After a successful reboot on the Wii, Nintendo’s prime primates are back in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. A new set of enemies have frozen Donkey Kong Island, and its up to the Donkey, Diddy, Dixie and Cranky Kong to put a stop to their shenanigans.
I have never played a Super Mario game and said to myself, “You know what this series needs more of? Coins.” In New Super Mario Bros. 2, it’s the entire hook of the game. Coins are in abundance for you to collect and the game is constantly urging you to collect one million(!) of them. Having taken out Bowser yet again, it’s clear to see that the coin angle is a poor Band-Aid solution to compensate for a sub-par Super Mario game.
Up until this point, I had never played a Sly Cooper game before. During its heyday, I was a big PlayStation hater and wanted nothing to do with Sony’s gaming endeavours. Since I bought a PlayStation 3 a few years back, I’ve been slowly making my way through the platform’s signature franchises. I can now cross Sony’s sneaky raccoon off the list, as I’ve played through Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Admittedly, I didn’t think I’d get much out of this stealth platformer, but it managed to impress nonetheless.
I blow into the Wii U GamePad like an idiot in hopes that it would move that stupid bag. Nope.
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I remember the cartoon fondly, but my time with the cult classic DuckTales on the NES was limited. I do remember playing it, and I can hum the moon theme on command, but I don’t remember getting very far. Instead, most of my early Disney gaming came from titles like Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers and Aladdin. While my level of nostalgia for the source material was low, I was still excited to play DuckTales: Remastered for a taste of classic gaming with an HD facelift.
One of the first products to come out as part of the PlayStation 4’s big indie push is Contrast. Created by Compulsion Games, this is a puzzle platformer that forces you to think of shadows in a different light (no pun intended). While it definitely looks cool and has an interesting gameplay hook on paper, some glaring production issues put me off fairly quickly.
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There is a sense of unadulterated joy that Rayman Legends creates that few other games of this generation have. It’s that type of feeling that you felt playing your first Super Mario game where traversing every level is an opportunity to overcome a challenge while exploring every nook and cranny for the next cool thing. Despite the fact that I’ve been playing platformers for decades, this recaptures that magic through a plethora of fresh ideas and solid platforming action is executed to perfection.
Super Mario 3D Land is a very tough act to follow. To this day, I have fond memories of how it perfectly blended the 2D sensibilities of classic Mario within its 3D environments. I would go as far as saying that it’s better than any of the Super Mario Galaxy games. Are the cat suit and 4-player co-op enough to propel Super Mario 3D World above its predecessor? On their own, no. However, combined with the plethora of brilliant new ideas and a remarkable level of polish, this convincingly earns its place as one of the best Mario games ever made.
As much as I love the first and third iterations of the franchise, Contra as a whole has way more misses than hits. The franchise has struggled to find new ways to freshen up the formula, especially when it haphazardly forayed into 3D. As a spiritual successor to Contra, Hard Corps: Uprising gives the series an anime twist thanks to the handy work of Arc System Works, who are best known for Guilty Gear and BlazBlue.
In Third Person 