2024 Games I Played: Spark The Electric Jester 3

Sorry it took me so long to finally get to Spark The Electric Jester 3, but this playthrough was a rollercoaster. Just read ahead to see why...

Spark The Electric Jester 3 was a game I thought I would never play. It's part of a series so inextricably tied to the PC, the culmination of both an entire trilogy's worth of Sonic fangames and an entire trilogy's worth of Spark The Electric Jester games. As a diehard fan of Freedom Planet, I was always really curious about the other major Sonic throwback, but I gave up on being able to experience them a long time ago. Then Spark 3 got announced for Switch.

Jumping into a series with its third and last installment is certainly a unique challenge, but I'm lucky enough that I was able to go into Spark 3 was a decent amount of context. I knew that the Spark The Electric Jester games are made by a indie dev named Lake Feperd, who got his start making Sonic fangames like the popular Before/After The Sequel games. He then proceeded to make a 2D original title named Spark The Electric Jester, which became a cult hit and paved the way to two sequels, both of which shifted to 3D and tried to take more cues from the Adventure era of Sonic. From what I can tell, Spark 3 is generally regarded as Feperd's magnum opus, the peak of his craft. If I could only play one game by him, most people would recommend this one. So does it live up to the hype? Will it reach the Freedom Planet levels of expectations I've built up towards it over the years? 

Well... it's complicated...

Why I Love Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2

Oh my god, I finally made it, I wrote blogposts about all 100 of my favorite games. This project took so much out of me, at least over half a year, and that's excluding the games I skipped because I already had full posts written about them. But now, it's finally time for me to talk about my two favorite games of all time, the seminal Super Mario Galaxy duology.

 Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 are two of the first platformers I've ever played, and in hindsight, I really took the both of them for granted. There really aren't many, or any, other platformers with this kind of consistent creativity, and while antigravity mechanics are usually relegated to a single gimmick stage, there aren't many other games that made them the crux of their gameplay loop like the Galaxy games did. Let's start with the first game, which I generally prefer more than its sequel.

Super Mario Galaxy doesn't quite have the same freeform movement that the more open 3D Mario games have, it's a more contained and linear experience, but it's not less impressive. The fact that Nintendo was able to make consistent sphere-walking physics that feel good to use is a genuine technical achievement, and Mario still moves with so much fluidity and grace. It's a joy to just run around a planet, and Nintendo knew this because the first level has you run around a planet chasing bunnies. Even the Wii Remote's motion controls are super well-implemented here. The feedback for grabbing collectibles with the cursor is super satisfying, and shaking the remote to do a spin feels intuitive and natural. The level design in Super Mario Galaxy is fantastic, really using the sphere-walking tech to toss a ton of unique, memorable, and varied planets at you. Many levels even have you travel across multiple planets in quick succession, so even within an objective, you're experiencing constant variety. Galaxy also toes the perfect line between linearity and exploration, with some levels taking place on large open planets that wouldn't feel out of place in Mario 64. There's so many useless hidden coin secrets and strange easter eggs scattered around too, to the point where it feels like I'm still learning new things about the game over 15 years later. Did you know you can do a homing ground pound by ground-pounding right after a spin jump? Did you know about the secret train in Toy Time Galaxy? Did you know that there's a giant coin hidden right underneath Gold Leaf Galaxy?

But I think what really makes Mario Galaxy's level design so stellar is just how surprising and unpredictable it is. Pretty much every galaxy introduces a bunch of original enemies, mechanics, and assets that don't appear again throughout the game. Each planet you visit offers you something entirely new. Some may argue that this is not great game design, that every mechanic introduced should be fully explored and iterated upon, but I don't really agree. Tossing a ton of unique mechanics at the player can be exhilarating as long as the mechanics in question are intuitive and enjoyable, and 99% of the time, Galaxy 1's stages are genuinely fun. It makes me want to keep playing and exploring this massive galaxy just to see what else is around the corner. It also helps to generate this really naturalistic feel to Galaxy that its successors don't quite have. As much as I love Galaxy 2 and 3D World, their levels often feel like their specifically-designed to be video game levels. Galaxy's areas, on the other hand, feel a lot more organic. Mechanics aren't meticulously introduced to you, they're just... there. Some galaxies look like an absolute clusterfuck of different planetoids pasted around and you're just expected to find a way to navigate them.

The boss roster is also easily my favorite in a 3D Mario game. Mario is often accused for having fairly derivative three-hit bosses, but the fights across both Galaxy games don't feel nearly as restrictive, and you often have to fight them in some really creative ways. Bouldergeist is an obvious highlight, slinging Bomb Boos into him will never not be satisfying, but I also love the tennis matches against King Kaliente, the Shadow Of The Colossus-esque battle against Megaleg, the shockingly good underwater fight against Kingfin, and probably one of my favorite final Bowser fights in the series. Skipping ahead, while I don't think Galaxy 2's roster is quite as strong, it also has some serious standouts like pretty much all of its Bowser Jr fights, most of which rank among the best he's ever had.

However, for as good as the gameplay is, what I think elevates Super Mario Galaxy to my favorite game of all time is its story and atmosphere. Most mainline Mario games don't really put much emphasis on the story, but Galaxy was a unique exception, being headlined by, of course, Yoshiaki Koizumi. After his incredible work on Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask, he aimed to take Mario in a more emotional direction, and he absolutely succeeded. Super Mario Galaxy feels uniquely epic for a Mario game, Bowser's initial assault on the Mushroom Kingdom is so cinematic and devastating, it really hooks you right from the start. Even in gameplay, Galaxy is conveying so much. The camera is often pulled way back, with Mario looking like a speck compared to the vast expanse of space. The colors used are often really dark and cold, it gives off an incredibly isolating and contemplative atmosphere that always stuck with me. This, of course, fits in perfectly with the focal character, Rosalina. There is so much to unpack about Rosalina, she's easily one of the most complex Mario characters ever made. Her backstory really delves into the effects of isolation as Rosalina leaves Earth to help the Lumas (while also having been revealed to be coping with her mother's death), and as you explore the hub, the Comet Observatory, you get to learn how Rosalina deals with this isolation. From visiting Earth every 100 years, to taking care of the Lumas like family, to building a serene garden in the top of the observatory that may or may not be based on hills where she grew up. And seeing her slowly open up to Mario, the first human she meets in a long time, is really heartwarming to watch. Koizumi really is a masterclass at wringing deep themes out of simple Nintendo IPs, and I didn't even mention the tearjerking Luma sacrifice ending and how it uses the cyclical nature of the Mario series to tackle the cycle of rebirth. Most games don't make me cry, so the fact that a Mario game is able to make me tear up multiple times is truly something special. 

Now, Super Mario Galaxy 2 gets a lot of flack for toning down the atmosphere and dramatic emotional narrative than the first game had, and I agree. Galaxy 2 is all the weaker for not reaching for its predecessor's emotional heights... but I'm also kinda glad it didn't? 

As I said, Super Mario Galaxy is first and foremost a game about isolation. Super Mario Galaxy 2, on the other hand, is about connection. When Peach gets kidnapped again, Mario teams up with a big luma named Lubba who's also looking for who he calls his "special someone" (who's of course revealed to be Rosalina). The main plot is driven by two characters forming a bond out of their desire to reconnect with those they care about, and it expands from there. As you play through the game, you slowly meet other NPCs across the various galaxies who proceed to hop aboard your starship. By the end of the game, Starship Mario is populated with all kinds of different species from all across the galaxy, a melting pot of everything the universe has to offer. In this way, I think Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a perfect compliment to the first game, not trying to replicate its success, but rather tackling its core idea from the opposite angle. It's a much lighter take on the concept of space, focusing on the community that you can find in such a large expanse. Maybe I am giving Nintendo too much credit here, but the parallels exist nonetheless. Galaxy 1 is about isolation, Galaxy 2 is about connection, and together, they form a perfect duology.

As far as gameplay goes, Super Mario Galaxy 2 plays pretty much identically to its predecessor, but it does bring some neat new abilities to the table. Galaxy 1 did have some fun power-ups like the Bee and Boo Mushroom, but Galaxy 2 introduces some of the best powerups across both games like the Cloud Flower and Spin Drill, both super fun abilities that are incredibly well-explored. But more importantly, Galaxy 2 introduces Yoshi who plays a pretty huge part in the game. As a Yoshi fan myself, it's very cool to see him play a major part in a 3D Mario platformer, and his movement feels great. He can flutter jump and swallow enemies, the latter having the same wonderful sense of feedback that collecting Star Bits has, and he even has a few really fun powerups of his own. The level design is also really good, possibly even an objective improvement on the first game. It's more focused and refined, with each Star focusing on fully fleshing out a set of mechanics, more like the levels in 3D World. While I do have a softspot for that Galaxy 1's aforementioned unpredictable level design, Galaxy 2 still manages to feel almost equally unpredictable through the sheer quantity of its level ideas. The first Galaxy game has only fifteen major galaxies and a number of smaller galaxies, with the prior having around six Stars and the latter having just 1-2. Galaxy 2, on the other hand, has around 30-40 major galaxies just with the Star count cut to 2-3. 

And for as much as I think the first Super Mario Galaxy is a near perfect game, it does have some flaws that Galaxy 2 actually sands off. Galaxy 1 suffers from a bit of asset reuse near the end of the game, with many bosses being brought back with minimal changes and even some planets being directly recreated. Dreadnought Galaxy is basically Battlerock Galaxy again, and Gold Leaf is just mirrored Honeyhive. Galaxy 2 does not have this issue. Not only does it have vastly more galaxies than the first game, but outside of the occasional callback to Galaxy 1, it's far less flagrant in this regard. To the bitter end, SMG2 never stops tossing new ideas at you. Galaxy 1 is also pretty easy for the most part, but Super Mario Galaxy 2 is genuinely challenging. I'd even say it's one of the toughest 3D Mario games right up there with Sunshine due to the harder Comet stages and the presence of World S. I also think the postgame in Galaxy 2 is quite a bit better. The Green Stars are more fun to collect than just replaying the game again as Luigi, and Grandmaster Galaxy is a far more satisfying final level compared to Galaxy 1's cute but minimal Grand Finale Galaxy.

As far as presentation goes, both of the Galaxy games still stand as two of the best-looking games on the Wii. Not only do they look super ahead of their time for games that released on a standard definition console, but their art direction is absolutely stellar, with some stunning skyboxes and really fantastical textures for all of the planets. Once again, I generally prefer the darker colors of the first Galaxy, but its sequel is nothing to scoff at either, as I feel its levels look a lot crisper and more detailed than in the first game. The soundtracks are the icing on the cake for the Galaxy games, they're easily my favorites in the medium in how they blend sweeping orchestral pieces with atmospheric and space synths. Once again, I think the first game has the general better soundtrack with tracks like Rosalina In The Observatory, Hell Prominence, Luma, The Galaxy Reactor, To The Gateway, Egg Planet, Purple Comet, Space Junk, Waltz Of The Boos, and of course, Gusty Garden and Buoy Base. However, the second game also deserves mention for tracks like Starship Mario, The Starship Sails, Fleet Glide, Cloudy Court, Bowser's Galaxy Generator, and Cosmic Cove.

I don't mean this as a slight to the other 99 games I raved about, but Super Mario Galaxy is so above any other game I've played that its sheer existence feels almost like a miracle. I've never played another game that crams so many fun, unique, original, and creative mechanics into itself, that offers so many instantly memorable and iconic levels back to back to back. And on top of that incredible gameplay, Galaxy also manages to embue a lighthearted series like Mario with some serious emotional heft, between the sweeping score, the ethereal art direction, and the genuinely touching story. These games pretty much defined my taste in videogames, and to this day, I still hold them up as the crowned jewels of the entire medium. Gameplay, design, replayability, narrative, visuals, audio, the Super Mario Galaxy games mark Nintendo at their absolute peak and will probably always stand as my favorite video games of all time.

Why I Love Kirby & The Forgotten Land

I've talked about my love of Kirby & The Forgotten Land a lot on this blog, but I never actually did a full review of it. I reviewed its soundtrack, I briefly talked about it in the Kirby retrospective I did a while ago, but I never fully delved into why I love it so much. So yeah, it's finally time to talk about how a Kirby game from 2022 managed to overtake Return To Dream Land as my favorite game in the series after over a decade.

Kirby & The Forgotten Land was up there with Metroid Dread as one of the biggest surprise releases of the Switch era. Kirby as a series did have some flirtations with 3D occassionally, between Blowout Blast and the infamous canceled Kirby GCN, but it's been sticking to 2D for so long that I feel like the fandom had reached a state of acceptance. Personally, I didn't think Kirby would ever go full 3D and I was also entirely okay with it, the series was already great as it was. So when the first Forgotten Land trailer suddenly dropped in a Direct, it was a massive surprise. After 30 years, Kirby finally did the unthinkable and went 3D, but was HAL able to pull it off?

Oh, hell yeah. As a matter of fact, this might be one of the best 2D to 3D transitions ever made, up there with Metroid Prime and Metal Gear Solid. It feels like HAL used the long wait to study pretty much everything that made 3D gaming work, and pulled off the perfect conversion. The behind the scenes of this game is genuinely fascinating, because you get to see the many clever techniques HAL used to mitigate common perspective issues while carrying over Kirby's core gameplay so perfectly. From the perspective of your average player, Kirby in Forgotten Land plays almost exactly like how he did in the 2D games... just in 3D. He's just as fast, snappy, and responsive, and while there are some concessions made to accommodate the new perspective (Kirby's flight is limited, copy abilities have less moves), there were also some genuine gameplay improvements within the larger scope of the series. Previous games had added a block move and it was reasonably helpful in a pinch, but Forgotten Land leaned even more into the character action inspirations by adding a quick dodge move, and it makes combat more fun than ever before. And while previous entries introduced some sort of central gimmick like the Super Abilities or the Mech, Forgotten Land's Mouthful Mode is probably my favorite one so far, as the sheer amount of different objects Kirby can swallow are not only fun to mess around with but add so much variety to the game.

The world and level design elevates Forgotten Land even further for me, though. This game takes place in a weird world called the New World, which looks like some kind of abandoned Earth. If you're a long-time Kirby fan since 64, this kind of setting was a long-time coming for the series, but it also made for some of the freshest level design in the franchise. Levels in Forgotten Land are often able to combine standard elemental biomes like grass, snow, and desert, while combining them with more grounded human structures to create some truly inventive and varied stages. You'll be platforming through a mall, across a giant tower bridge, traveling through an amusement park, and visiting a seaside resort drained of all its water. This allows for a ton of really cool world-building details scattered throughout each stage, it's fun to try and piece together what each place was previously like before whatever apocalypse happened, happened. The actual structure of each level is also pretty much perfect for me, they're these linear obstacle courses that are filled to the brim with secrets, hidden areas, and a ton of collectibles scattered around, akin to games like 3D World and Galaxy.

And as per the usual, the boss fights are top-notch. The added arena space and the addition of the quick-dodge allows for fights that move at an incredibly fast pace, with bosses often darting around the arena tossing a fast flurry of attacks for you to dodge. It's exhilarating and, as I've always mentioned, marks Kirby feeling even more like a beginner's character action game. The highlight, however, is easily the final boss, both from a story and gameplay perspective. Forgotten Land actually has one of my favorite stories in the franchise, for reasons I've mentioned quite a lot already. Elfilin is a great new companion for Kirby, he's a real cinnamon roll, and the point halfway through when he gets kidnapped is a real gut punch, even for people who were probably expecting him to be a villain. King Dedede also gets possessed yet again, but I like how seriously it's treated here. It's been a long time since he's been possessed for an entire game, and he and Kirby have become really good friends since, so the fights against him have a bit more urgency. The final act is a perfect culmination of both of these plot points. Dedede sacrifices himself to save you and a bunch of Waddle Dees in one of the most emotional moments in the series, you're absolutely blindsided by a voice-acted monologue detailing what happened to the New World, and you learn that Elfilin was the part of a terrifying ultimate lifeform called Fecto Elfilis, who you proceed to fight in one of the toughest, fastest final boss encounters in the entire franchise.

But of course, that's not all, it is a Kirby game after all. Forgotten Land has a ton of really fun extra content that both expands the story and the playtime. Each level has a bunch of Waddle Dees to save, there's a ton of small hidden challenge stages to discover, you can upgrade all of your copy abilities, and there's over 250 figurines to get in a mercifully generous gatcha system. I also love how most of the usual menu options are incorporated into the hub, Waddle Dee Town, including the sound test, theater, an honest-to-goodness passcode system, a bunch of fun minigames, and of course, the Arena. Forgotten Land also has a pretty neat extra mode where you run through modified versions of all the previous stages, but unlike in previous games, it actually ties into the story and wraps up a few loose ends. Once again, the extra mode ends on a strong note with some of the most effective bits of Kirby horror since Canvas Curse (and here we are, and here we are), along with the haunting canonization of Morpho Knight. I actually adore how Morpho's introduction was executed here, from the slow dawning realization once the butterfly shows up, to the gritty rock version of his theme in Star Allies, to the way the entire room turns bright orange once he shows up, to just how aggressive his fighting style is. I didn't even care for the guy much in Star Allies, but this game absolutely sold me on the character.

As far as visuals go, I think Kirby & The Forgotten Land is one of the best-looking games on the Switch. The environments go for this cartoony-realistic blend where you can tell they're based on real locations, but they're heightened in some way. The colors are incredibly bold, the environments are super detailed, and some of the framed shots showing buildings towering over Kirby are utterly breaktaking. Waddle Dee Town is probably the highlight of the game visually, though, not only does it cram in a ton of adorable character animations, but so much of the UI is diegetic and it looks awesome. The soundtrack is also fantastic, definitely one of my favorites in the series. It is a bit unique for the series, lacking in many returning tracks and having a more complex, moody sound to it, but I think it really works for me. Some tracks even give off a similar energy to the Klonoa games which is always a plus. For the stage themes, I'll shout out Running Through The New World, Through The Tunnel, Fast-Flowing Waterworks, Northeast Frost Street, The Battle Of Blizzard Bridge, The Wastes Where Life Began, Moonlight Canyon, and Faded Dream Of A Psychomeddler. And for the boss themes, I'll shout out Sword Of The Surviving Guardian, Roar Of Dedede, Morpho Knight, and the phenomenal final boss theme, Two Planets Approach The Roche Limit.

Overall, Kirby & The Forgotten Land is such a masterful transition to 3D, it does everything right. The movement is spot-on, the level design is some of the most fun and engaging in the series, the combat is way faster and more bombastic, the Mouthful Mode is the best gimmick to date, the visuals are stunning, the soundtrack is fantastic, it's bursting with side content, and the story is one of my favorites so far. And the crazy part is that there's still room for improvement! Many have stated how Forgotten Land is lacking in copy abilities, and how those copy abilities are lacking in moves, but despite these minor gripes, the fact that HAL's first attempt at a 3D game ended up becoming my favorite entry to date and there's still room to grow even more means I've never been more excited for the future of the series.

Top 10 Favorite PC Engine Shmups

I've waxed poetic about my love of the PC Engine before, particularly its slew of incredible shmups. However, with so many incredible entries in the genre, how do you even pick out the best ones the console has to offer?

Here's my personal list of my ten favorite shmups on the PC Engine:

10. Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire: Sapphire is a very fascinating game. Not only is it one of the last games to come out on the PC Engine CD, not only is it a surprising hard right into shmup territory for the otherwise VN-centric Yuna series, it's also one of the most expensive games on the console. I won't deny that Sapphire has its issues, the slow characters move too slowly and boss healthbars can be easily shredded no matter who you pick, but it's still a generally polished and punchy shmup at the end of the day. But most of all, I still think this game is worth playing for the sheer audioviual spectacle of it all. Sapphire is easily the most impressive PC Engine game visually, somehow shattering the console's limitations and implementing prerendered polygonal enemies and bosses that wouldn't feel out of place in a Super FX or Saturn game. The enemies and bosses are so consistently unpredictable and off-the-wall that I love playing through Sapphire just to see what else the game is going to toss at you next. On top of that, Sapphire boasts a phenomenal rock soundtrack by T's Music that rivals the best the console has to offer. Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire may be short and a bit poorly-balanced, but it captures the appeal of the PC Engine CD in its purest form.

9. Nexzr: Nexzr is an uncharacteristically minimalist shmup compared to the rest of the PC Engine's library, focusing more on precise bullet dodging rather than flashy setpieces. This is both Nexzr's greatest strength and probably its greatest weakness, as while it doesn't really break any new ground, the fundamental game design at play is incredibly polished and confident. Each of the game's six stages are perfectly-paced and boast some serious bite, the boss fights are all top-notch and just get better as the game goes on, and the sparse visual style and spacey soundtrack gives Nexzr a strong sense of atmosphere. It's easily one of the most underrated shmups on the console and I'd even argue it can rival Hudson's own first-party Star Soldier series.

8. Seirei Senshi Spriggan: Seirei Senshi Spriggan is Compile's big PC Engine entry, and it has all the usual bombast and mechanical complexity you've come to expect from their games. In a similar fashion to the Genesis's similarly great MUSHA, Spriggan blends large-scale mech combat with medieval fantasy inspired environments to craft an incredibly interesting world with varied and memorable landscapes to fight your way through and some absolutely wild boss fights. However, easily the best thing about Seirei Senshi Spriggan is its powerup system, which lends you a unique weapon based on which of the four elemental orbs you're currently holding, allowing for a whopping 29 powerups. The sheer customization and freedom of this system really carries the game, making every playthrough feel entirely unique. While I personally slightly prefer MUSHA for its faster pace and better soundtrack, you still can't do wrong with the first Spriggan game.

7. Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams: Fantastic Night Dreams for the PC Engine is easily the best way to play the original Cotton game, really taking advantage of the CD-ROM technology to amp up the presentation on every level. The cutscenes have full-on voice acting that allow the absolute gremlin of a character that is Cotton to really shine, the graphics balance cute with eerie to craft a really strong atmosphere with the series, and of course, the redone CD quality soundtrack stands out as one of my absolute favorites on the system. As for the game itself, though, it's a fairly simple but pure fun cute-em-up with an addictive XP system, brisk pace, and solid difficulty curve. It's a perfect introduction to one of my favorite shmup protagonists of all time.

6. Gunhed: I've already reviewed Gunhed here, but I'll reiterate my thoughts quickly. Gunhed is one of the best early system sellers on the console, serving as a great graphical showcase of how the PC Engine can pull off fast-paced action games with zero slowdown. Being a collaboration between Hudson and Compile, you get the varied and dynamic level design of a Star Soldier game combined with the bombastic screen-clearing weapons of an Aleste game. It's a bit on the long side, but it boasts a fairly beginner-friendly powerup system, and spans across an impressive nine stages each tackling shmup archetypes in fun and fresh ways. If there's any of these games I'd recommend you play first if you want to delve into the PC Engine library, it would probably be Gunhed.

5. Lords Of Thunder: Lords Of Thunder is a great shmup if you want pure, dumb, balls-to-the-walls action fun. In what feels like a polar opposite approach to its relatively pared-down predecessor, Gate Of Thunder, Lords Of Thunder is one of the most maximalist shmups I've ever played. It has four entirely weapon sets you can use, RPG mechanics like a shop, a gritty techno-medieval aesthetic, massive boss fights that often don't even fit the screen, and of course, a hard rock ballad soundtrack with some of the gnarliest shreds in the gaming medium. It's 45 minutes of adrenaline-pumping spectacle, and while the sheer visual noise might be a bit too much for genre purists, people who vibe with Lords Of Thunder's maximalist energy are in for one of the most original, unique, and polished shmups on the console.

4. Air Zonk: Air Zonk is probably the biggest surprise gem out of any game in this list, because I do not like the Bonk series. I'm not a fan of the character (cavemen characters don't do it for me), and the wonky momentum makes the potentially fun platformer entries into a pretty huge slog. However, the weird cyberpunk shmup spinoff Air Zonk really blew me away. Air Zonk is just dripping with originality, from the inventive futuristic environments, to the subversive cyberfunk interpretations of Bonk iconography, to the absolute treasure trove of wacky powerups to use, to the robust companion system that gives the game so much customization and replayability, to one of the wildest final stages I've ever played in the genre, to its godly chiptune soundtrack. Don't let the weird premise put you off, Air Zonk is one of the freshest and most original shmups out there, and it stands out as far and away my favorite Bonk game.

3. Gate Of Thunder: Gate Of Thunder is Hudson's take on the Thunder Force series, and believe it or not, I think it manages to rival if not surpass most of its contemporaries. This is one of the most efficient side-scrolling shmups I've ever played, not a single second of Gate Of Thunder's 35-40 minute runtime feels wasted. Each stage is constantly tossing new ideas and obstacles at you, densely-packed with enemies and hazards, never leaving you to do the same thing for too long. You get three weapons you can swap between at any time, and they're so well-balanced that I never found myself just leaning on one shot type, they're all useful. The spritework is some of the cleanest and most vibrant on the console, and the rock soundtrack by Nick Wood boasts some serious bangers, even if it can sadly be drowned out by the sound effects a tad. Aside from that, though, Gate Of Thunder is honestly as close to perfect as a shmup can be, and it's still only third on my list.

2. Soldier Blade: Soldier Blade is far and away the reigning peak of the Star Soldier game, it just gets everything right. Fast and frenetic pacing? Check. Fun and varied level design? Check. Large-scale bosses that are fun to take down? Check. The powerup system is brilliant in its simplicity, letting you hold up to three weapon orbs and allowing you to use them as a bomb at the cost of losing that weapon. The kinetic soundtrack by Keita Hoshi, probably the best composer the original PC Engine has to offer, ranks as one of the best on the entire console. The icing on the cake, though, is the addition of a rival character who repeatedly shows up throughout the game to stop you in your tracks. Shmup stories tend to not be especially great, but just by giving you an antagonist you can really hate, Soldier Blade manages to stand out as probably the most motivating shmup on the PC Engine.

1. Magical Chase: While Gate Of Thunder and Soldier Blade are probably the best traditional shmups on the PC Engine, Magical Chase stands out as my personal favorite for just how unique it is. Similarly to Cotton, it's a side-scrolling cute-em-up where you play as an adorable witch. The addition of a shop where you can buy increasingly more powerful weapons as the game goes on gives Magical Chase a unique feeling of progression, and the immensely customizable option system gives the game a lot of extra mechanical depth. The levels get increasingly more ambitious and surprising as they go on, the cartoony spritework is both utterly adorable and blisteringly colorful, and the uniquely calming and atmospheric soundtrack by Masaharu Iwata and Hideki Yamamoto (yes, that Hideki Yamamoto) is easily the most impressive on the PC Engine's original soundchip. Seriously, listen to this stuff. Magical Chase is one of the rarest games on the system and while I probably wouldn't recommend shelling 5,000+ dollars for it, I would recommend finding a way to play it however you can. It's a Top 3 PC Engine game for me, and a lovable adventure not worth missing.

I May Have Been A Bit Too Harsh On Bomberman 94

Bomberman 94 is generally regarded as one of the best Bomberman games as well as the point where the series "got good". It introduced Louie, refined the battle mode, made the levels more complex, and tightened up the pacing a lot, what's not to love? Well... 

In my Bomberman retrospective, I said I didn't love 94 and that it wasn't even my favorite of the PC Engine Bomberman games. I didn't like that the objective was changed from destroying every enemy to destroying cores since it meant you could theoretically run past enemies and not engage with them. I preferred how 93 made you fight every enemy, along with its generally moodier atmosphere, and couldn't understand how people thought the games prior to 94 weren't as good. But... well... here's the thing. I didn't play 94, I played its Genesis port, Mega Bomberman, and a long time ago at that. I assumed that they were pretty much the same experience, and for the most part they are, but eventually I found out that Mega does actually make a fair amount of downgrades. Music was changed and cut, the spritework generally looks a lot dimmer, and the game has slowdown that the PC Engine version lacked. So, I decided to replay Bomberman 94, the proper version this time, to see if maybe I was too harsh on it. And boy, was I!

So, my initial criticism of the core system was honestly really misinformed in hindsight. Bomberman 94 does so much to encourage you to not skip over everything. For starters, the level design in 94 is more constrictive than in past games which is something I gave it credit for. Most stages do have a "main path" that you will need to traverse, usually with enemies in the way. Some enemies will only be released once you break a core, and other enemies carry the cores themselves so 94 is certainly not at a loss for combat. The main perk of having to break cores and reach an end goal is the fact that you don't need to aimlessly bomb soft blocks until you find a goal like the earlier entries, which does a lot to speed up the pacing. But it's not like soft blocks are useless now, far from it. Prior games only had a single powerup to find per level, but 94 has multiple. This not only makes it far easier to catch up if you die and lose all your upgrades, but it also encourages you to break soft blocks regardless, especially if you want to get the more rare powerups like Louies, the remote bomb, or the wall pass. I also like how upon beating a level, all the remaining soft blocks explode into coins that boost your score, so there's also a strategic element for score-hunters who might want to leave as many soft blocks unbroken as possible. The point is, Bomberman 94 does not allow you to skip over engaging with all of its mechanics, if anything, it feels even more mechanically interesting than its predecessors.

The biggest example of this are the Louies which I feel I had previously undersold. Louies are a great addition to the Bomberman series, not just because they're absolutely adorable mascots, but because they manage to enhance the formula in a number of ways. First off, they work as an extra hit point which helps to mitigate the punishing one-hit deaths Bomberman is known for. But more importantly, each colored Louie has its own unique ability, from dashing across the stage, to jumping over enemies and objects, to kicking soft blocks. They're all a ton of fun, especially the jump once you figure out you can jump over your own bomb explosions, and it yet again lends the game more strategy and mechanical complexity. Maybe you find a Louie egg, but you already have a Louie. Do you want to get rid of your current Louie and roll for a new ability, or do you not want to risk potentially getting one of the less useful Louie types? My only gripe with the Louies is that they use the same button as the Remote Controller, at least in the PC Engine version, so you end up activating both abilities at the same time. It's the one thing I think Mega actually does better than the original.

The level design in Bomberman 94 is also easily the best in the series to date. As I mentioned, it's a bit more tight, and the level shapes are more varied than the simple squares and rectangles of the previous games. There's high-up ledges, bridges, gaps, and a number of environmental stage gimmicks. Even more, most stages are now divided up into multiple sections so 94 is able to keep the game feeling somewhat beefy without wasting your time by having you search for the goal. The actual level gimmicks do tend to vary in quality, though. Slammin Sea seems to think that adding a cool-looking water filter is enough to help the world stand out mechanically (it doesn't), but on the other hand, Vexin Volcano has minecarts that you can use to blast through blocks and enemies along with volcanos that shoot fire into the main stage, making for one of my favorite Bomberman worlds overall. The bosses are also a big step-up in quality from previous games, requiring a lot more strategy. For example, the first boss is a beefy Banana Robot who can be defeated more easily by cornering and taking out its pilot, and the third boss will grab your bombs if you place one too close. But the peak of Bomberman 94, in my opinion, is easily the final world. The Final Area in 94 is one massive level composed of seven segments, a lengthy gauntlet that caps off the entire PC Engine trilogy, culminating in a tough, three-phase first final fight against Bagura. It's not just a great test of your abilities, but it even tosses in some fun original gimmicks like TNT boxes, speed boosters, and wind gusts, making for easily one of my favorite finales to a Bomberman game.

The overall presentation in Bomberman 94 is also pretty great, but this is easily where it beats out the Genesis port for me. Battle Mode in general is the best it's been so far between the larger character roster, more interesting stage layouts (High Speed, Magma), and the addition of Louies adding a lot more strategy, but the PC Engine version allows for up to five players compared to Mega's maximum of four. The PC Engine's visuals are some of the best and most impressive on the system, with bold colors, cute animations, and some neat visual effects like the aforementioned water filter. There are so many charming little details, from the background characters, to the surprisingly detailed credits scene. Mega, on the other hand, is such a gargantuan downgrade in every concievable way. It's darker, muddier, more lacking in detail, and it's riddled with slowdown, which 94 completely lacks. You really have to look at both games side by side to really just how royally this port was screwed. And then there's the soundtrack. While I still think 93 has my favorite OST of the PC Engine games, 94 has some serious bangers like Jammin Jungle and Vexin Volcano, it's just a shame neither of them are in Mega. The other tracks are in Mega and they sound find enough, but Jun Chikuma really made that PC Engine sing like nothing else.

So yeah, I was wayyyyyy too harsh on Bomberman 94, and it's not even really its fault. I unknowingly played the worse version, felt something was lacking, and couldn't put my finger on why so I blamed the gameplay loop. In reality, Bomberman 94 is a lot more polished, mechanically-interesting, cleverly-paced, and thoughtfully-crafted than I previously gave it credit for and I can wholeheartedly say this is not just the best PC Engine Bomberman, but one of the best Bomberman games in general.

Also it has the Pink Louie dance so it's automatically perfect.

 

4.5/5 Stars

Zelda Dungeon Reviews: Link's Awakening

I already just made an entire post raving about how much I love Link's Awakening, so I'll cut to the chase. This game's got some strong dungeons. Not my favorites in the series, they can feel a bit samey at points, but they're consistently engaging to navigate, get better as the game goes on, and pretty much established the dungeon formula we all know and love. Compasses detecting treasure, the dungeon item being used to defeat the boss, midbosses breaking the dungeon into distinct halves, the Boss Key solely unlocking the boss door, that was all introduced in Link's Awakening. I also love how open these dungeons are, it makes them really satisfying to unravel and figure out. So, let's talk about them.

Side Note: I think I'm going to stop ranking the bosses in these Dungeon Reviews and instead just briefly mention them when talking about the dungeons themselves. I feel like they're somewhat distracting from the thing I'm actually trying to analysis first and foremost, which is the dungeon design.

Dungeon 1: Tail Cave

Like most of the first dungeons in the series, Tail Cave is a pretty basic tutorial to how dungeons work, but it does that well. You get the compass and map early, and most of the dungeon takes place in a fairly wide open central area with a lot of areas you can only access with the Roc's Feather. So once you get the Feather and the ability to jump, you're excited to explore all those areas, along with being able to take advantage of all the shortcuts laid out throughout the dungeon to mitigate any potential backtracking. I also quite like the blue and pink color palette, it really fits the cave's seaside location. I will say that Tail Cave feels really short though, and I think a big cause of that impression is the fact that the miniboss and boss are directly back-to-back. If the final stretch of the dungeon had a bit more to it, Tail Cave would've probably felt a bit more complete. And as for the bosses, I think the Spiked Roller is a really fun and satisfying first midboss to fight, and while Moldorm still isn't some great boss, this is a much version than the fight in LttP. Beyond Link's more polished control in this game, Moldorm moves slower, has less health, and you can jump over his tail, so it doesn't feel nearly as punishing or unfair if you do happen to fall.

Dungeon 2: Bottle Grotto

Bottle Grotto is another fairly basic dungeon, but it's a lot more linear than Tail Cave was in terms of how it's built. Instead of having a big central area to explore, Bottle Grotto mostly directs you along a path with various side rooms locked behind the dungeon item, the Power Bracelet. Thankfully, Bottle Grotto does introduce a bunch of neat new mechanics to make up for the more restrictive navigation, particularly the colored tiles which already get some fairly fun puzzles. The bracelet itself is also put to good use with how much there is to toss around, and the dungeon even brings back the Pols Voice who can now only be harmed with tossable objects. The miniboss is just a Hinox, it's nothing too memorable, but the main boss Genie is actually the highlight of the dungeon for me. The fact that it has two phases and even some in-game dialogue taunting you before giving in once you turn the tables on the boss makes the Genie one of the better and more memorable fights of Link's Awakening for me.

Dungeon 3: Key Cavern

Key Cavern has always been my least favorite of the main Link's Awakening dungeons and it's not even all that bad. It's got some really clever isolated puzzles, like figuring out that a wall can be bombable by looking at the other side from a higher ledge or hitting a switch in one room to affect another. The Pegasus Boots is also a neat dungeon item that gets used fairly well here, as you'd expect. However, what I think holds this dungeon back is its overall structure and central gimmick. As you can tell, this dungeon is all about keys. You will be flooded with them, and you need to accumulate four by the end of the dungeon to reach the boss. But even more, the dungeon is even shaped like a pair of keys, which ends up causing Key Cavern to feel really disjointed and claustrophobic, and backtracking to get collectibles feels a bit more tedious than it should be. It really feels like Nintendo thought of the dungeon shape first and created the rooms around it, and while this ins't the only dungeon in the game like this, this is easily the worst execution. I'm also not a fan of the pick-a-door room, even the dead ends basically give you your key back, it feels similarly gimmicky. The bosses are also a mixed bag, I really don't like the Baby Dodongo fight (or really just Dodongo fights in general), but the Slime Eyes fight is actually quite fun with a decent amount of moving parts that utilize the Pegasus Boots well, though the elasticity physics added to the remake means its version of the fight is far better in my opinion.

Dungeon 4: Angler's Tunnel

Angler's Tunnel marks a solid bump in quality as far as dungeon design goes, as well as yet another strong water dungeon within the Zelda series. Angler's Tunnel isn't as mindbending as other water dungeons though, it's less focused on manipulating water and more focused on water as a threat. You come into the Angler's Tunnel without a means to swim, so the first half of the dungeon has you careful navigating around giant pools of water trying not to drown. It's the same philosophy that the other dungeons have been using, but I like how whether or not you have the flippers affects the way you traverse this dungeon so dramatically. As usual, there's a few neat puzzles like solving a tile-puzzle in one room and memorizing the solution for a duplicate puzzle in another room, or dropping a key into a pond and remembering to retrieve it once you get the Flippers. And the general aquatic atmosphere of the dungeon is also quite pleasing, especially in the remake with its fantastic redone music. My only gripe with this dungeon is ultimately the fairly weak bosses. The Big Octo (apparently he's called Cue Ball in this one?) is fine, but pretty easy with the Roc Feather, and the Angler Fish is infamous for being insanely easy in the original game. Thankfully, the remake does improve on this by having him attack faster and bounce you off whenever you hit him.
4/5 Stars

Dungeon 5: Catfish's Maw

Catfish's Maw is a fan favorite dungeon in Link's Awakening, and it's not hard to see why. It's easily one of the most clever dungeons in the game, packing a pretty cheeky expectation subversion. The first half of the dungeon is spent essentially chasing the miniboss, Master Stalfos, around to try and get the dungeon item from him. This basically forces you to not only explore the entirety of the dungeon without being able to use the dungeon item, but it also serves as a fun puzzle as you need to use context clues to figure out where Master Stalfos is going to be next. The dungeon itself is quite mazelike to explore as well, as there's a decent amount of 2D pathways to get you lost, so you'll really need to have memorized the layout by the end. It also helps that the dungeon item, the Hookshot, is historically one of the most fun items in the series, and it's put to great use here. From ripping masks off enemies, to pulling bridges, to using the Hookshot to zoom past spike traps that are too fast to navigate normally, the sheer fun of using the Hookshot elevates Catfish's Maw. I already praised the miniboss for how it affects the dungeon as a whole, but there's also a more standard miniboss in the returning Gohma, and the main boss, Slime Eel, is one of the better ones in the game. It's satisfying to rip it out of the wall and try to land as many hits as you can, and he's the first boss to start planting seeds about the game's twist. Overall, Catfish's Maw is a fantastic, incredibly well-realized dungeon elevated by a strong and inventive premise, and its endlessly fun dungeon item.

Dungeon 6: Face Shrine

Hoo boy, do I have a lot to say about this one.

The thing I most recall about Face Shrine is its atmosphere. It immediately follows the game's big dream twist, so the music is somber and contemplative and the dungeon's color scheme is a bit more garish. It's a place for you to ruminate on what you just learned, and it does that very well. But how is it as a dungeon? Well, I think this is the best execution of Nintendo modeling a dungeon after something, this case being a face. The layout of the Face Shrine looks just barely enough like a face to be recognizable, but takes enough liberties so that it still works as a cohesive dungeon layout. Face Shrine looking like a face even plays into a very clever puzzle where you need to realize there are secret rooms where the eyes are. Unfortunately, this kind of puzzle banks on you having a dungeon map, and I often find myself getting lost because the dungeon map is in a pretty hard-to-find spot. Face Shrine is also the obligatory Wizzrobe dungeon and a lot of chests, keys, items, and doors are hidden behind killing every one in a room, the Dungeon Map included. Wizzrobes in this game aren't as frustrating to deal with as in Zelda 1, but they require a lot more effort to defeat so taking a bunch out can feel a bit tedious so I subconsciously don't want to deal with them and end up skipping out on something important. 

 In general, Face Shrine somewhat feels like the trickster dungeon of Link's Awakening, focused primarily on cheap traps and minor inconveniences like those infamous chess puzzles, rooms with floating floor tiles that you have to wait for, and the aforementioned eye puzzle. Not all of it works, but there's a fair amount of setpieces I did still like. Primarily, Face Shrine really amps up the colored block usage, and some switches are positioned awkwardly enough that even finding away to switch the blocks with your current status becomes a puzzle in itself. The dungeon items from here on out do start to get a bit more situational, with Face Shrine's item being a souped-up Power Bracelet that you get fairly early, but I can't deny it isn't immensely satisfying to chuck giant statues at stuff. I also like how you need to toss a pot at the chest with the Nightmare Key to open it, that's a very clever subversion there. And the bosses are generally quite fun. Smasher is a solid bit of tug-of-war as you toss a big wrecking ball at each other, and while Facade can be easily beaten with a few bomb placements, I like how he attacks you by completely warping, shaking, and destroying the room you're both in.

Face Shrine is a mess of a dungeon, it reaches incredibly high highs and some real lows as well, but ultimately settles around the middle of the pack for me as far as Link's Awakening dungeons go.

Dungeon 7: Eagle's Tower

Eagle's Tower is far and away the crowning jewel of Link's Awakening. I'd even call it one of the best 2D dungeons in the series, maybe even one of the best dungeons overall. This is the only dungeon in the game to have multiple floors, and on one hand, that's a bit of a shame since puzzles built around jumping between worlds is an easy way to encourage the player to learn the dungeon and how it connects. But on the other hand, it also makes Eagle's Tower feel all the more special. Eagle's Tower has easily the strongest spatial reasoning puzzles in the game. The entire dungeon is flooded with colored blocks but there's only like 3-4 switches across every floor, and there are several chests that must be obtained by dropping from a higher floor. However, the main hook is that you need to cart around a giant wrecking ball and use it to break four columns to collapse the fourth floor onto the third floor. So now, not only do you have to keep the different floors in mind, but you also need to figure out how to bring the wrecking ball to each column, a process that can get genuinely challenging by the end. I also love how much of this dungeon you can do out of order, there's a shortcut you can take with the Boomerang that'll let you get the Mirror Shield early, and you can choose to get the Nightmare Key right off the bat or wait until the upper floor has collapsed. I also appreciate that combat is a lot more minimal in this one, few rooms are locked behind enemies, and the one original miniboss is a joke. The boss fight against Evil Eagle is a genuinely solid challenge, though. My only gripes with Eagle's Tower are minimal. You don't spend much time in the third floor pre-collapse, the Mirror Shield isn't used until after the dungeon, but otherwise, this is top-tier Zelda in every sense of the word.

Dungeon 8: Turtle Rock

Turtle Rock is a great final proper dungeon for Link's Awakening, going for sheer scale over anything else. This dungeon has the most rooms out of any in Link's Awakening, and since it doesn't have multiple floors, it also takes up the largest radius. However, while its size may seem overwhelming at first, I didn't find Turtle Rock quite as tough to navigate as the previous two dungeons. It's very wide open and aside from some one-way doors, it's not especially hard to get where you need to go. Rather, Turtle Rock is more focused on testing your combat abilities, and as such it's flooded with minibosses. Most of them are returning, but the new one Blaino is a pretty fun fight as well. That's not to say Turtle Rock is lacking in good puzzles though, the moveable blocks serve both as interesting one-way doors as well as micropuzzles within themselves as you need to figure out how to fill in every hole in the room. And the Fire Rod is a great idea, both because its lack of magic makes it super powerful in this game and because the ice block puzzles that spawn from it are really clever and fun. The boss, Hot Head, is a bit of a joke, sadly, but overall, Turtle Rock is a strong finale that tests you on pretty much everything you've learned throughout the game without just feeling like a rehash of previous dungeons.

Dungeon DX: Color Dungeon

Link's Awakening DX introduces a new secret dungeon called the Color Dungeon, which is pretty much just a showcase of the fact that the Game Boy Color has... color. Okay, look, I know this sounds lame but it's actually quite a fun little dungeon. Pretty much every room has some sort of inventive, unique color-themed setpiece, from fragile blocks that bounce you around, to enemies that blend in with the ground, to marbles that you need to toss into the right holes. The actual structure of the Color Dungeon is fairly straight-forward, but the individual rooms are fun enough to make up for it in my opinion. The bosses aren't anything special, though. Giant Buzz Blob doesn't have much to it beyond spamming Magic Powder, and Dekudon is a legitimately fun and challenging fight as long as you don't use any item other than the sword to completely trivialize it. However, the main boss, the Hardhit Beetle is easily my least favorite in the game. You have to hit it repeatedly to make it turn red so it can be vulnerable to damage, but it bounces you back every time you hit it so it just turns into an exercise in frustration. Still, as a whole, I like the Color Dungeon and Link's Awakening would feel incomplete without it.

Dungeon Final: Wind Fish's Egg

So, whether or not the Wind Fish's Egg counts as a dungeon to begin with is up for debate. You can argue it's the final dungeon, or you can say it's a mini-dungeon like Kanalet Castle, or you can say it's just a glorified cave. Personally, I treat as a dungeon since it's followed by a boss, though that's still quite nebulous. All this area consists of is a very basic maze that you can navigate easily by jotting down the directions that you find in the library, it's the first of many looping maze rooms within the series, but it doesn't make for the most compelling gameplay. Thankfully, everything else picks up the slack. The final boss of Link's Awakening is one of my favorites as far as the 2D games go, it's a lengthy six-phase behemoth consisting of back-to-back rematches from Link To The Past, and while a good amount of the phases can be cheesed pretty easily if you have the right item, the frenetic pace still makes for a really fun encounter. And of course, I've praised the ending of Link's Awakening to no end back in my review of it, so in terms of storytelling and emotion, the Wind Fish's Egg does its job perfectly.

And here's my final ranking:

10. Wind Fish's Egg
9. Key Cavern
8. Bottle Grotto
7. Tail Cave
6. Face Shrine
5. Color Dungeon
4. Angler's Tunnel
3. Turtle Rock
2. Catfish's Maw
1. Eagle's Tower

Why I Love Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Sky

I'm the type of person that would usually prefer gameplay over story. A good story can certainly enhance a game, like many on my Top 100, but it can't usually replace gameplay I'm not into. Emphasis on usually though, because one notable exception has always been the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. I don't think the PMD games necessarily have bad gameplay, but I'm definitely not a huge dungeon crawler fan and as such they aren't really my cup of tea. So it's a testament to how incredible Explorers Of Sky's story is that, despite my not loving the gameplay, I would rank it in a heartbeat as one of my ten favorite games ever made, and my favorite Pokemon game of all time.

It took me a long time to get into Pokemon. I had played portions of games throughout my childhood, but I never truly invested myself into any of them until around high school. It was at that point that I was really getting into webcomics, and I discovered the frankly staggering amount of impressively well-drawn PMD comics out there on the internet. I always liked the cute designs of the Pokemon, so learning that there was a game series focused exclusively on them had me intrigued. But I think what really grabbed me was the central dramatic hook of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, the concept of being dragged into a new world as a Pokemon, rebuilding your life and forming a community there, saving the world, and proceeding to be immediately forced back home. Reading all those comics peaked my interest in checking out the real McCoy, so I went ahead and played the one people seemed to like the best, and the rest was history.

However, as I mentioned, I'm not exactly enamored with the Mystery Dungeon gameplay loop. I don't think it's bad, per se, but it's not something that would normally keep my interest. I've already voiced my disinterest in procedural generation, and it's easy to see how something like PMD could fall into repetition. That being said, I do think the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games have quite a bit going for them mechanically that keep me playing. Being a Pokemon game, these entries allow you to recruit other Pokemon into your team, so there's still that addictive "catch-em-all" aspect that defines the series, just injected into a dungeon crawler format. Similarly, there's also type weaknesses and managing the limited amount of moves each Pokemon can hold, all these tried and true elements are able to transition genres really naturally. I also think it helps that Explorers Of Sky in particular is utterly bursting with original content. The postgame is about as long as the main campaign itself, with a ton of secret side dungeons with unique objectives, music tracks, and atmospheres. There's a bunch of unlockable secret chapters that allow you to play through a short campaign as other characters, several of which manage to hit similar emotional highs to that main campaign. And with over 20 playable Pokemon, there's so much replayability since each run you play will feel totally different. In general, I also think Explorers is the best execution of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon gameplay. It expands on the previous game's mechanics, but doesn't cull too much like Gates does or overcomplicates things like Super does.

But ultimately, the reason I love PMD Explorers Of Sky comes down entirely to the story. This is my favorite video game story of all time, I am not joking. For starters, I just think it's such a well-crafted narrative on its own merits. It's a masterclass in tension, drama, character work, and overall plotting. The first third of the game keeps things fairly slice of life as you get to know the other members of the guild, but there's still engaging conflicts like the rivalry against Team Skull and the looming mystery of Grovyle stealing the Time Gears. Then, Dusknoir appears and the plot starts to thicken, you start to wonder who's really in the right there, leading to that big twist. Dusknoir shoving you and your partner to the bad future, Grovyle revealing his motivations and teaming up with you, and all the plot bombs about your own origins, it's shockingly well-executed. It's twisty enough to genuinely surprise a new player, but it also makes sense, it fits into everything the game had been setting up previously. The oppressive drama within the dark future continues to heighten the stakes, then there's the minor breather as you wrap up loose ends in Sharpedo Bluff, and then there's that incredible final act that resolves every single plot arc in the most powerful way possible, balancing its desparate world-ending stakes with incredibly personal drama (Grovyle's sacrifice, player knowing they'll have to leave once they win). And as I mentioned, the special chapters are also impressively well-written, with the Igglybuff and Grovyle chapters in particular being really effective character studies. When all's said in done, Grovyle in this game might be one of my favorite video game characters solely in terms of writing.

But you know me, I like it when game stories actually take advantage of the medium, and Explorers Of Sky does that wonderfully. It's one thing to have a great story, but Explorers Of Sky does everything in its power to make the player entirely immersed and invested. The obvious way it goes about doing this is by making the main character your self-insert, but you can't just do that and expect instant immersion (looking at you, Forces). Explorers Of Sky puts in the effort to also make all of its characters feel real. The partner and Grovyle are legitimately complex and multi-faceted, which makes it easy to grow genuinely attached to them. Similarly, the crew at Wigglytuff's Guild all have their own unique traits, struggles, and traditions, and the community they form feels really comfy and inviting. And as such, when you're forced into the bad future, it feels haunting, oppressive, and just plain depressing. The most brilliant stroke, of course, is the fact that you have to say goodbye to your partner at the end of the game. It perfectly parallels the fact that, well, the game is over. You will have to say goodbye to these characters because you're reaching the end of the campaign. It's that compelling meta aspect combined with the engaging drama at the core of the story that makes that final goodbye a moment that always brings a tear out of me. 

The fantastic story is all tied together by Explorers Of Sky's stellar presentation. The actual spritework is fairly standard DS fare, but it's incredibly polished and vibrant, and it's elevated by the phenomenal art direction. I love the way Explorers Of Sky's world looks, from the jagged rock cliffs, to the instantly iconic bubble beach, to cozy interior of Wigglytuff's Guild, to Fogbound Lake, to the monochrome future world. Explorers realizes a world inhabitant by Pokemon so effectively, I doubt the game would be as immersive as it is without such strong art direction. And then there's the soundtrack, easily one of my all-time favorites in a video game. It has no business being as emotionally resonant as it is, each theme fits the area and situation pretty much perfectly, heightening the emotions at play in every scene. Throughout most of the game, the music is quite good, with highlights like Drenched Bluff, Wigglytuff's Guild, Treasure Town, Craggy Coast, Foggy Forest, Amp Plains, and Fogbound Lake standing out as especially comfy. But then you get to the final stretch and you are hit with some of the best and most powerful pieces of game music back-to-back-to-back, with Through The Sea Of Time, Temporal Tower, Dialga's Fight To The Finish, Don't Ever Forget, and Memories Returned all punching me in the gut every time I hear them.

It's kinda funny, because when people talk about immersive games, they're usually talking about realistic cinematic games or immersive sims, not a sprite-based dungeon crawler for the DS. And yet, Explorers Of Sky managed to immerse me more than any other game I've played through the sheer strength of its writing, world-building, and character work. I like hanging out in this world, I like going on adventures with my partner Cyndaquil, I like vibing with the Wigglytuff Guild gang, and that's enough to make me overlook any potential gameplay gripes I could've had with it. I tend to think gameplay beats out story, but Explorers Of Sky manages to be the exception that proves the rule.

Kirby's Adventure: A Deep Dive

Kirby's Dream Land is a fun little game for the Game Boy, but I think most can agree that Kirby's Adventure is when the series fully forms. This is a much larger adventure with a more fleshed-out moveset, the introduction of copy abilities, and vastly more levels. It's also easily Nintendo's most technically-impressive (and probably also best) NES game, with stunning art direction, fantastic music, and an abundance of content. Maybe even too much content since Kirby's Adventure is also infamous for its lag issues. But for now, I want to focus on going over the design of Kirby's Adventure and how it makes big strides over its predecessor in this area.

Why I Love The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess

 So, I spent most of my Wind Waker post raving about how bold and original it is. With all that context, it should probably come as a surprise that the far more regressive Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game, and one of my favorite games of all time. After all, this game took far more cues from Ocarina Of Time and went for the mature artstyle everyone wanted... but it also refined the Zelda formula to damn near perfection, in my opinion. When I think of my ideal, definitive Zelda experience, Twilight Princess is always the first entry that comes to mind.

Like with Wind Waker, I discovered Twilight Princess through the HD version. It was one of the earlier Zelda games I had played, and I remember kinda liking it, but not loving it. It was at that time where I felt like I needed to think of Ocarina Of Time as one of the best 3D Zelda games because everyone said it was one of the best 3D Zelda games. But then I replayed Twilight Princess a bit later down the line, after BotW came out, and everything just clicked. Maybe having played more Zelda games and realizing what I personally wanted out of the series made me realize that Twilight Princess had everything I could've ever wanted as a Zelda fan.

Twilight Princess's story isn't the most cohesive in terms of Zelda stories, but man is it good at generating "moments". Twilight Princess has so many moments that just stick with you, and nails creating a really strong feeling of dread. When Link turns into a Wolf for the first time and is stuck in the Twilight realm, the game conveys this really haunting and oppressive atmosphere. When Midna gets stabbed and you have to desperately bring her to Zelda, it feels like a massive gut punch and you want to save her. The entire Snowpeak chapter has this feeling of isolation and loneliness, it really feels like you're alone atop this cold, intense mountain landscape. And whenever Zant goes on screen, I'm always scared for Link's life, that guy is a menace. But on the other hand, Twilight Princess is great at creating moments that feel epic as well. Link knocking King Bulblin off the bridge and holding his sword to the sky is probably the Zelda moment for me, it captures the spirit of the series so perfectly. And all of these memorable moments are tied together with one incredibly strong connective thread, who is of course Midna. Midna is far and away the best partner in Zelda. She's witty, funny, charismatic, genuinely helpful in gameplay, and undergoes a fantastic character arc where she evolves from a mischievous and mean-spirited imp to a genuine hero. When push comes to shove, Twilight Princess is Midna's story, she is the beating heart of this entire game.

As far as moment to moment gameplay is concerned, Twilight Princess might still be my favorite of the 3D Zelda games, it takes the strong foundation that Wind Waker laid and fleshes it out even further. Swordfighting now has even more combos than ever which you can unlock by seeking out the Hero's Shade over the course of the game, and you can even swing your sword while running to cut grass fast, a QoL feature so helpful I'm stunned no other game included it. The item play is as fun as always too, with Twilight Princess packing in an impressive amount of iconic exclusive items like the more puzzle-focused Gale Boomerang and Dominion Rod, the satisfyingly powerful Ball N Chain, the awesome Dual Clawshots which let you act out your inner Spider Man fantasy, and of course, the iconic Spinner item. And of course, Twilight Princess lets you turn into Wolf Link, and it's decently fun as well. The main moveset for Wolf Link isn't too different from normal Link, and the exclusive moves like using Midna to encircle enemies and transport items are used fairly well. Though the Wolf Link bits are easily at their best in the second half of the game where you can swap between standard and Wolf Link at will, a very classic Zelda dynamic akin to swapping time periods in Ocarina or changing the weather in Oracle Of Seasons.

The campaign of Twilight Princess is somewhat infamous for its crushingly long length and abundance of padding and, like, I can kind of agree. It takes you three hours before you can enter Hyrule Field, and even after that, it'll take you quite a while before you clear out the entire world of Twilight. However, I will say that Twilight Princess manages to cram itself with a ton of varied and fun scenarios so that I never really felt the length. The first stretch of the game has you thoroughly explore all the environments as Wolf Link while being tossed into a bunch of neat setpieces like hopping across a poison swamp, escaping a burning building, and flying up a waterfall, before retreading those environments as Link while also being tossed into even more fun setpieces like the King Bulblin fight and the horse carriage chase. Though the second half ranks among one of my favorite stretches in a Zelda game, striking the perfect balance between fun overworld exploration (Gerudo Desert, Snowpeak, Hidden Village) and back-to-back dungeon crawling. So despite its length and the slow start, Twilight Princess ends up being one of the Zelda games I've replayed the most.

And speaking of the dungeons, my god. Twilight Princess has probably my favorite roster of dungeons in the entire franchise, and that's saying something with how steep the competition is. The dungeons in this game are lengthy, intricate, inventive, memorable, and just really freaking fun. From the cool magnet puzzles and Western-inspired bow fights in Goron Mines, to the thoughtful and satisfying spatial puzzling in Lakebed Temple, to Arbiter's Grounds and how it blends its atmospheric first half with its fun Spinner-centric second half, to the cleverly linear Temple Of Time, to the surreal City In The Sky, to my favorite Zelda dungeon period in the creative Snowpeak Ruins. And the boss fights are really great too, all super massive in scale if a bit on the easy side. Stallord, Blizzeta, Zant, and especially the fantastic final boss fight against Ganondorf definitely stack up to Wind Waker's already stellar boss roster in my opinion.

In terms of progression, Twilight Princess really does feel like my perfect Zelda game. It has a huge sprawling Hyrule Field to explore, but the main campaign is still story-driven and linear. The overworld offers a constant stream of fun one-off setpieces, and the dungeons perfectly balance creativity with engaging navigation. The combat is simple but has so much extra depth in its unlockable combos. And there is so much side content to delve into. From the impressive 45 Heart Pieces, to finding all the Poe Souls, to the complex but immensely rewarding Malo Mart sidequest, to the abundance of some of the best minigames in the series like Rollgoal, Snowboarding, Cat Finder, and the STAR Tent, there's so much here. Twilight Princess is equal parts massive in scale and incredibly focused, it takes you on a rollercoaster of an adventure while also letting you go off the beaten path increasingly more as the game goes on. That's what I want from a Zelda game.

The presentation of Twilight Princess is fairly divisive. For some, it's the mature realistic Zelda they've always wanted, and for others, it's a prime example of the "real is brown" trend impacting the gaming landscape at the time. Personally, I'm not really on either camp, I like Twilight Princess's look for entirely unique reasons. There's a vibe to the more realistic 6th gen games that I find really appealing, the way detailed textures are stretched over completely flat surfaces, the way everything looks so rustic and explorable. Twilight Princess visibly took a lot of aesthetic inspiration from Ico, and honestly I think it nailed the look, and the HD version cleaning up the textures only made the game look even more vibrant and enthralling to me. I love the Western inspirations here, particularly in Kakariko Village, and I also adore how ethereal environments like Zora's Domain and the Twilight Realm look. Twilight Princess has this distinctively haunting identity to it that I just love. The soundtrack is also pretty stellar, it's epic and dramatic, and full of some of my favorite Zelda tracks. The Hyrule Field theme might be my favorite Zelda theme period, and the Midna's Lament, Hidden Village, Lake Hylia, and Zant Battle themes also stand out as series highlights.

Twilight Princess may have taken a lot of inspiration from Ocarina Of Time, but it makes so many expansions, refinements, and unique changes to help it establish itself as something incredibly special. On the gameplay front, the combat, dungeon design, overworld navigation, boss design, item play, and side content is some of my favorite in the series. But on the presentation side, Twilight Princess manages to generate this enthralling sense of melancholy and grandeur that always stuck with me. Nintendo has always liked to experiment and add something new with their sequels, for better or for worse, but I appreciate that just this once, they decided to refine what came before. I don't think we'll ever get another Zelda game like Twilight Princess, but I'm glad it's there to begin with.