Comments 2,388

Re: Kirby And The Forgotten Land Is Now The Most Successful Kirby Game In UK Chart History

StephenYap3

I'll admit it: I was pessimistic about this game at first, but HAL Laboratory did their homework successfully when fully taking the star warrior to 3D. Definitely one of the best Kirby games I've played in the series (albeit not on the same level as Super Star SNES, Return to Dream Land, and Triple Deluxe, in my opinion).

Here's hoping the next 3D Kirby game brings back more of the previous 2D entries' features such as wider movesets (which can be done with a "second" attack button), air dodging, (optional) AI-controlled helper, etc.

Re: Review: Pokémon Puzzle League - A Thrilling Puzzler And A Heavy Nostalgia Hit

StephenYap3

Eh, I thought the game was okay.

I'd definitely say that the Pokémon IP is the best alternative to the overly shoujo presentation of the Panel de Pon series (whose presentation that I never had a problem with) and the anime being used as the template for said presentation is quite neat.

On the flipside, the voices can get grating at times and while I am happy that Panel de Pon got another game with this, Pokémon Puzzle League didn't seem to do much to evolve the formula, in my opinion (especially given the inability to have up to four players in a match, which is a sting for a game that was released on a system that tried to hone down the four-player aspect); the 3D Mode is absolute torture in the sense that trying to chain together combos while being given no option to "zip" to the other side ends up in a frustrating playthrough, therefore making the second half of the Line Clear mode hard for the wrong reasons for me.

Overall, I thought that (again) Pokémon Puzzle League was "okay" and I'm always down for some Panel de Pon gameplay any day as a huge fan myself, but I expected better out of this one and therefore, if I needed my puzzle fixins' on N64, I'd look to Dr. Mario 64 for that.

Re: Review: Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series - A Classic Platforming Pair Worth Catching Again

StephenYap3

Glad to see the Klonoa remakes come to Switch at last, but after having played the demo, I...was not impressed. No disrespect to its fans and I do hope others have a blast with it as well, but these games were just too simplistic for me to play them.

Besides that, I'll wait until Bandai Namco knocks these games down a notch in terms of sales and even then, I'm more interested in Pac-Man World Re-Pac.

Re: Review: Sonic Origins - A Fine Collection For New Fans, Less So For The Hardcore Sonic Crowd

StephenYap3

I'm playing Story Mode right now and so far, I'm in Mystic Cave Zone Act 1 (Sonic the Hedgehog 2).

Sonic Origins, aside from its few hiccups, is one of my favorite collections on Switch for its many features and the Anniversary Mode, which made getting the Chaos Emeralds (Time Stones, in Sonic CD's case) a heck of a lot less frustrating for me. Throw in Sonic Mania's Drop Dash and I think the classic games are the best here in my book.

If this collection isn't "great", then I still think Sega did the blue blur a heck of a lot of justice more than Nintendo did with Mario in 2020 with Super Mario 3D All Stars.

Alongside (arguably) having the better Tetris games with Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2 on Switch, "Sega does what Nintendon't"

Edit: This is all coming from a huge Mario fan, by the way.

Re: Here's How Sonic 3's New Music In Sonic Origins Stacks Up To The Classics

StephenYap3

Here's my feelings:

Carnival Night Zone's (prototype) music tracks I find to be much better, personally. The original's is not bad, but the occasional "circus" jingle I found to be a little jarring and make the whole music tracks unoriginal, in my opinion.

Ice Cap's (prototype) music tracks are pretty good and I liked them quite a bit, but the original is undoubtedly better to me. Without a doubt the only change I'll "miss".

Launch Base Zone is more "whatever" to me. I'll take either one.

Re: Rare's Banjo-Kazooie Is Rumoured To Be Making A Comeback

StephenYap3

Honestly, after Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (among other things), I don't know if I even want another Banjo-Kazooie from Microsoft by this point. If anything, I've moved onto Yooka-Laylee and though the first game wasn't "great", it was a lot closer to the "Banjo-Threeie" I wanted than Nuts & Bolts tried to be. I can't wait for the next one in development

Then again, Banjo-Kazooie lost me since Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge...

Re: Review: Lost Ruins - A Survival-Focused Metroidvania With Fantastic Pixel Art

StephenYap3

"Because there isn't a levelling system in the game, there isn’t much reason to engage in combat with all the enemies you come across, aside from the items of wildly varying quality and usefulness that they drop."

Oof. This is one thing that worried me regarding this game. Part of makes a good Metroidvania game in my eyes is being able to "improve stats" along the way, which is something that equipment can only do so much on, in my opinion.

I'll still think about buying this game, though.

Re: Konami Terminating Super Bomberman R Online, Will Move Forward With "New Projects"

StephenYap3

As a huge Bomberman fan myself from back in the day (and have personally enjoyed Super Bomberman R since launch), I didn't really see a future for Super Bomberman R Online at all, especially since the Live Service model it was trying to get across to the players just wasn't doing much justice for the series. The original Super Bomberman R admittedly launched barebones, but it still managed to hit the million-seller marker a while after and even then, much of Super Bomberman R Online's new content (Louies, to name one of them) could've easily been added to the original Super Bomberman R.

Either way, hopefully one of those "new projects" will at least encompass in a (sizeable) Bomberman Collection. Bomberman, in my opinion, needs to return in a better light and it still pains me that even after all of the fond history the series had with Nintendo that the White Bomber was relegated to being an Assist Trophy, Spirit, and Mii Costume instead of a playable character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate (No, people. Bomberman has used Bomber Transformations in Bomberman Hero, Elemental Bombs in Bomberman 64: The Second Attack!, and Charabons in Bomberman Generations. He has a lot to pull together to make a decent moveset, which says a lot compared to Sonic with three spin dashes, in my opinion).

Re: Review: PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ - A Gaming Legend's Best Collection Yet

StephenYap3

Eh, it's a pretty decent collection. It's neat to have "visitors" around the arcade and finally being given home access to Pac-Man Battle Royale and the arcade version of Pac-Man Arrangement is great to have.

My main gripe with the collection, however, is the coins system. It's a neat idea to simulate the whole idea of being at an Arcade parlor and using them to buy gacha toys to display around the room, but having to spend coins to play any of the Arcade games is something I'm not an overall fan of. I mean, what happens if we run out of coins? Does that mean "Permanent Game Over" in that I have to start a new save file?

Another gripe I have with the game is the lack of "settings" for each Arcade game, which was something Namco Museum on Switch had. I would've liked to "continue" in Pac-Mania without having start from stage 1.

...but overall, I think Pac-Man Museum + is a pretty good collection and is definitely the well-deserved shoutout for the pellet-muncher that Pac-Man 99 failed to do (give me my Super Mario Bros 35 back).

Re: Kao the Kangaroo

StephenYap3

Okay, so far, I'm having fun with the combat and platforming, camera and performance issues aside. Very great 3D platformer here.

...but there is one fatal issue I encountered: My game doesn't save anywhere past the beginning of the Dark Forest. I've made it to the second level of the second world, yet when I turned off the game and came back to it a few minutes later, I lost all of my progress beyond the Dark Forest area, therefore I have to rematch the first boss and re-do all of the Eternal Wells beyond the first one.

Is anybody else having this issue?

Re: Review: Rival Turf! - Jaleco's Brawler Is No Match For Final Fight, Two-Player Or Not

StephenYap3

Not gonna lie: I first played it way back in the day from one of my cousin's SNES and I loathed it like the plague. At first, I thought I was the one bad at it, but playing it again? The game was even worse -_-

Now, I'm not going to take anything away from people who enjoy this game (and the other Rushing Beat games), but as far as beat 'em ups go (at least on SNES), Rival Turf is one of those few I'm avoiding at all costs.

Re: Review: Kao The Kangaroo - Rough Edges Can't Ruin This 'Roo's Return

StephenYap3

Good to hear good things about this game that I was hyped for. Downloading it right now.

Edit: Okay, so far, I'm having fun with the combat and platforming, camera and performance issues aside.

...but there is one fatal issue I encountered: My game doesn't save anywhere past the beginning of the Dark Forest. I've made it to the second level of the second world, yet when I turned off the game and came back to it a few minutes later, I lost all of my progress beyond the Dark Forest area. Is anybody else having this issue?

Re: Best Nintendo Switch Warriors Games - Every Switch Musou Game Ranked

StephenYap3

Fire Emblem Warriors isn't a bad game and I had some fun with it myself, but I wouldn't put it above One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 and Fate Extella: The Umbral Star. The Weapon Triangle system and Dual system made much of the game's (high) difficulty incredibly trivial for me, not to mention that much of the roster felt too limited. Warriors All Stars on PS4 gave me that "Nintendo Warriors" game better than Fire Emblem Warriors on Switch did.

I haven't played the full version of Age of Calamity myself, but I'm still pecking away at the original Hyrule Warriors on my Switch, so...I can wait.

Re: Poll: What's The Best Warriors Game On Switch?

StephenYap3

As far as the ones I played...

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition > One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 > Fire Emblem Warriors.

HW:DE is still my favorite Musou game to this day for encompassing on everything I love about the gameplay while having the biggest mountain of content yet with the Wii U and 3DS versions.

OP:PW3 is "decent" and for the $10 I paid for under an eShop sale, it was definitely worth it. I'm not much of a One Piece fan, though.

FEW is "okay at best". It's nice to see another Nintendo IP get the Musou treatment, but the FE staples like Weapon Triangle and Dual System took out a lot of the tension and charm that built a good Musou game for me. I even liked Warriors All-Stars (not on a Nintendo system, sadly) more than FEW.

Re: Review: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Kirby's First Brush With 3D Is Still A Charmer

StephenYap3

Yeah, I just 100%ed it myself. I would say that Kirby 64 is...kind of middling and a stepdown compared to Dream Land 3 prior. Probably my least favorite mainline game in the series (and I played Squeak Squad and Star Allies; decently liked the former and adored the latter).

The Power Combos was a neat concept, but it was incredibly unbalanced and broken to the point that some of them were OP'd (Bomb + Cutter, Bomb + Fire, and Ice + Spark) while others were practically novelty that rarely did anything (Fire + Spark, Bomb + Spark, Spark + Cutter, and Fire + Cutter). Having to annoyingly backtrack to certain Crystal Shards with the right Power Combos didn't do any favors either, especially when having to do this in pretty barebones levels in design.

The mini bosses are also pretty dang pathetic in that compared to the other mainline games, they barely do much to the point that they either stand there or moving around a bit in a lazy manner, thus you can find a "safe" spot and spam your abilities and you pretty much have to go out of your way to die during these sections.

There are other problems I had with the game, but on the brightside I did enjoy its soundtrack and its multiplayer modes at the least, not to mention that this also happens to be my first jump into the Kirby franchise from a very long time ago, so there's quite a bit of nostalgic value for me here (in spite of its flaws).

Overall, I give Kirby 64 a 5.5/10 (6/10).

Re: Review: Kirby And The Forgotten Land - A Breezy Delight With Mario-Level Invention

StephenYap3

Good to see good things said about this game. Hopefully most of the pessimism I had for this prior would be chased away by this game's awesomeness.

"After the somewhat disappointingly safe Kirby Star Allies, this latest adventure feels like a proper celebration for Kirby"

I'd argue that Kirby Star Allies is still a great game despite "being too safe". Then again, as amazing Planet Robobot was, I thought it felt like a DLC Expansion Pack for Triple Deluxe at times.

Re: Hands On: Kirby And The Forgotten Land: More 'Super Mario 3D World' Than 'Mario Odyssey'

StephenYap3

I'll take either open or linear world as long as the game ends up good in the end and going by the demo, I had a decent time with it.

The Copy Ability movesets felt incredibly stripped down from the Super Star and Return to Dream Land games (Star Allies included) and it doesn't really standout much from the other 3D platformers I played, but it's the only March game I'm interested in and I still want to show my support for the series, so I'll buy it when it releases.