.Also, why is there a separate help function in the game and the manual. That help function gives information that isn’t in the manual…

And honestly, that is the biggest “issue” I have with this game. While the main campaign might be a bit short, the content that unlocks during the main campaign and the things you can collect gives this game a big replay value and makes the game have an amazing length.

The last thing I want to say about this game is that for 20€ here in Europe, this game is a steal. The amount of content is just mindblowing.

In any case, I think I have said everything I wanted to say about this game. It’s time for my conclusion.

Conclusion

The bad:

 – The manual isn’t the best in this game.

– This game loses a lot of its value in singleplayer.

– Some clone characters.

The good:

+ The amazing replay value.

+ This game has an amazing design. From the visuals to the sound design.

+ You get a lot of content for your money.

+ The gamepad isn’t used as a gimmick.

+ …

Final thoughts:

This game is one of the best and creative platformers I have every played. It brings some new ideas to the table for me. This game such serve as an example as an amazing platform game.

Most of the issues I have with this game are nitpicks. I honestly had trouble saying any negatives about this game.

If you want a real fun game for you and your friends, dust off that Wii U (or the console you have this game for) and play some Rayman Legends. For the cheap price of 20€ here in Europe, this game is truly a steal.

I wasn’t expecting this much polish in a Raymam game of 20€, but I was more than surprised. Play this game for yourself! I highly recommend it to each and every Wii U owner.  It’s really good.

Score: 99/100

2015: A Look Back

Well, 2015 is nearly at an end. As usual, everybody is doing (or preparing) their best games of 2015 lists. And I think I should join in the party. What games have I played and/or finished in 2015 and will stay with me? Let’s find out. Let’s look back to my gaming year of 2015. This list isn’t in an order, so all these games are my favorites in 2015. Keep in mind that this are MY favorite games. This isn’t a TOP 10 most popular or anything. Oh, yeah… Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section with your favorite games or your opinion on my picks. 

Note: For this list, games didn’t had to be released in 2015. I had to play them in 2015 in order for them to count.

Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS)

Official site

Not that far from my birthday, one of my favorite 3D Zelda games got its remake released. As a kid, I loved the rings that turned you into monsters in the Oracle games. I wished you could attack other monsters using that monsters power… but alas, that wasn’t possible in the gameboy color games.

A friend of mine had a copy on his N64. I didn’t own a console until mid-way the Wii’s life. Yeah, I played handheld games and various PC games when I was a kid. But hey, that didn’t stop me from marveling at the games on consoles.

A few weeks before this game released on the 3DS, I actually bought it on the Nintendo eShop for my Wii. But then I got my hands on the 3DS remake. It’s so beautiful. Finally I can play this game without fearing that I need to give it back to a friend later. I finally own it. And I also own the special collector’s edition which makes this Zelda fan ever more happy.

It’s a small shame to admit, but I haven’t finished this game. It’s on my “TO DO” list, but I have the same issue I had on the DS. There are just too many good games coming out and I get so easily distracted.

Europa Universalis IV (PC)

 Link to my article

I always thought that these kind of games weren’t my style. I’m not that good at managing big countries and fighting wars with other countries.

But after a good friend of mine helped me and learned me the ropes of this game, I have been playing this game from time to time and spent nearly 300 hours on it.

It’s challenging and it actually broadened my horizons. This game is actually a lot of fun and the soundtrack of this game is even one of the best soundtracks I have heard this year.

Now, I need to try and play this game on single player without Mizari’s help. Then I just might loose myself in this game even more. But that’s for next year, I think.

The Etrian Odyssey series

Link to an article about an other game in this series.

Man, I have tried to get into this series a couple of times in the past but when I was able to pick up a copy of one of the games for cheap at a garage sale, I was hooked.

The gameplay is what hooks me the most. It’s a RPG with a very nice story where you explore a dungeon. The best mechanic of it all is that you have to draw your own maps. Also, there aren’t any random encounters. Since you can somewhat predict when you get attacked.

Lately, I have been playing two games in the series. I recently got myself a copy of Etrian Mystery Dungeon. The reason for that is, I enjoy the formula of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon that much, I wanted to play a game to took a different approach on the formula.

Now, I play these games off and on. But not on the train anymore. Since I can get very lost into the world and the game that I once almost missed my stop. I should finish one of these titles so I can actually review them. But they are very lengthy. So, yeah. I haven’t come close to beating one.

The Legend Of Zelda – Triforce Heroes (3DS)

Official website

This game recently got a free update to expand this game even more. But I’m running ahead of myself.

This game actually proves that you can have a multiplayer Zelda game and enjoy yourself quite a lot.

This game doesn’t take itself quite seriously. The story is in my opinion laugh-worthy, but in the good sense. The story is there just to explain one of the main mechanics of this game. Since this is a spin-off Zelda game, I’m rather glad that the big N didn’t make a story that tried too hard.

While this game has its problems, it’s a quite enjoyable game. The game is challenging (and cruel in some places) and actually feels like a “real” Zelda game (minus the overworld) to me. The update promises to always link you up with players that have a similar playstyle. If that works, one of my biggest complaints with this game would be fixed. I’m still playing around with the updated game. So, when I have beaten the game, I will write a review on my blog. So, stay tuned for that!

Honorable mentions

I don’t want to make this article too long, so I list a few games that I enjoyed this year and don’t want to leave out.

Hyrule Warriors (Wii U), Fantasy Life (3DS), Golden Sun Dark Dawn (DS), Giana Sisters – Twisted Dreams (PC), BoomBlox (Wii), Tomb Raider IV (PC), Typoman (Wii U), NES Remix (Wii U / 3DS), The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Wii U), Terriara (PC)

And there are a lot of other games I’m leaving out.

Wrapping up

The reason I didn’t write a top 10 this year is because I didn’t want to make a the harsh decisions of which games to place where. I play and enjoy games as a hobby. But this year, I played so many games I honestly lost track of it all.

That’s why my overview of this year is quite different. Because I forgot what games I played. I had to look in my logs which games I forgot. In any case, I have been working on some fun articles for next year.

Also, I build a very strong gaming computer. So, I replayed a lot of games just to see them in higher quality and enjoy them even more.

2015 was a fun year for me to blog. I have been doing this for over five years and I look forward what my 6th year of blogging will bring, next year.

2016 will be an amazing year for games. There are a ton of games I’m looking forward to. Both on PC, Wii U and the 3DS. Yeah, I play mostly on those systems. But I’m planning to write articles about consoles games as well. In any case, I hope you enjoyed my articles this year. Thank you to all my readers and the feedback I got. I really helped me grow. But prepare yourself for a year full of new articles about old and new games since I don’t feel like stopping anytime soon.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I also hope to welcome you in another article. But until then, have a great holiday season and take care~

First Impression: Lego City Undercover – The Chase Begins (3DS) ~ Mediocrity at it’s best

Official site

One of my favorite YouTubers made a let’s play of the Wii U version of this game. When he finished the game and when I saw this game sitting on the shelves, I picked it up. I didn’t do any research on this game so I went in blind. In the back of my mind I was afraid of a bad port of the Wii U version. When I started the game those worries were put to rest. The intro to the game is slightly different. I kept playing the game, and then I got distracted by some other games. Now that I’m trying to beat it for a review, I thought it was a great moment to reflect on my current experience with this game. Is this game a worthy alternative to the Wii U version or is it just a cash-in? Let’s take a look. As usual, feel free to leave a comment on the content of this article and or the game. 

Mediocrity at it’s finest

This game is a weird one. The story has a similar vibe to the Wii U version, yet it’s different. Once I read that the 3DS version is actually a prequel to the Wii U game. If that would be the case, I would give the story a thumbs down. Since it doesn’t explain many things from the sequel.

The story is told through cutscenes. Some of them are movies and others are text boxes. Here the game already makes a huge flaw. Only some things are voiced. The 3DS can voice a full game. Virtue’s Last Reward is an excellent example of this. This was a big letdown for me.

The cutscenes are voice-acted. The voice acting has very high quality. The reason for that is simple. The voices are from the same people as the Wii U version. I’m glad that’s the case since otherwise I would be let down even more.

The problem with the story is that some things aren’t explained very well. As a hobby-writer I found a few moments where I sighed deeply. “How did Chase find that clue?” or “How does Chase know exactly where that is?” and many other questions often came to mind.

The story is worthless as soon as you put some thought into it. So, my advice is, just take it for what it is. A bland story based of the Wii U version.

Mediocre?

The music of this game is rather enjoyable. But I can’t decide if it’s memorable or not since they just used the music wrong. Most of the game has barely any music to it. I had moments when I was exploring that this game was actually silent, apart from the sound effects.

But when the music does play, it plays the same music in the same events. That isn’t a huge problem, but it makes the songs go boring rather quickly.

Since it’s a thing lately, the game runs at a steady framerate. I never had any slow downs. While I’m on the subject, the game does have to load here and there. Sometimes the loading is a bit too long for comfort. I wish it loaded faster.

The game takes place in the various areas. From a prison to the woods,they are very varied. Unless you played the Wii U version, then you will recognize most areas. I started to have a feeling that they first wanted to fully port this game to the 3DS, yet they decided in the end to make something different with the source material. But I have a bigger fear. I’ll talk about that later in this article. First, let’s talk about some other aspects of the game. Like the visuals, difficulty and the gameplay. In the next section of this article.

Push that button.

The gameplay is repetitive beyond belief. In each area you have to fight enemies, do a side quest and then fight even more enemies. The repetition makes the game go boring really quick. I started to play this game while I’m on the train since then I can listen to the announcer when my train arrives in the station I need to get off.

The controls, that’s something I have to address, they are just… flawed. To change costumes, you can use the D-pad. The circle pad is used to move, but it goes so slow. I always go from point A to B in a vehicle when possible. The game uses the motion sensor of the 3DS, and there is no option to change that. Why? I don’t want to look like a crazy dude on the train.

Visually, this game isn’t anything groundbreaking. There are some places you can see how they worked around the limitations of the 3DS, yet I haven’t seen any flaws with it. There are some animation flaws I noticed. Mostly flaws in how they show a location in a cutscene and how it appears just moments later.

I’m reaching the end of my article. I think some parts of this game should be explored more in my review when I have beaten this game. But before I close off this article, I want to talk about my fear of this game.

I think they were developing a port at first, but then changed to make a different game. But this game was developed together with the Wii U version. The team had to split it’s resources over the two projects. The Wii U version got the love, and rightfully so. They made a solid gem of a game on the Wii U. That makes the 3DS version underdeveloped in some areas, and it shows. At least, that’s my theory of this game. I have to dig a bit deeper on this.

Anyways, that’s everything for my first impression. I hope you enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week when I kick off my GB(C) month! Hopefully until then, take care.

BSP S3E5.5 – Arpegi Intermission

http://thebuttonsmashers.com/2014/04/bsp-s3e5-5-arpegi-intermission/

During my brief downtime, due to my sucky ISP our clever Neko has recorded a podcast for your listening pleasure. With the help of two fellow Arpegians Inunah, and MiserySyndrome, Neko created quite a splendid podcast.

Maybe I may take a break from podcasting and leave it to Neko now
Anywho, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Happy listening.

‘The Gaming Goddess’ Podcast – Season 5, Ep. 3: “Neko’s Arpegi”

‘The Gaming Goddess’ Podcast – Season 5, Ep. 3: “Neko’s Arpegi”.