Lego Star Wars; The Complete Saga: Sometimes Less is More

Allow me a bit of a self-indulgent review. Recently, just for fun, I've felt like going back to some Lego Games. While I know this is ironic because every Lego Game I've reviewed, I've been highly critical of, they made up a good chunk of my childhood/ early teenage years in gaming. As someone who grew up with the Prequel movies going into cinemas for the first time, a child of two Star Wars fans and was also into both Lego and gaming, it should come as no surprise to learn that Lego Star Wars games were in my gaming library as a kid. I had Lego Star Wars 1 (based around the then-new prequels) and Lego Star Wars 2 (based around the original trilogy) for the Playstation 2. But, when I got a Wii, I got today's review subject, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (a directors cut of the two games that put them together with some extra content). Though my memory is hazy, I want to say that these were some of the first games I played to completion, and the main reason why I try to complete Lego Games to this day (I say try because Dimensions and Marvel 2 said, "Haha, no!" thanks to game-breaking bugs and corrupted save files). I loved these games as a kid, but do they still (or at least, the Complete Saga as I don't have Lego Star Wars 1 and Lego Star Wars 2 anymore) hold up now? 

The story for the game is pretty self-explanatory. The six movies released as of 2007, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, retold in a comedic style casting mostly mute Lego Minifigure representations of all the characters. The only voices in this game, aside from the occasional voice clips from Battle Droids, is grunts, so the critical story moments are primarily done with visual comedy. Vader tells Luke he is his father? Done with a polaroid picture of Anakin and a pregnant Padme. Hyperdrive broken in the Royal Naboo Starship? The collection of bricks that make it up explode with Obi-Wan giving a look of "I dunno how to fix this". What bits of the story they can't describe in cutscenes get told with Star Wars title scrolls at the start of each level. It all works surprisingly well. Even if you aren't a Star Wars fan or have seen the movies, you get a good grasp of what's going on, even if the exact specifics on why is unclear. Back when the first game was new, while I'm pretty sure I had seen Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones on DVD, I hadn't seen Revenge of the Sith. It's why I can say with a level of confidence that it's easy to know what's going on so long as you're paying attention in the cutscenes.

 

The jokes in the cutscenes are pretty amusing, with a good handful of tricks getting a good chuckle out of me, but the gameplay's central comedy comes from the gameplay itself. Like with all the TT Games developed Lego Games released after Lego Star Wars, Complete Saga is an (I don't want to say Action-Adventure because of how broad and generic the term has become now) mix of 3D platforming collect-a-thon with beat 'em up combat and pretty simple puzzle-solving themed around interacting with Lego objects in the world. If it's made of Lego, you can interact with it, be it breaking it, building it, riding it, triggering switches, the usual basic puzzle solving checklist. It's nothing groundbreaking, and when compared to other similar games of its time, it can be rather mundane. However, what helps it stand out alongside other PS2/Gamecube/Xbox Action-Adventure games is the strong theming to the source material and the comedic nature of the game leading to funny moments throughout the game. One thing that did get a laugh out of me was the disco rooms, especially the one on Kamino in Attack of the Clones. Even moments like finding the Mos Eisley Cinema in A New Hope helped give the relatively simple gameplay some much-needed charm and making it memorable. 

 

When not running around as minifigures, you're in control of iconic Star Wars vehicles with servicable control. Lego games and vehicles have a mixed history. If you were to ask me what I'd prefer for the execution, I would say these vehicles over the newer games and their insistence on over-world races, all because of one word, control. At no point throughout my time controlling the vehicles did I feel like I wasn't in control of it. While some things like the Proton bombs are tedious, it is nothing compared to the frustration I had when trying to control a vehicle in games like Lego Marvel 2 and Lego DC Supervillains. I had more fun controlling vehicles like Anakin's Pod Racer and the Hoth Snowspeeders than I had in any race mini-game in DC Villains because one felt like a balanced challenge that was playtested thoroughly. In contrast, the other felt like the developers went, "Oh shit, we need to have a reason to get in these vehicles don't we?". 

Fun fact, I actually have this set. Only reason I skipped the remake was the cost. Lego Star Wars toys are expensive...

 

There is also a hub world to explore. Still, unlike the recent Lego games where the hub world is an open world with lots of things to do, the Mos Eisley Cantina is designed more like the Comet Observatory from Super Mario Galaxy or Station Square from Sonic Adventure. It's small; practicality focused, more of a time-waster, place to mess around rather than something to explore in great detail. While I prefer this due to the nature of the games, there's no correct answer for which style is objectively better, as the more extensive hub world can help make the game feel more prominent than it is. However, my bias might be down to the fact that I feel like levels in more modern Lego games are shorter and smaller when compared to levels in games like The Complete Saga. 

 

The soundtrack for the game is ripped right out of the movies, which is great for Star Wars fans, though one minor nitpick of mine is that the dynamic soundtrack does get annoying when it keeps changing from "quiet and peaceful" to "you're being attacked" just because you got a bit to close to some distant Battle Droids. Visually though, this game has and hasn't aged well. While the designs for the Lego objects, such as the destroyable small builds, the vehicles, and the minifigures, look alright, even nostalgic at times due to how the models were based around actual Lego sets at the time, the background textures and the resolution do look quite bad by today's standards. I played the Playstation 3 version of the game for this review, and even just comparing this game to Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, let alone recent games on last-gen hardware, shows how far the Lego games have come in terms of visual presentation. It's hard to deny that it looks dated now, and while that's not inherently a problem, I know that there are people out there who struggle to play older games due to lower visual quality.

 

I remember a comment regarding one of my Lego Game reviews; I forget which one; I think it might have been Lego Marvel 2. It brought up the fact that the Lego Games are meant for kids, so looking at them from an adult's perspective is meaningless, redundant, stupid even (I'm paraphrasing based on memory here). I'm afraid I have to disagree with this statement, for the same reason that Pokemon isn't purely a kids game, or the fact that the recent Lego Movies (I say recent, but the first Lego Movie is seven years old) aren't kids movies. They're for the whole family. Lego is, at its core, a family toy as people of all ages can play with it, create things with it. There's a whole TV show based on Adults building stuff out of Lego that has versions for 11 different countries; I don't think you can find many people who'd argue, "It's just for kids." So why are the Lego Games getting treated as "just for kids"? I recently just finished completing Lego DC Supervillains, one of the most recent Lego Game at the time of writing. Yes, it had more things to do in it, more places to explore, more characters to play as, more vehicles to control, but I was only having fun for a small section of it. The levels felt short, and hub world exploration felt cumbersome and tedious; many of the missions felt like mindless busywork. Elements of the control actively angered me at times, primarily when switching characters in free play mode due to the Selfie Button, but especially in racing missions where I actively wanted to rip my hair out because of how awkward the vehicles were to control. Is Complete Saga better? Arguably no, there are things about it that frustrated me, such as changing the player-controlled character in story mode, basic and repetitive combat, the surprisingly small window to collect studs and hearts, along with collision and clipping issues of said studs and hearts. I could also see people having a hard time getting back into it due to the lack of quality of life improvements to puzzles between 2007 and 2018. But when comparing the amount of time I was having fun in Star Wars compared to the amount of time I was having fun in DC Villains, Star Wars wins by a lot because it feels more refined.

 

With The Skywalker Saga coming out sometime this year (supposedly), I can't say for sure yet if it's worth going out of your way to play The Complete Saga. The primary reason is it being for older consoles, and finding copies of games for those consoles is getting harder and harder to find due to them no longer being inconvenient shops. It is available on Steam; however, I do not recommend playing it with keyboard controls. Though it does still hold up well, the game itself is interesting to look at it and see how far the Lego Games have come, how many steps forward they've taken, and how many steps back they've taken. It is a good game; there are reasons why many people put this as the best Lego game TT Games has made, if not the best Lego Game period. This is the main reason I'm so critical of the newer Lego games; newer doesn't always mean better. I hope Skywalker Saga is good, but while my hopes are high, my expectations are low, which is a shame.

Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion, Isle of Armor: How is SwSh 6 months later?

What was intended to be a short, simple review of a pretty short expansion turned out to be something a lot longer then I thought. Maybe I have been playing the series for too long... Well, before Min Min joins Smash and gives me another excuse to dump even more time into Smash's Spirits Mode (not that it needed more reasons to be the game I've put the most amount of time into on my Switch)

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore: I swear some of these concerts are using Black Magic.

And no, I don't mean the Blackmagic AV products (yes those are a thing).

Before getting started, I do have to make a quick announcement. Due to the state of the world right now, I've revived a Patreon account to try and ease the blow that is basically the world shutting down due to the Coronavirus. It has affected me pretty hard, due to my main work being Events Operations, so if you do enjoy the work that I do (which should be coming out more consistently due to all the extra free time I have), and you are in a position where you can help, please support me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mediaholics), and hopefully, the state of the world isn't like this for too long. If you start seeing an influx of older toys, older shows, movies, games, etc in the coming months from both sites, this is the reason why. Anyway...

Before the development of Fire Emblem Awakening, there have supposedly been talks over at Intelligent Systems on a potential Fire Emblem Game set in the modern world. Bringing the traditional combat system, but replacing swords, bows, and horses with more modern weapons and forms of combat. While some may argue that's what Advanced Wars is for, it turns out modern-day Fire Emblem would end up happening... by turning Fire Emblem into a Persona game. Not the most out-there crossover idea I've heard, as the combat systems between the two games, are similar enough to synergise well, but while this was originally pitched to the world as a crossover between Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei (of which Persona is a spin-off of), by the time people finally got to see the game, what we ended up seeing was... Persona 4 Lite guest staring Edgelord Chrom... The WiiU version of the game is something I purchased but didn't get much of a chance to play it as it was one of the few WiiU games that actually needed both the TV and the Gamepad screens, something that I found hard to explain to people who were used to me playing the WiiU by plugging in a set of headphones to the Gamepad and playing it like a giant Gameboy Advance. So when talk of a Switch port started circulating, I was interested, especially now that my knowledge and experience of Atlus games have grown to be more than just "What's a Persona?". Now that I can actually play it at my own pace, is it any good?

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist; Link Evolution: It's time to constantly repeat this duel until you get the right draw!

As I mentioned in my Yu-Gi-Oh review, while the show was something I was interested in, when it was possible to keep up with it at least, the card game was not something I got very far in, simply due to no one at my school knowing how to play. While stuff like the life-sized Dual Disks was cool, the confusing rules of the Duelist Kingdom arc stuffed it for everyone (not to mention fake cards everywhere). Because of that, Yu-Gi-Oh didn't stick around for me like Pokemon did, it looked like it died, for the most part, tossed aside like other games that people called Pokemon Knock-Offs.

It wasn't until relatively recently when I looked into the series again that I found out that it was not only still going, but... let's just say the barrier for entry has gotten higher... I still knew how expensive of a hobby competitive card games like that could be, even with my reasonably cheap Psychic deck back during the Pokemon Generation 5 rule sets, and that price was nothing compared to what some decks cost in Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and even Magic the Gathering. So when I found out that a game for the Switch was coming out that had not only all the released cards at the time, but also allowed you to play iconic duels from all the shows? It had my interest, though it also came with its fair share of problems.

I'll start with the presentation, as mechanically, there's not much to talk about here, as it is the current rule set for the card game. Presentation sells these games based on collectable and competitive card games, and the presentation here is fine but very basic. The cards themselves look good, and UI implementations allowing for reading the card text makes it very easy (most of the time) to learn what a card does, at least when compared to the real cards, when some cards could have font smaller then this on a smaller then normal card for the sake of trying to explain it's paragraph long rules for its abilities. The presentation is lacking in many areas, with cutscenes represented by still portraits and dialogue boxes, with no voice acting to be seen (something I would have liked to have seen for the more important duelists, because I like hearing Kaiba going "You're a third rate duelist with a forth rate deck!"... It was in the mobile game...). On top of that, the duel fields look like basic JPG files with the duel mat put on top of it. Each image looks to change out based on what series you're playing, and what arc in that series it is, rather than the context of the show (either that or I'm misremembering the Shadow realm, last I checked it didn't have a nice happy meadow that looked exactly like the one I just fought Mai Vallentine in...). The music as well is completely forgettable, though grading when it came to hearing it repeat over and over again due to the fluctuating difficulty of the game.

Due to the nature of competitive card games, the difficulty of a match is all based on the luck of the draw. This carries over into Link Evolution as well, because if you get a bad draw, you may as well surrender and try again, because recovering is easier said then done (I wish I was kidding when I said I've been slaughtered by AI in 3 turns at times because I kept drawing cards I couldn't use yet). While it's nice to get a small number of prizes even if you lose, it gets tedious constantly repeating duels just to win a match and move on, it's the main reason why I haven't gone further then Yugi getting Slyther the Sky Dragon in Battle City (which, on a side note, going back to presentation, iconic monsters get a 3 second intro animation when they're summoned, but there are numerous monsters that you'd think would get the animation (like the Egyptian God cards), that don't for some reason.). While it is fun playing with both the story winner's deck and then having a reverse match where you can play with the other characters deck, some decks are hindered by the changed rules very heavily, to the point where it's better to use one of the premade structure decks based on different mechanics. A big example of this for me was Yugi vs Bandit Keith before Battle City, where Keith's deck was a complete pushover to fight as Yugi, and impossible to use when I was playing as Keith himself, due to the anime not having the tribute summon rules at the time. 

There are other parts to the presentation that I would have liked to see if they were in the game. An option to play using different rulesets would have been nice, and a good way to break up the gameplay a bit, while also giving a reason to make decks themed around rules like not needing to tribute summon monsters, or speed duelling like in the Mobile game. Going further, it would have been interesting to have other spin-off duelling styles like Team battles, Labyrinth battles and Dungeon Dice Monsters as options (can you tell I don't have much post GX experiences with Yu-Gi-Oh?). It would have helped with the presentation, as I'm happy to take a basic looking game that has a lot of features. 

I struggle to call this game bad. Objectively, it does what it set out to do with no major issues. But the big problems come from it doing what it set out to do, and not really doing anything else on top of it. It looks extremely basic, like a mobile game ported to consoles, but that in itself is kind of an insult because the mobile game has a better presentation then this game. The core itself is fine for the most part but compared to other video games based off of card games, even ones like Gwent when they were mini-games in Witcher 3, It just looks and feels bland. But at least there aren't any microtransactions using real money, because, with the number of duels you'll be playing and replaying, you can easily stock up on a lot of card packs. It's fine, but could have been a lot better.

The Legend of Zelda; Link's Awakening (Nintendo Switch version):

While it is always nice to shake-up established franchises from time to time, a big problem with that is the fans that prefer what the IP was before it happened. This can be for any number of reasons (some debatably more valid than others), but in terms of games, a common one is the gameplay style. To me, an example of this was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and while I won't say it's a bad game, I'm personally not a fan of Open World Games like it, games that feel like giant sandboxes that try to have something resembling a story, but it's so easy to be sidetracked that you forget what the main plot was until it's over. While I don't believe Breath of the Wild is exactly like it, other games like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, a lot of Ubisoft's generic open-world games, and other games in that vein do fall into that category. Games like that feel like they don't have a clear focus, at least to me.

So, when the next Zelda game that was revealed turned out to be more traditional, thanks to it being a remake of an older game, I was excited, especially as I'd never played the original Link's Awakening. However, one big question was hanging over it and continues to hang over it. "Is it worth the price tag?" It is, after all, a remake of a Game Boy game, a system not known for its large games. Without going further, the easiest way to answer that would be "How much do you want a traditional Zelda game?"

Persona Q2; New Cinema Labyrinth:What did I get myself into?

Cats turning into busses, bear suits where the suit came before the guy, dogs with machetes, and demanding kids accept their maturity by shooting themselves to summon powerful ghost-like things... Seriously, what did I get myself into?

While I won't deny for a moment that one of the main reasons I looked closer into Persona was the inclusion of Joker into Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Persona has been a series on my radar for many years now. I'll always at least consider something my friends recommend me, give it a shot when I can, and if it's not for me, I let it be. Couldn't really do that for Persona until relatively recently, and when I could, I didn't really have the drive to look into it, as word of mouth on the... shall we say, character design, Atlus use often didn't leave a good impression from an outsiders perspective, and the only game of theirs I've seen in action was Catherine, via a commentary channel I follow on youtube. Game music though is an easy way to get my attention, and with Joker's inclusion, came the songs used for his stage, Mementos. Wake up, Get up, Get out there, Rivers in the Desert and Last Surprise from Persona 5, along with Mass Destruction from Persona 3, made me want to actively look into Persona. With Persona 5 Royal coming out next year on PS4 (hopefully), I figured a good place to start for now was Q2 on the 3DS, mostly because I could still find it on shelves.

As FalselyProfound (https://falselyprofound.tumblr.com/) can attest to, as she thankfully helped explain a lot of things going on), jumping into a crossover game that expects you to know who everyone is was probably not a good place to start when all you have is an absolute basic understanding of what's going on.

So, the story. Through many twisted events, the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5, the Investigation Team from Persona 4, and the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S) from Persona 3 (along with the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable), and their corresponding Velvet Room associates (trust me, it's better to just look all of this up yourself, like I said, I went into this with a basic knowledge of the games) end up inside of a locked cinema, with the ability to jump into special movies, three of which relating to the three team. One movie is a superhero movie where the first major boss of Persona 5 is basically evil Superman, another is a parody of sorts of Jurassic Park where one of the dinosaurs has the head of one of the characters from Persona 4, the third is a sci-fi movie relating to the robot companion the S.E.E.S team has, and the forth is a fairy tale musical movie relating to one of the new characters in the game, Hikari. Inside the movies, the Persona users have the power to change the plot, change how the story goes, and choose to do so in order to correct the harsh story threads within the movie and to rescue their friends who are trapped inside.

While a basic story, the story itself is drawn out a lot due to how much dialogue there is in this game, and unfortunately for many, none of the English voice actors reprise their roles for this game, all Japanese voice acting, with English text. When you consider how many characters there are, it means that there are large chunks of the game that are just cutscenes. While this is faithful to what I've seen of Persona, and the interactions are interesting, I don't think this suits a handheld system very well, as it's not a very good "pick up and play" game, and I think it will suffer in repeat playthroughs when you know the plot twists that are coming. As tired of a statement as this may sound, I think this would have been better suited for the Nintendo Switch instead of the 3DS for this very reason. Many players prefer to play this type of game on a home console, and at least there, you have the option to play this type of game in either form. Personally, I prefer RPG's on handhelds, but even that didn't help me feel at times "Ok, I get it, gotta stop him, can I get back to the gameplay now?"

In regards to the gameplay itself, it's solid for what it is, but it still has a few pacing issues. The game is a dungeon crawler where you have to explore these labyrinths floor by floor, taking out random enemy spawns along the way to level up your characters. Many of the pacing issues come from your inventory, and the sub-bosses you can find in dungeons. Your inventory is limited to 60 items, not counting equipped weapons and gear. Chests and enemy spawns are bountiful, so you'll often be using the "Goho-M" item (an item the game will harass you for if you don't have one in your bag), to teleport back to the central cinema to dump items and heal. I honestly didn't carry dedicated healing items in my bag until I came up to the main bosses of dungeons, I needed the inventory space. The annoying gimmick of the game though is the map creation, how the game uses the touch screen. It's not frustrating to use, but it becomes tedious after a while, and aggravating due to the game tracks how much of the map you've walked across, rather than how much of the map you've drawn. So when you have squares that have powerful enemies on them, and you can't get to them without potentially dying from them depending on where you are in the game, it becomes frustrating to complete the map and open up the special golden chests (though thankfully play coins are an option).

Combat is lifted directly from the Persona games, with an (at most) 5v5 turn-based battle system. Each character can have two Personas on them to assist with covering weaknesses, as it is on you to discover the weaknesses of every single enemy you fight. If you can get a critical hit or use a move that is weak to the enemies you're fighting, you have the chance to use an All-Out Attack, a powerful move that will increase money and experience if you use it to finish the fight. Characters can also randomly get assistance from other members of your party (though to change the main members out, you do have to go back to the cinema), either as a single attack that can lead to an All-Out Attack, or a unlockable Unison attack, where two characters work together to damage your opponents. Some combinations are characters like Chie from Persona 4 and Ann from Persona 5, along with the main protagonists from Persona 4 and 5 (both of which are relatively early unlockables when the mechanic is introduced).

The combat animations are nicely done, and even though you'll be fighting a lot of enemies, especially when you need to do pre-boss level grinding, what helps keep the fights from not feeling mindnumbing is the soundtrack. From reused and remixed versions of songs from Persona 3, 4 and 5, to the original battle themes, with the themes appearing depending on who's in your party. If you have at least one character from Persona 3, you'll get a chance at having Pull the Trigger play, Remember, we've got your back will start to show up if you have someone from Persona 4, and Wait and see for Persona 5's battle music (the weakest one for me personally). The dungeon exploration themes are ok as well, but they go for more atmospheric compared to the battle themes. The art direction is also very nicely done, all the models are expressive, and the animated cutscenes use the simpler art style (compared to the core games) to have some extremely lively moments, even when nothing much is happening on the screen. It's nothing spectacular, but it's fitting of the hardware and one that I'd like to see used in an HD environment.

Though it has problems, it's still a fun game and worth picking up if you really like those wordy RPGs. Would I recommend it if you, like me, barely know a thing about Persona?... Kinda? It's clearly made more for fans, but at the same time, the insanity of coming into this experience blind was entertaining in its own way. There's a genuine sincerity to the insanity of the situations that you kinda grow numb to it. "Of course the dog can use machetes and summons Cerberus as it's Persona. Of course, there's a side mission where these two normally serious characters have to compete in a fishing competition, in the middle of "Not Jurassic Park" (I think the level was called Junessic Land). Of course one of the answers you can give when asked "why did the gym teacher turned evil Superman turn into a giant rabbit with carrot shaped guns" is "he's h!)$%y". Of course there's an entire musical themed movie all about giving up individualism for the sake of being normal, complete with an animated movie intro with a fully choreographed song and dance number. I expect nothing less at this point! This is a niche title, not going to deny it, it expects a lot of patience out of you. but if you're willing to give it, you'll be in for an interesting ride.

Super Mario Maker 2: When the be all end all 2D Mario game turns out to not be the be all end all 2D Mario game

Apologies for the random week-long absence. The Tech Games Fest 2019 took more out of me then I thought it would, and the planned review, Persona Q2, needs a bit more work before it's ready. In the meantime though, there is a quick thing that could get it's time in the spotlight, and one that did get a good amount of play at TGF (though not while attendees were around), Super Mario Maker 2, the switch release of Super Mario Maker with more building tools, along with other new features (for better or for worse).

Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World: For when you really don't like knitting

Yoshi's had a weird history when it comes to games, hasn't he? Born into this world as a glorified power-up for Mario in Super Mario World, while he's had his own games, they tend to get lumped in with the Mario Spin-Offs in the eyes of the masses, myself included for a period of time when I was first getting into Nintendo games back in 2007-2008 (I grew up with a PS1 and PS2). What doesn't help either is that his games did have a sporadic release for a long time. I genuinely can't think of a Yoshi game for the Wii, or even the GameCube, the DS game was kind of a remake of the original Yoshi's Island, then there was the "Not a remake" on the 3DS in the form of Yoshi's New Island. It's why Yoshi's Woolly World came out of nowhere originally and felt like an odd next project for the team that worked on Kirby's Epic Yarn (to me at least), but after several delays, the game was released for the WiiU, and eventually got a 3DS port too in the form of Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World, which is the main version I focused on for this review.

Kingdom Hearts Marathon; Kingdom Hearts 2: What happened to the rails?

One critique often made against Tetsuya Nomura is that while he's great (most of the time) at self-contained stories, he struggles to follow them up with sequels and a continuous narrative. The biggest offender of this? This very franchise, because while the individual stories are relatively strong (provided you like the story structure), trying to piece them together becomes a nightmare worse than figuring out what is and isn't canon in a comic. Allow me to give you a taste of this as we tackle the sequel to Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2...

DCember Prologue; Lego DC Supervillains:Well, at least I'm not smelling corporate bias?

It is no secret that I hated Lego Marvel Superheroes 2. I personally found it a slog to go through, the DLC was broken, the over world wasn’t fun to travel through, the levels got shorter as I went through, and even at the 100% mark, I never really felt satisfied with the experience. I got so mad at the experience that I was genuinely considering not getting another one, and became extremely cynical towards DC Super villains. Against my better judgement, I picked up DC Super villains thinking that, at the very least, it would be a good review for this week, seeing as most of, if not all of next month’s content is going to be focused on DC. Was I wrong to be so overly cautious? In a word: No. It’s times like this when I’m glad I don’t do number scores or submit reviews to Metacritic and the like, because I’d probably piss someone off at WB for this, not that it matters, I don’t get review copies, and any ad space they may get here is through Google, not me.

Pokemon Stadium: Remember when people were excited to play Pokemon on a home console?

While a part of me relishes in that being a stab at the Let's Go games, it's somewhat rooted in fact. From what I've heard, people were excited for this game to come out, this was the first ever way to battle with your Pokemon on your TV after all. Whereas with Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, the reaction's been kinda mediocre, though I'll save that for another time. For now, though, the spotlight's on Pokemon Stadium, the second Pokemon Stadium game ever made, and allowing players to battle their Pokemon on the square screen, something that is even more fitting thanks to the Detective Pikachu trailer coming out yesterday (another time, though you can find my initial reaction on my twitter account). How well does it hold up though now? Welcome to a world of visible triangles.

The main focus on Pokemon Stadium is the Pokemon battles, with a large chunk of the modes in the game dedicated to it. There are tournament cups where opponents are randomized based on the rules and difficulty level set, Gym Leader Castle, where the battles are more predetermined as you battle trainers themed around, and eventually including, the Eight Kanto Gym Leaders, and a mode where you and some friends can battle each other. Battles can be done with either premade rental Pokemon, or if you have the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pack, the pokemon you capture in Pokemon Red, Green (if you have one), Blue or Yellow. It's rather simplistic at its core, though it's the biggest problem comes from its source, Pokemon Generation 1, a generation that had infamous glitches, and when the concept of balance in the battles is laughable. This was before Fairies, before the Dark and Steel types existed. Before the Special stat split, when Special Attack and Special Defence were the one thing. This was a time when moves like Wrap made it impossible to attack when glitches let Venusaur become the strongest of the three starters thanks to Toxic and Leech Seed stacking. This was the generation that cemented Mewtwo as the strongest Legendary, even though there was a point when it was dethroned thanks to a god-like horse and your worst nightmares personified kinda nerfed him just a little bit... and was later cancelled by the invention of Mega Evolutions and now we're back to square one. Point being, if you know how to break the battle mechanics of the Generation 1 games and have a transfer pack to nuke them even further, very little is actually going to stand in your way. There is a charm in that though because it's kinda fun to tower over your friends with that kind of knowledge, and if they have a similar kind of knowledge, then do what I did while testing it at the Tech Games Fest this year, embrace the anarchy and do a battle with nothing but Alakazam's Metronome.

The Transfer pack has one other function in Pokemon Stadium though, the ability to play the Generation 1 games on your TV. I can't, however, judge this aspect of the game as while I own the game, I don't own a Transfer Pack, not to mention the lack of a physical copy of a Generation 1 game. What I can however review are the mini-games, the final mode of the game that gives players a break from battles. Like many have said elsewhere online, these games are a lot of fun, and it's a shame that they haven't left the N64. It would honestly be cool to see them remastered and added to the core games as a side activity. Sadly though I don't think that'll happen, based on how the games are designed nowadays. Though as a tip, if anyone at Game Freak ends up reading this, they would be an easy way to bring the Game Corner back. What would you rather, Voltorb Flip or Magikarp Splash?

I wish I could make it look this good on my TV.

It's hard to judge the presentation of this game, because while it hasn't aged well at all visually, what makes it worse is a common problem for retro gamers. That problem is "what happens when you try to play a game not made for a widescreen TV, and play it on a widescreen TV because how many people still have CRT's? This game looks rough and ugly when played on modern screens, even more so than normal. The only problem is that the N64 is really the only option to play the game now. It's not available on the Wii U or 3DS eShop, never came to the Wii eshop to my knowledge, and many emulators struggle to run the game (trust me, I checked). I have to ask though, why? Why wasn't it brought over because while 3D battles aren't the thing it's needed, for now, there is still a charm to it thanks to the animations used in the game, and the audio presentation which features realistic versions of the Pokemon cries, solid remixes of the gen 1 games' soundtrack, and the best announcer I've ever heard, which makes the slow-paced battles feel far more energetic and lively than they really are.

Is Pokemon Stadium fun? Yes. Is it enough fun to find a working N64, game and hopefully score the Transfer Pack and a Gen 1 cartridge, knowing you'll probably have to replace the battery? No. Hopefully, the game can get new life again at some point, but seeing as they continue to not release Mario Party 3 again, I find that hard to believe. If you can find the stuff needed for a good price, then great, have fun as there is definitely fun to be had. For me at least it's more entertaining then Pokemon Snap but that's beside the point. Anyway, from Pokemon to another fad of my primary school, let's go back to Yu-Gi-Oh next week with looking at two movies. Pyramid of Light, and the Dark Side of Dimensions.

Super Mario Party: Making friendships by ruining them one friend at a time.

Many believe that the best of friends are forged when people go through the hardest situations. While no game can come close to that kind of experience on its own, the closest would have to be Mario Party. What might look like a harmless party game, can quickly turn into one of the most cutthroat competitive games you can play in a group. Why? Minigames, and Power stars. That being said though, get a good group of people together, and these games can be some of the best games to play together. While there was a quality shift, especially during the Wii and into the Wii U, Super Mario Party boasts as being a return to form for the series. How well does it pull it off though?

Mediaholics Podcast: E3 2018

Late to the party? Maybe, but better late than never (unlike PrE3 this year)

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1 (Maybe? Kinda?); Lego Marvel Superheroes 2: TT, we need to talk

I have a love-hate relationship with the Lego games. Two of my favorite games when growing up was Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, and Lego Batman 1, and motion sickness inducing camera aside, I do enjoy BIONICLE Heroes (though that's for another time). While simplistic, the games are still entertaining. However, things did change during the last generation of consoles. While it is a case by case situation, some of the changes made to the game since Lego Batman 2 turned me off of the games, and when I did try them again with Lego Dimensions, the flaws of the engine started to become really apparent to me. I got this game a few weeks ago as, encase it wasn't obvious, I've been on a marvel binge, and the game was heavily discounted. So I figured why not, and I'd even get the DLC because the two together was still cheaper than the normal retail price... See if you can guess where I'm going with this based on the title alone.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon; Gates to Infinity: Well this world's in trouble

WRITER'S NOTE: Most potential cold puns are unintentional

If there is one series that's easy to collaborate on for this site, its Pokemon, especially the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. Red and Blue Rescue Teams were the first ever video review in the site's history, followed by the three Explorers games, and we've had Super Mystery Dungeon waiting in the pipeline, clawing to get a review since it launched in the US (because they decided to delay the game here in Australia so I had to make Marissa bite her tongue every time she considered spoilers). However, neither of us were on board for reviewing Gates to Infinity, the third generation of the Mystery Dungeon series. Part of it could have been neither of us really jumped on the gen 5 bandwagon back when it was in its prime, part of it could have been we were more excited for Gen 6 and it flew under the radar. Part of it could have been (in my case at least) that I was in Year 12, and there were more important things for me to focus on then it. Regardless, it took a long time for me to get the game, and I'm pretty sure Marissa still doesn't have the game at all. Well, its time to give Gates to Infinity the chance it deserves. Now to see if there's more to why we were hesitant to get the game.

Sonic Forces: Apparently I am doing this alone

Relax, I'm not going to compare it to Super Mario Odyssey. Too many others have, I want to be somewhat original here.

Well, time to see if my thoughts on the game are still as high as they were when it was announced, huh? Back in that awful livestream when Sonic Mania was announced, Sonic Forces was also teased, and I remember saying I was looking forward to it (proof of that being in the Podcast episode with Marcus talking about the event). As time went on though, that excitement was quickly draining. The first big sign was how much of a promotion Mania was getting by comparison, and even after Mania was released, the promotion never really seemed to be there for Forces. In fact, I wasn't seeing any excitement for the game aside from the memes with the Avatar, and the cross promotion with Hooters of all things (I still don't get that either). If anything, most of what I was was negativity and hate, at least from what I saw. Is it really worth it now that the game's out? Well...

To start with the plot and, I know this is going to sound weird, but while the story is awful, the writing is solid overall with some great lines. The overall story is garbage and one of the worst Sonic stories because the tone is all over the place. What do you think of when you get a story that's about a rising revolution to take back the world from evil? Was your answer "anthropromorphic animals saying cheesy one liners that kill the grim tone the story is trying to do"? No? Well too bad as that's what's here. While that isn't a bad thing, as the character writing is some of the best the series has ever had, it just doesn't work in this setting at all. Sonic and co are on point with great writing in their dialogue, but that can lead to bad payoffs. For example, the little promotional material given was trying to build up Infinite as something mysterious. Wanna know his backstory? He was a hired thug that Shadow beat up and got pissed off. "Sonic was being tortured for six months", yet has Sonic act like nothing ever happens once we see him again. Heck, you know how the game was promoting the return of Metal Sonic, Chaos 0 and Shadow as villains along with that red guy for Sonic Lost World? Well, Chaos 0 and Shadow are beaten up in cutscenes, you only fight Metal Sonic, Infinite, Eggman and that reg guy from Lost World. It feels underwhelming by every stretch of the imagination due to the shifting tone.

In terms of gameplay, while I had fun with the levels overall (oh primus that Casino Level as Classic Sonic is awful), it still felt unrewarding, like the levels are just hitting their stride once they end. A lot of the Metropolis (no not that one) levels are really fun to play through along with the ones on the Death Egg for Modern Sonic and the Avatar, but I don't get the satisfaction from them that I got from something like Rooftop Run, Empire City, Starlight Carnival, and more, and that's with all the collectibles as a large chunk of the red rings I was finding without even trying, though there was an unhealthy mix of "ok, how the hell was I supposed to think to do that?" to get them. In terms of a gamplay break up. Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic do still play almost as they did in Generations. However there are some control changes (why is jump and homing attack mapped to the B button?!) and Classic sonic actually feels worse to play here then he does in Generations. I don't know if that's the level design, or an engine change, but I can't even say "No, he doesn't have the same "physics", but he's still playable" because he feels clunky and in levels like "Not Casino Night", I get genuinely angry at the game because I know Pinball physics (I like playing Pinball games ok?), and that felt awful. Shadow plays close enough to Modern Sonic that I think there should be a Shadow mode in boost formula going forward, as for the Avatar, like the Werehog, it was fun, but not needed.

The Avatar plays as a Modern Sonic without the boost and a few extra tricks. Which is fine as the new tricks lead to some interesting level design. The Grapple acts as both your homing attack and a way to use grapple points which sometimes leads you to new paths, while the Whispons let you use Whisps to attack and provide ways to get to new paths and secrets, along with new ways to defeat enemies. Only problem is that there's little reason to swap the weapon around. I just stuck with the Electric Whispon unless I needed to swap. The Character Customization is also solid with lots of combinations, but I found one specific limitation (combining chest and back as just "Body", meaning I couldn't wear a shirt and a backpack as an example) annoying while the UI quickly became a mess. There were times where I wanted to see the brand new stuff I got to quickly add, but lost the item in the mess of gear. I personally didn't notice if there was a way to sort gear into "new acquisitions" either which didn't help. Honestly the only reason why I think the Avatar isn't needed is the Avatar itself. I'd have preferred the gameplay be given to a character with a personality, like Tails. I can say that with some certainty because the Modern Sonic and Avatar levels just scream "Modern Sonic and Modern Tails gameplay".

Presentation is another mixed bag honestly. Visually, the game looks great on the surface, but some individual animations look really stiff, and these animations aren't easy to miss either. Worst offender for me is Shadow in the scene where the two armies clash. Soundtrack is a similar situation where some are good, but nothing's great, and even Fist Bump is just kinda "ehh" at best (I really hate the way its structured honestly). To be honest, overall the soundtrack felt like white noise. It was there, but it just there, it never stood out. I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this and even on its own, it doesn't stand out, and I wish I didn't have to say that about a Sonic soundtrack.

 In fact, "ehh: is probably the best way to describe the experience overall to be honest. Nothing absolutely stands out, what good bits are in the game finish too soon, and the bad bits are abundant. Forces is not the worst Sonic game. Nowhere close to 06 or Boom. However it is the worst boost formula Sonic game beyond a shadow of a doubt and it shows the biggest problem plaguing Sonic Team right now, a lack of trust in their ideas. While I'm not going to compare the game to Odyssey. I will compare it to Mania. When you break down the differences

Sonic Mania: 2D game that plays like the original games with new levels and older levels getting new geometry, with a story akin to the older games where its there, but not the center of attention.

Sonic Forces: 3D game that plays like Unleashed with the 2D gameplay of Generations, and a avatar that's a watered down of the main 3D gameplay with extra gimmicks, and Shadow who's another slightly watered down of the core 3D game, with a story that feels more like a focus, but with nothing making it crucial to the game.

Notice how Forces sounds more complicated, more scrambled? There's no focus because instead of sticking to one idea, and designing ideas that compliment that one idea, they just threw everything in and hoped for the best. And it didn't work. At all. I get that a part of why this game feels rushed was the development of the new engine. But at the same time I don't see that as an excuse, because Unleashed was the debut of a new engine and that game felt complete, like it wasn't rushed at all. Here, they had to patch in Super Sonic, and even then he's still unobtainable in the game. If the engine was going to take that long to make, why not start making the levels in the old engine and then port them to the new engine to finish them? When a game four years in development still feels rushed, there's a big problem. From where I sit, Sonic Team needs fresh blood, and a focus. I don't care what that focus is. But Sonic needs to find something to stick to, to refine, to improve. Sonic needs an identity in the 3D space, or at least an identity at all. I don't want 3D development on Sonic to stop, but it does feel like a possibility based on how well Mania did, and how badly Forces is doing by comparison. Now, while myself and Marissa play Pokemon Ultra Moon (neither of us started playing Ultra Sun...), some smaller projects in the meantime. Such as Machinima's Combiner Wars, because I'll cash in on that Titans Return cross promo.

Mediaholics Review: Splatoon 2

Don't get cooked, stay off the hook!

Sonic Generations: No this isn't going to review the physics

While people dig into Sonic Mania, I thought it might be a good idea to look at the last anniversary game for the hedgehog, one that got way more leaked and announced then Sonic Forces has been getting, and the game that made me want to get a X-Box 360... and then getting one for free that June, ready for release. Welcome, to Sonic Generations.

Injustice; Gods Among Us: All it took was a bomb, some gas, and a laugh.

Some say the DC Universe is like a Greek play, a Shakespearean performance. Some choose to stray away from these routes, where the events are mere coincidences, noting more, nothing less. Others try to embrace it; the extent of success is up to the viewer's choice. Allow me to take you on a path, one where the course of an entire universe was changed forever by one bad day. To take this path, there are two places to look. The first being the comics for the lead in to what they were inspired by. Welcome, to the world of Injustice. Welcome to a tale of death, destruction, and the collapse of everything you thought you knew about DC's strongest friendship.

Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World: When Mario plays it safe

The 3DS and WiiU were a weird console pair, weren't they? Bad launches, the WiiU can only be described as a financial disaster thanks to its strong but badly paced out library, and some of the company's biggest IP's either didn't show up as any form of single console exclusive (No joke, there is no Zelda title that is exclusive to the WiiU), or kind of showed up feeling a little "half assed" by Nintendo's standards. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival comes to mind as one of those, and some people said that about Super Mario 3D World thanks to the 3DS title, Super Mario 3D Land. Well, as someone who's played both, I have to both agree, and disagree. Why? Well, read on to find out.