Weekly Gaming: Fast RMX (Switch)
It’s been a while since I’ve played a fast, arcade racing game, and for the first time in a while, I didn’t play Fast RMX purely to review it within a fast timeline for VGChartz.com. You see, since first getting the Switch I’ve been clamouring for games I can play on the nifty handheld – it sucks having a highly capable machine with next to no games to actually play on it. So from the offset, Fast RMX caught my attention, with me adding it to my wishlist when I first set eyes on it. Thankfully, with it just being the holiday season and with it being New Year sales, Fast RMX came down in price, instantly prompting me to download the gorgeous and fast racer. First things first – it has to be said that Fast RMX is a perfect portable game. The short stages (each about 2-3 minutes…
Super Mario Odyssey (NS)
It’s been a bloody good year for Nintendo, and I for one couldn’t be happier for them. Whilst I initial said the switch wouldn’t sell tremendously well, it looks like I may be being proven wholeheartedly wrong, which is a bloody good thing, as it means we get fantastic gems like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, all in the space of one year. The fact I’m comparing Super Mario Odyssey to easily my favourite game of 2017 in the same sentence show’s how fantastic it really is: Nintendo have made an absolutely stunning platformer, one I’ve gone back to so many times since completing it that I’ve put over 40 hours into it. So, what is Super Mario Odyssey about? Well, as per always Peach is kidnapped (along with her new tiara hat that is sentient), with Mario being blasted out of the sky upon trying to…
Weekly Gaming: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)
Hey all! So this week I take a look at a game I would have never thought I’d actually be buying: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Now this may also come as a surprise, but the game is absolutely fantastic, easily one of my favourite games of this year. So without further ado, if you wish to read my thoughts on the game in their entirety, proceed to click the link below: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/269255/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle-switch/ Hope you’re all well, and until next week, keep safe! – Dan
Weekly Gaming: Super Mario Run (iOS)
Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming may have been a massive hit (Pokemon Go) but their first premium game is certainly a mixed bag of weirdness. Super Mario Run costs the grand old price of £7.99, not an extravagant price when comparing it to the traditional games market, but certainly pricey on mobile platforms. So what do you get for your money? Let’s find out. First up, Super Mario Run is a running platofrmer, but because you can’t control a phone as easily as you would a traditional console and controller, the game is a forever runner – Mario himself moves forward regardless as to whether you actually press anything or not. This is a massive break from previous mario games, with their precise controls, but is understandable due to the constraints of mobile phone’s designs. Nintendo made a big point of advertising the fact you control Mario with only…
Weekly Gaming: Pokemon Moon (3DS)
Deary me has it been a while since I started playing Pokemon Moon. Having preordered the game last November, I proceeded to play the game straight for 20 hours, loving every moment of it. But for some reason, I fell off the Pokemon bandwagon and never actually got around to completing it – until now that is. First up, you already know how Pokemon games go: As a 10 year old boy or girl, you proceed to meet the new professor of the place you’ve moved to, attaining your first pokemon, making you a newly qualified trainer. You make your way to the first gym, and proceed to take on the gym owner to gain a badge. Except! Not so this time round. The start’s the same in that you gain a starter pokemon, but everything from there changes. Gone are the gym’s from every other game in the series,…
Weekly Gaming: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review. How does one review Zelda? The game series has been going on for so many years and has so many fans that any word said on the game is going to be scrutinised in everyway possible. It’s for good reason: The Zelda games, for a long while, pushed their respective consoles forward into the limelight of the gaming world, and even proceeded to hold games up as a legitimate art form many times when other games were content with exploding limbs and gratuitous violence. But the series hasn’t been without it’s downfalls. Twilight Princess didn’t exactly set the world on fire, with skyward sword receiving middling to negative reviews. So does Breath of the Wild mix the formula up enough to become an instant classic once more, or is Zelda losing the power it once had? Well you’ll be glad to…
Weekly Gaming: Pullblox World (Wii U)
Given how much I loved the original Pullblox (it was called Pushmo in america, and is different in different territories) I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a Pushmo for the Wii U. What I’d lose in portability I’d certainly make up for in visuals and the sheer quantity of puzzles to solve. Suffice to say, Pullblox World met me expectations, and even advanced on them. First up, the game is no different than the 3DS version that I reviewed many years ago. You play as Mallo, a little red sumo wrestler character that must save children that have managed to get themselves trapped on top of elaborate structures. These structures can only be pulled out a maximum of 3 spaces, meaning it’s up to your own ingenuity to discover the best method (and sometimes only method) of getting to the top of the puzzle and rescuing the children.…
Weekly Gaming: Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U)
I’m a massive fan of Mario Party. That is no surprise to those of you who know me, what is a surprise is how much so. It’s strange I know, especially for a series that evokes such hatred and love from it’s simplistic mechanics. In fact, there’s something about video board games that truly hits the spot for me. Maybe it’s the fact that no matter how much bad luck you have in rolling virtual dice you still have a chance to get points back with your skill, or even the randomness of it all, there’s something enthralling about playing a good video board game with friends or family. So, with that in mind, let me tell you about a little game that was on sale (for £15!!!!) for the Wii U called Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. Amiibo Festival, as the name implies, revolves entirely on Amiibo’s being placed on the…
Weekly Gaming: Hyrule Warriors Legends (3DS)
I’m sure that when I say that I haven’t played a Dynasty Warriors game since I was a kid there’s going to be many of you who relate. It’s not that we didn’t enjoy the games when they were released, and god only knows there are still people out there buying the games (otherwise they wouldn’t continue to be made), it’s just that the formula is stale and the gameplay repetitive. Suffice to say that after 15-odd years, I finally felt in the mood for a hack-and-slash-defeat-thousands-of-enemies title, and what better game to play than Nintendo’s Hyrule Warriors for the 3DS. Why the 3DS version? I hear you ask when the HD version is so much prettier on Wii U: Portability. I wanted to play this game wherever I was, including but not limited to when I was on my lunch at work, or out and about travelling to site…
Weekly Gaming: Splatoon (Wii U)
Having seen the amount of commotion traditional games media was lavishing upon Splatoon, I decided to finally jump in head first and see what the fuss was about first hand. Finding the game for sale at £18 (which is rare! Splatoon hasn’t really had any price drops since it’s release), I brought it straight away without hesitation. Here’s my impressions. Splatoon, Nintendos first ever foray into the Third Person Shooter Multiplayer genre, see’s you play as a squid-kid, a hybrid kind of creature that looks like a kid majority of the time, but can also turn into a squid at will. Being a Squid-kid comes with it’s benefits: you’re able to spray your own ink all over the stage, and use it to traverse to places you wouldn’t normally be able venture to. This mechanic is very reminiscent of Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube, where Mario had to spray…
Weekly Gaming: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
I say games are charming quite often on this blog, and with most of these games I usually see them in a positive light. A lot of indie games come under this category, mainly because their aesthetic is so fantastic and cute that it leaves an impression that bypasses the actual gameplay. In these instances, the gameplay could be horrendous, but with the aesthetics looking so damn gorgeous I proceed to overlook a few grievances that would otherwise degrade the experience as a whole (I still write about the gameplay problems, but my overall score may be slightly higher due to the aesthetics alone). Captain Toad manages to be both a charming game in the aesthetic department, as well as in the gameplay one. It’s combination of simple mechanics with oh-so troubling puzzles makes for one of the best experiences I’ve had playing with another person in a long time.…
Weekly Gaming: Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
It’s genuinely insane how much adoration and annoyance I have for Nintendo games. On the one hand, they make absolutely charming games that are addictive for days, weeks, years even until you’ve collected everything a game has to offer. I remember doing just that with Super Mario 3D Land, collecting everything (yep, every single stage twice as Mario and Luigi + secret stages) the game had to offer. But my annoyance comes from the fact that they make the same games every generation of consoles, with the aesthetics being one of the only things they mix up with recent iterations (Yoshi’s Woolly World & Paper Mario come to mind). Thankfully, Super Mario 3D World is not one of those games, and as a consequence, is some of the most fun I’ve had on a Nintendo game since 3D land all those years ago. You see, whilst most other nintendo IP’s have…
Weekly Gaming: Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
Weirdly enough, in all my years of owning Nintendo consoles; from the very first 3DS that I saved up my own money to buy at the age of 13, to the Gamecube I bought a few years later, I’ve never owned or played a Paper Mario game. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always admired them from a distance; their fantastically stunning presentation always had me attracted to them, and from what I always heard, their RPG mechanics also tempted me time and time again. Alas, years later and at the grand old age of 28, I decided to pop my Paper Mario cherry. Suffice to say, I’m glad I did. There’s more to the game then just the visuals; Paper Mario Sticker Stars takes place in a book/land where the world is not only made of paper, but knows about stickers and their incredible abilities they hold. Once a year…
Weekly Gaming: Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX (3DS)
Having recently purchased a NEW 3DS Xl, I decided I needed a few more digital games on the system to entertain me during my downtime between writing and programming, so jumped onto the Nintendo store to find what was on offer. Lo and behold, quite a lot actually, with Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX actually peeking my interest the most, I proceeded to download it ASAP and set about completing it. Let me start by saying: Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX is not a simple game. The controls are simple, but my god is the game difficult. It’s a arcade shooting affair where your character stands at the back of the stage and shoots wherever you put your stylus on the bottom screen. Whilst it starts off easy, it soon becomes nigh on impossible when every enemy is shooting projectiles whilst being so far away that you can’t accurately hit…
Weekly Gaming: Super Smash Bros for 3DS
I’ve always loved Super Smash Bros, ever since me and my brothers got it one christmas as children and played it non-stop, it’s always had a special place in my heart. The game took a while to get used to, but being a kid didn’t stop me and my siblings, as we soldiered on until we smashed the hell out of each other. It wasn’t until many years later, when Smash Bros Brawl came out on the gamecube that I realised how fond I was of the series, with myself playing it with friends and family during my teenage years, and easily into university with some of my best friends on their Wii. It’s a fantastic series, one that brings people together, no matter what their skill range may be. So with all this in mind, what do I think of Nintendo’s latest brawler? It’s bloody fantastic. The first thing…