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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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?
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, …
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 …
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 …
I played and completed this before, but for 89p I couldn’t turn down buying it for the Switch and playing it again, especially since I enjoyed it so much first time around. This time, I don’t think I found as many secret areas so didn’t get as powered up as I did before, but I didn’t really have any problems. Like I said last time, it’s not really difficult. But it is fun. A great, short, little Metroidvania game!
I have the original of this (the Switch version is a HD remaster) on the GameCube. Back then, it was only available in Japanese and as such the plot, such that it is, made no sense at all. Now, it’s in English! It has made no difference. Some bad guy has built a drilling themed theme park under which he’s made a giant drill that he intends on using to drill to the planet’s core and destroy the world. But, …
One of my favourite platformers and a game I’ve probably mentioned on here before. We all know how this is the western version of Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure, but both games are excellent if different. Didn’t have any problems on my play through. I didn’t remember all the level layouts, but did remember the route to skip one of the bosses!
A few years ago, while Dan Marshall was developing this originally, I was following him live-tweeting the process. So hooked on the idea was I, that the second the game came out on Steam I bought it – even though I rarely played games on a computer and, in fact, it was pretty broken on the Mac at the time. I played it a fair bit and really enjoyed it, but found the bugs and wonky controller support (plus it …
It isn’t clear why this game is called The Room, because there aren’t really any rooms in it. It plays like an escape room – which many puzzles, and puzzles within puzzles – but no actual rooms. Sure, there are a couple of doors but they’re free-standing portals really. Aside from that, it was a nice little thing to play. You’re given a puzzle box with various holes and buttons and handles to try and use or open hatches and …
I’d never have bought this but it was reduced from $sillymoney to about 80p and I’ll buy pretty much anything at that price. What I didn’t expect, however, was that I’d enjoy it. To the untrained eye, Kotodama is yet another one of the million Japanese school visual novels that fill digital game stores. Unlike many of those, it has both an interesting story telling mechanic and puzzle game punctuates some of the encounters as you play. The plot starts …
