Code of Princess EX (Switch): COMPLETED!

I was a big fan of the 3DS original version of this, what with it basically being a new Guardian Heroes game and all. A while back, the Switch HD remaster was cheap on the eShop, so I picked it up. Since then, I’ve dipped in and out every so often. It’s a bit grindy once you get about halfway through, which isn’t a problem as the fighting is great, but it doesn’t real lend itself to long periods of …

Hypnospace Outlaw (Switch): COMPLETED!

Imagine Geocities was a place you visited via a headset while you sleep, and you’ve been made a mod and have to stamp out crimes like piracy, copyright theft and scams. That’s Hypnospace Outlaw. Surf webpages like you did in 1999, and complete tasks sent to you by the system maintainers. Download virtual pets and desktop toys! Read about conspiracies! Traverse fora about teen angst and musician worship! Get sucked in by Squisherz which definitely aren’t anything like Pokémon! Solve …

Super Mario Sunshine (Switch): COMPLETED!

I have always maintained that Super Mario Sunshine is an excellent game. I know many, many people complain about the camera – in particular on the ferris wheel – but to those people I’ve always said: Just control the camera yourself. I never had a problem with it. So it was with some trepidation that I would turn out to be wrong that I went into Super Mario Sunshine on the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection on the Switch. And …

Super Mario Galaxy (Switch): COMPLETED!

I’ve said before that although Super Mario Galaxy is a fantastic game, it isn’t as good as Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. I was never able to really put my finger on why, though, until this playthrough. There’s three main things – it’s a bit disjointed, in that each world is very small and there are so many of them so it doesn’t feel like you get to spend much time learning them like you do in the …

Macbat 64 (Switch): COMPLETED!

This was sold to me as a Mario 64-like game and you can tell from the screenshots it definitely seems to be aiming for that. Since it was about a pound, I bought it and… it isn’t like Mario 64 in any real way aside from the graphics. In fact, even in that respect it looks (and sounds) much more like Banjo-Kazooie as there’s a more than a bit of Rare DNA in the characters and music. But still, it …

Super Mario 64 (Switch): COMPLETED!

Yes, I have played and completed this before. A fair few times too. But! This is the Switch version, on the Super Mario 3D All-Stars pack that recently came out, where the game is (slightly) upscaled, (slightly) less blurry, and with a nicer looking HUD and font. I’ve said before that Super Mario 64 is one of the best games ever made. It sits comfortably in my Top 5, and was probably at Number Two (after Run Baby Run of …

Lego The Incredibles (PS4): COMPLETED!

I bought this at the same time as Lego DC Super-Villains, as it was cheap to get them both together. And we started playing soon after we’d 100%ed that. Despite both being Lego superhero themed games, they’re actually pretty different. Of course, this is based on the two The Incredibles films – although you play through the second film before the first – rather than DC properties, but the hub world in particular is quite different. There’s a whole city, …

Super Mario Bros 3 (Switch): COMPLETED!

This too was the All-Stars version of the game, and like the All-Stars version of the original Super Mario Bros, it still looks fantastic today. I used some warp pipes, but did play through more levels than just the bare minimum. I got lost a lot on World 8 and seemed to go round in circles on the map, so I obviously don’t remember it as well as I thought I did. Bowser was a lot easier than I remember …

Super Mario Bros (Switch): COMPLETED!

Yes, I’ve completed Super Mario Bros yet again. But this time it was, at least, different in that I played the Super Mario All-Stars version rather than the original as it appeared on the Switch Online service this week. It’s still excellent, and the 25-year-old “new” graphics still look amazing even now. And yes, I used warps. Because why would you not when they’re part of the game, eh?

Pokémon Sword: Isle of Armour (Switch): COMPLETED!

It’s the first DLC story pack for Pokémon Sword, and it adds a whole new area with mostly level 60+ pokemanz in it. Some of these are “missing” pokémon from the main game, others are variants on existing ones, but the star is Kubfu – a little bear who performs kung fu and you’re awarded at a dojo. On the Isle of Armour, you have to perform a few tasks for the people at the dojo, such as find mushrooms, …

Lego DC Super-Villains (PS4): COMPLETED!

Yes! It’s yet another Lego game. I’ve played a lot of them now, and they’re all basically the same. The thing with this one, is you play as all the DC Comics bad guys who have to save the world from an alternate universe version of The Justice League who are bad. Which basically means smashing everything and solving the odd puzzle. It isn’t the best Lego game, but none of them are bad and this is pretty high up …

Ichidant-R (Switch): COMPLETED!

I had a copy of 2do Arukotoha Sand-R on the Sega Saturn many years ago. It was, pretty much, the same sort of game as WarioWare or Bishi Bashi although I played it before I’d even heard of them. Being all in Japanese, the mini-games that needed instructions were somewhat more difficult than they’d normally be, and I remember one, where you had to choose a fish, being completely baffling. I never managed it. Anyway, imagine my surprise when years …

A Normal Lost Phone (Mac): COMPLETED!

Yes, I’m still periodically working through the impossible task of playing the zeleventy spillion itch.io games from that bundle a while back. A Normal Lost Phone gave me a bit of deja-vu, in that the plot is virtually the same as Secret Little Haven that I played recently, and where that plays out via a faux AOL chat client on a computer, this plays out via a faux messaging system on a mobile phone. So yeah, they’re very similar. I …

Dynamite Headdy (Switch): COMPLETED!

Even though I own three copies of this, or perhaps even more, and it had great reviews at the time, AND I like Treasure’s games, it surprises me that I’ve never played it past the first level or two. It wasn’t because it was hard (it wasn’t, but… see later), or I didn’t enjoy it, so who knows. Only this time, while flicking through the Mega Drive Collection on my Switch for something to play, it caught my eye and …

Rex: Another Island (Mac): COMPLETED!

I’ve been scrolling through that ridiculous itch.io bundle a lot recently. As I expected, I’ve never heard of 99% of the games there, but sometimes something catches my eye and a quick play of Rex: Another Island drew me in. It’s a pretty plain platformer in the open-world style common in the 8bit days. There are shades of Jet Set Willy and Chuckie Egg 2 here, and it’s really very good. Of course, there are modern additions like restart points, …