Jimmydm90

I loved Advanced Wars so in an attempt to fill that void I gave Wargroove more chances than I normally would but after 25 missions or so in the main campaign I just can't do it anymore. This game is like slamming your head against a wall. Every mission is too long, the maps are too big which leads to a lot of filler turns. I don't know how anyone thought this was fun mission design. Also the majority of the missions just feel so rinse and repeat that it becomes exhausting after awhile. The whole leader mechanism means you're often one absentminded move from having to start a 30 minute mission all over again because if your leader dies, that's it. Game over. And so many of the turns feel rote that it's easy to lose track of what enemies are nearby and that dragon half way across the map suddenly becomes the harbinger of your doom. Long story short, I rage quitted this game a lot.

This is the Mario game I've pined for ever since the days of Mario 64 and Sunshine. Playing the Mario Galaxy games I always felt something was lacking and I couldn't quite put my finger on it but now I know. It's freedom and player agency that made sunshine and 64 so special. The ability to use Mario's dynamic acrobatic move-set to go anywhere and do anything. Super Mario Odyssey has that in spades. And in Mario Odyssey, the places you can go and the actions you can take are all worth exploring which keeps you peeking around every bend for the next hidden treasure. No game in recent memory has filled me with more warmth and pure joy than Mario Odyssey. It is a love letter to all that Mario is and has been while also flipping the formula upside down. I honestly can't imagine not having Cappy in future installments as he opens up infinite gameplay possibilities for the future. Do yourself a favor and play Super Mario Odyssey. It truly is a masterpiece.

Breath of the WIld kicks off the training wheels and gives you a giant bag of toys to play with in any way you see fit. The ability to traverse just about any surface and solve puzzles and problems however you like is incredibly satisfying. After 80 hours I'm still scratching the surface of the plethora of actions you can execute in the game using your many different items. The world is littered with bite size shrines and korok challenges to keep you busy for hundreds of hours. However the game is not without its flaws. The story is woefully underdeveloped and made worse by some of the weakest English voice acting in a AAA game I've heard in years. Which is only more baffling when you consider how little voice acting there is in the game. Sadly the dungeons of old are gone, replaced by more truncated and less unique divine beast levels. The world of the game, though massive, often feels somewhat empty and lifeless with the same smattering of enemies appearing again and again. I would have preferred a smaller but more dense world. All in all Breath of the Wild is a return to form for the Zelda series and sets the table for more great Zeldas to come.

When I originally heard the leaks about this game I was incredulous it sounded like a mishmash of concepts that couldn't work together however once I saw the gameplay I changed my mind. Mario + Rabbids is a beautiful game with a lot of charm and battle mechanics that lay a great foundation for even better sequels to (hopefully) come. There's a lot to do from collecting items in the hub world to multiplayer matches to creative challenges however in spite of this there are quirks that constrain the game's replayability. From the first world I was love with the battles and I tolerated the exploration sections as an ok breather in between fights even though they didn't really fit in with the battle part of the game. I would have much preferred exploration sections that allowed us to use our battle mechanisms to solve puzzles (blasting through walls, double jumping off allies to get to hard to reach spots, etc.). The puzzles we do get are simple enough and somewhat tedious (pushing crates mostly). The camera control can feel constraining at times and controlling Beep-O is often clumsy but there weren't very many puzzles early on so it wasn't a big deal. However as the game continues they start layering more and more elaborate puzzles and the time between fights becomes longer. The game keeps piling on chores you have to complete before you can get to the parts of the game you enjoy. Additionally once you reach the fourth world you run out of new enemies to see only getting reskins of previous foes. Add that to the fact that the same enemies always respawn in the same place at the same time in every battle and that's going to hamper replay value. In the fourth and final world I felt myself getting fatigued and frustrated, some of the luster had worn off. It was still a game I very much enjoyed but it felt like the back quarter needed more polish and less filler. The exploration phase felt like an after thought. I know Ubisoft was hamstrung as Nintendo explicitly said they couldn't have any platforming in the game but the movement in battle is so kinetic and fun that it seems a shame that we couldn't use that movement to explore. In the final hours of the game I couldn't stop thinking about how great a sequel would be to this game and I guess that speaks to how strong the foundation Ubisoft has built here. I'm anxious to see if Nintendo has any other oddball collaborations in the pipeline (no pun intended) because I'm dying to play them. Ubisoft has really broadened my idea of what a Mario game can be and I'd love to see Ubisoft or another studio do the same for other classic Nintendo characters.

I loved the original Mario 64. I'd stay up school nights playing it with my dad. It was the father of all 3D platforming BUT it was only able to do that because the N64 controller came with an analog stick. The lack of an analog stick on the DS makes this game almost unplayable. Even with the analog stick the original Mario 64 had camera problems, the DS version ratchets this up to 11. It's clear this game was made with love and dedication but this game just doesn't work with this system.

Disclaimer: I played the PS4 version. I entered this Uncharted: Drake's Fortune with what was likely an unfair amount of hype. I had been hearing incredible things about the Uncharted series for years. I had played and loved The Last of Us so when I actually got my hands on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, I was somewhat disappointed. Granted this is a 9 year old game and many of the mechanics it features have been improved and iterated on in more modern games (that I've played) so that does put Drake's Fortune at a disadvantage. A lot of the elements of Drake's fortune just don't age well. The cover shooting is repetitive, clunky (unfair?) and extremely over used. The cameras in the platforming sections are often infuriatingly placed. The checkpoints are too infrequent forcing you to replay long stretches of cover shooting or awkward platforming all over again. The game in general only handles ok with some mechanics being extremely frustrating like the stop and go jet ski portions which feel like something that should have been left on the cutting room floor. The things I was most excited about for Drake's Fortune were the story, the set pieces, the characters and the dialogue. The elements that are most praised about the series. I found that these, while above par by video game standards, are a far cry in quality from the hype or from the likes of games like The Last of Us or Mass Effect or Bioshock. The main characters have potential but they felt under utilized with the villains being utterly cliche and forgettable. In addition, the story was not as front and center as I hoped. The story that was featured was pretty by the numbers and seemed to cherry pick scenes from better adventure films rather than coming up with its own original content. I do like the Francis Drake McGuffin. I'd like to have seen even more of a historical integration. I know this review seems almost entirely negative but I did enjoy myself while playing the game and the fact that I completed it is a certain amount of validation (though some points were quite a slog). Drake's Fortune shows the promise of what the series could be (is?) and hopefully as I move forward in the Uncharted Collection the sequels live up to that promise.

Broken Acts The art of the game is beautiful and there is solid voice work throughout. The writing is great, the worlds are extremely creative and the puzzles are pleasant enough in the first half... but it is at the mid-point that things take a turn for the worse. The second half of the game clearly feels like more of a rush job. There are very few new characters or locations in the second half. The assets are largely recycled. I can forgive all that because this a smaller game with a lower budget and I'm aware of the story behind its production. I have a much harder time forgiving the puzzles in the second half of the game. Most of them are so frustratingly convoluted and repetitive that it robbed me of any enjoyment I could have derived from the game's second half. The game went from a pleasant stroll to a mind numbing slog at the drop of an act break. The story also seems to take a bit of a nose dive in favor of the inane puzzles. I loved the characters in the first half but being forever trapped in a back and forth loop between these same NPCs again and again (as they regurgitated the same few lines of dialogue over and over) made me never want to hear their voices again. I really think releasing the first act and then allowing the second act to marinate in the criticism of the first, damaged the game as a whole. It's a shame because Double Fine has created a great world rife with (missed) opportunities.

I've always been a much bigger fan of Mass Effect than of Dragon Age so that's something to consider. I was not that excited about Dragon Age: Inquisition going in. The graphics looked good but nothing grabbed me in the gameplay footage or ads they showed on TV but I gave it a go because the games media wouldn't stop talking about how amazing it was... I should have listened to my gut. DA:I is overwhelmingly ok. The characters and story are bland. The combat lacks any bite or real hook to it. I found myself wandering aimlessly through the (beautifully rendered but generic) world, spamming spells and attacks. I never got invested in what I was doing and at times it was unclear what I was SUPPOSED to be doing. Ten hours in and I was really missing the gripping story or interesting characters of something like Mass Effect or KOTOR. The game is serviceable but it's void of any personality or life. I think the combat would work better on PC because controlling a bunch of characters and powers is not all that intuitive on a controller.

Attractive to look at and interesting in mechanics and concept but the game feels aimless. It's very easy to get disoriented traveling from world to world and the scatterbrained map does little to help.

One of the greatest stories ever told through interactive media. With each conversational aside and cutscene I felt myself falling in love with these two protagonists and many of the side characters they encountered. Their plight and they themselves felt real and because that I rooted for them. The visual beauty of this game can not be understated. I often caught myself mesmerized during cutscenes or in gameplay by the masterful environment design, character models and lighting. The power of the PS4 brings to life the texture of this gritty world. Every **** tile, every fractured street, every scruff of beard and every blade of grass is a thing of beauty in and of itself, especially on closer inspection. The mechanics of TLOU are not revolutionary but they are very strong. I found it innovative and appropriate that when crafting or healing you're left totally exposed. It adds an extra level of realism and danger. TLOU has a few bugs (texture popping, the AI gets stuck occasionally, etc) but nothing that detracts from what is honestly one of the greatest games I've ever played. I've only played a little of the multiplayer. It's about par for the course though it has some fairly long load times. The Last of Us is another bar setting game for Naughty Dog studios and for the video game industry at large. I can honestly say, that having just finished the single player, I can't wait to go back and play it again.

Where this game really excels is in the number and variety of ways the player is given to solve each puzzle. The levels are visually stunning and the obstacles are varied enough to keep things mostly interesting. The actual narrative of the story is very thin and feels a bit lazy. My biggest problem with the game (aside from a little glitchyness, here and there) is that the game is repetitive and goes on to long. I felt satisfied when I had beaten the final boss and the credits began to roll but then the DLC started and it turned out I was only 2/3rds of the way through the game. In the DLC's defense, a lot of the level design was significantly more interesting in the DLC levels than in some of the original levels but the puzzles were almost exactly the same. Fatigue set and made the last 3rd more of a slog to get through. Otherwise a very solid game.

A fun 2d spaceship shooter sort of in the style of Galaga or Resogun. PJSU has enough variety in levels, weapons and enemies to keep the game interesting for several hours. Collectibles and secret areas help give the game some added depth. The game features online multiplayer but I can't say I enjoyed it much. The controls felt more clumsy and sluggish online than they had in single player and the matches are quite unforgiving.

Though it's not a game I'd pay for, Contrast provided around 5 hours of gameplay and some interesting puzzles/game mechanics. By about the half way mark the game starts to become pretty repetitive. None of the characters are all that dimensional with some of them being down right unlikable. The game's biggest problem is a lack of variety and a glitchy control system that can at times be VERY frustrating. The setting and style are both interesting but I would have like to see them do more to make the world feel lived in.

The game makes use of the PS4's power by featuring a storm of enemies, particles and explosions on screen all at once. The action can be hard to follow at first but you ease into it the longer you play. The mechanics are incredibly refined with 3 ships that offer a solid amount of variety. The levels themselves are fairly similar. The game is pretty addictive in a trance way and probably the best ps4 exclusive at launch.