Thinking about Fox McCloud of the Star Fox series takes me back to Toys R Us in 1993. At the time, my local Toys R Us had Star Fox in its Super Nintendo demo machine, and I made a point to play it every chance I got. I never got farther than the first level, but by the end of its run as the default demo game, I could practically ace that first level with my eyes closed. In retrospect, that Star Fox demo ended up meaning a lot more than a few runs of that first level. When I really think about it, that game was one of the major tipping points in me becoming the gamer that I am today.
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The Amiibo Collecting Struggle is Real
Collecting is a choice, not a right. When people get upset about the challenges that come with collecting Amiibos – myself included – it’s important to remember that. However, I do find the act of trying to buy Amiibos in this current marketplace to be particularly difficult and somewhat unreasonable.
An Amiibo Story: Princess Zelda
Skylanders and Disney Infinity toys are alright, but they certainly don’t pull at my heart strings quite like Nintendo’s Amiibo line of figurines. Based on their legendary roster of characters – and a few friends from outside of the family – these figurines are symbolic of my love of not only Nintendo, but video games as a whole. Most of these characters ushered me into the medium as a young child and have continued to provide me with joy ever since.
Having just bought my first Amiibo, I thought it’d be cool to write about the process of collecting these figures and what each one means to me. Let’s start this off with the first Amiibo in my collection, who just so happens to be the first lady of Hyrule.
Mario Golf: World Tour Review
While I couldn’t care less about the real-life sport, Mario Golf has been a passion of mine ever since it’s debut on the Nintendo 64 in the 90s. With the perfect mix of fantasy elements and a rock-solid gameplay engine that is easy to grasp with a ton of depth for hardcore players to master. I actually played so much of that game that I was able to score birdies on every single hole.
Mario Golf: World Tour marks the long-awaited return of Nintendo’s iconic characters to the links. It’s also the first in the series to introduce online functionality. Should you be booking your next tee time in the Mushroom Kingdom?
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies Review
In Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies, gaming’s favorite lawyer returns to a court of law that’s in shambles. For one, Courtroom #4 has just been decimated by a bomb that went off mid-trial. Worse yet, the reputation of the entire justice system has been destroyed by years of poor conduct from prosecutors and attorneys. In this “Dark Age of the Law”, forging evidence has become a common practice by those looking to get ahead. While Phoenix’s goal of defending his clients hasn’t changed, he also aims to put an end to this fraudulent era of justice by proving that the truth always prevails.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 Review
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.
Mario Kart 7 Impressions
There once was a time when I thought that the Mario Kart franchise would always be the king of kart racing video games. Some of its entries are all-time classics, while the rest were still better than any of its contemporaries. But then Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed happened. Featuring crazy tracks, a deep single player campaign and transforming vehicles that fundamentally changed this kart racer into a jet and hover boat racer too, that game took the genre to new heights.
Mario Kart 7‘s big new feature is also air and water racing…sort of. You can glide off of specific jumps and drive under water, though the implementation of it here pales in comparison to Sonic’s latest outing. Unfortunately, besides that, there isn’t much here that you haven’t experienced upwards of six times before.
Pokemon X/Y Review
Jumping into the world of Pokemon for the first time this late into the franchise’s life like I did is daunting. It immediately throws you into a world where you’re mom is totally cool with letting you travel across a giant city on your own by foot. It’s a world where everyone from toddlers to grandmothers are constantly picking battles with you for no apparent reason. Beyond trying to grasp the ridiculousness of its fiction, I found that Pokemon X/Y is a dense game that assumes you’ve already played every entry in the series before. While I’m sure that master Pokemon trainers would enjoy how this cuts to the chase, as a newbie I floundered through its first 8 hours and almost gave up on it.
Then, after crossing what I thought was the most frustrating stretch of the game, it suddenly clicked for me. I finally got a grasp on many of the RPG elements that the game doesn’t really teach. The path forward became clear…most of the time. Most importantly, I began having fun with it.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf Review
There was a time in my life when Animal Crossing seemed like the best thing ever. During its Gamecube days, I played that game religiously for about a year. I was fully invested in growing my house into a home I wanted to live in, building relationships with the townspeople and collecting all of cool items that world had to offer. But since then, Animal Crossing has been ported to the DS and Wii with barely anything changed or updated.
To its credit, New Leaf represents the biggest shift forward for the franchise yet. It’s also a game that managed to stay in my rotation for a long time. But did I like it? I don’t know.
Project X Zone Review
With a cast of over 60 feature characters from dozens of different Namco, Sega and Capcom franchises, it’s no wonder that fan service is such an important aspect to the Project X Zone experience. There’s no shortage of neat moments for these characters to build cross-dimensional relationships with one another. There’s also more than enough tag-team action to show off everyone’s combat prowess. As great as it is to hit those marks, it clearly came at a cost, as there are other aspects of this strategy RPG that are sorely lacking.
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