Star Fox

• Genre: On-rails shooter
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It is what it is, it's a remake. The campaign is pretty short but it has replayability with different routes and levels.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Classic Star Fox music, it's a remake and it's iconic but it's nothin new or too special.
• Why I played: I love Star Fox, not that there are entirely too many, but I have finished every Star Fox game.
• Jank: The only jank I'd really say this game has is it's uhh.. choices for multiplayer. Not having any form of split-screen is a big miss. Star Fox's design from it's mechanics to the simplicity/high contrast of the models is built for visibility. There is little to no reason to exclude Split-screen. It can't, or shouldn't be a hardware issue either, considering it's a remake. Because of the point of view, you don't need super highly detailed environments. Also I don't know if this is just "true to the original" but it's annoying that enemies will fly "off-screen" even in all-range mode. I'm not sure if it's because the camera is too restricted or they're just going to high and stuff, but it definitely feels wrong and unfair.
• Difficulty: By default it's not too hard with a couple of exceptions. However the challenges of earning medals has always been quite a requirement. It doesn't make it less playable, and at least there aren't multiplayer options locked behind it this time.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm Pleasappointed. Like it's Star Fox and I'm happy to get more Star Fox even if "more" is the same. There is more characterization, additional scenes, etc. This and that. It's not as much as I would have expected though, and I do feel they didn't fully realize their multiplayer as they should have.
• Recommend to others: I would if you like Star Fox and just want something to play in that regard, but I'm not going out of my way to do so. It's fine and I had fun with it, but it's not wholly something new either.
  

This other than it's more or less the remake it sets out to be. It's Star Fox 64 with just a little more. No reimagining, no changing things, just adding bits here and there. It's neat, it's cute, and I wouldn't have expected anything more when it comes to the campaign. Like they could have kept that 1-1 the same and I'm totally fine with that. They add some quality of life features like replaying a mission immediately if you miss the route you were going for, and a free mission select that gives each it's own challenging, it's nice but an unnecessary addition. What I did hope for was for them to take the opportunity to do something really cool with the multiplayer - which they almost did.

It's 8 player, and it's not just a boring old deathmatch where you just loop around each other constantly(like fighting Wolf on Venom), as you are provided with some cannon-fodder npcs, perimeter turrets, and unique objectives for each stage. I think those are all really cool additions to modernize the dog-fighting of Star Fox 64. I think it absolutely missed the mark by not including ANY kind of split-screen. I think 3 levels just isn't enough variety. Considering how much effort they put into having other little customization for the multiplayer and having avatars and stuff like that - you would have thought they would have actually put more effort and focus into it. Honestly I expected this remake of Star Fox 64 to be more of a multi-player game that happens to have the Star Fox 64 campaign attached as an extra little bonus. I couldn't be more wrong. The multiplayer feels half baked and more like one of those single-player games they tack on multiplayer as an afterthought. Even the co-op feels more like an attempt to promote-force the Switch 2's mouse capabilities. It offers local shared-screen or even game share, but regardless what you do you have to use the Joycon for player one and the mouse-mode joycon for player 2. Makes it a little hard to play the Switch in handheld mode. You could prop it up, sure, but who actually wants to do that? You'd also need a smooth surface to use mouse mode. Why not just allow for uhh regular controls? These even have all the capabilities of normal motion controls so why not also point and shoot as an option? Once again - half-baked multiplayer.

It's unfortunate, and what's more unfortunate is I feel like this game was potentially being used a barometer to gauge peoples interest in the series and maybe we would get some great new Star Fox content in the near future should it perform well, but I fear it just doesn't offer enough to capture a new audience and did too little to impress long-term fans, even those who eat up every crumb.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It feels a little long for what it is. Not that the gimmick grows tired but there is a point where you've more or less done all you can with everything you have. The dungeons are generally pretty short though, so it's either something about the way I did everything, or maybe there are just too many of the rift areas that feel a bit redundant.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: I would say probably the weakest part of this. Zelda soundtracks are usually pretty good, but nothing really stood out, and most tracks sounded like they were just general background noise from a hushed orchestra. Not that nothing was good, it just didn't stand out like Zelda usually does.
• Why I played: Usually I wouldn't feel I need to explain why I played a Zelda game, but it took me a good bit to get to this one. The Link's Awakening Remake just wasn't what I hoped for/imagined and I felt with this being in the same style of that it was going to be a let down as well. I happened to be talking to someone playing this while I was playing Mina the Hollower, talking about puzzles, and they had a pretty positive perspective on Echoes of Wisdom that inspired me to pick it up next.
• Jank: It's not really janky. There is some weird stuff you can force with your summons if you're really trying to brute force things, but generally it's a pretty smooth experience.
• Difficulty: Echoes of Wisdom isn't that difficult overall, it gives you a lot of options. There may be some puzzles those who struggle to think outside the box may struggle with, but I think it's cleverly designed in a way that a lot of things can be approached various ways.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm actually very pleased overall. My hesitations were misguided and this is another great Zelda game. In some ways I think it's the most well designed Zelda game yet.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. Especially to those who love Zelda and hesitated to play it like I did.

Just like I took so long to play it, I took so long to write up my review. I finished early in the week. Sunday? Monday? Here I am finally considering what to say the better part of a week later. It kind of leaves me with not too much to say at first. It was a really solid game. It had surprisingly clever puzzles, many of which can be approached in many ways. It's odd because it leaves you feeling like your broke the game, or did something you weren't supposed to. I've played few games where I wondered "Is this what the devs intended?" as I progressed through the game.

Even after completing it, I think the answer is yes. I think the devs intended for you to "make shortcuts", even when those shortcuts weren't in fact shortcuts. After completing the game and getting everything, and then looking back, some parts you begin to realize there was no other way to proceed, or if there was - what you could have done different ultimately would have left you with the same feeling of "Am I supposed to do it this way?" "Am I allowed to be here - the way I got here?" and for some reason that makes me feel like the game is well designed. It makes you think you're getting one over on it, but you're just playing as intended.

Mina the Hollower

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: No.
• Time Played: 37 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I don't want to say it's too long, and I took my time certainly to 100%, and running back quickly through some areas I suppose they didn't seem too long, but some sections just feel a little too long. Maybe because of how much there is in total, searching every nook and cranny.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's pretty good. Mostly just classic inspired game tunes, solid but nothing groundbreaking.
• Why I played: I loved Shovel Knight and played all the follow ups - I might not have beaten King Knights though, I'll have to check. Mina the Hollower takes inspiration from so many games I love, that I had to play it.
• Jank: There is a lot to the game, and I would say the jank mostly comes in lack of explanation. Not that you can't experiment or look at the In-Game Manual, but there a couple things that could be clearer. There are also a few cases of "not counting for everything" where you can soft-lock or glitch into weird places. I only had to reset to title screen once myself, but I have seen other examples. Thankfully an easy fix and little-to-no lost progress.
• Difficulty: Jesus Christ this game is far harder than it needs to be. I know there are a thousand modifiers to make it an easier experience and MAYBE I should have turned at least a couple of them on, but I wanted to play modifier free, the intended experience, etc. etc. I often feel that kind of stuff is for replays and such. I feel like one of the biggest pain points is how they do the health restoration. It has some very challenging sections, but the fact you are punished in healing for performing poorly is a poor game design decision. I get in some aspects it's to encourage aggressive and skilful game play, but honestly it could encourage more cheesing, or more wasting time by going back and forth, etc. You can get stuck in positions where you have a ton of healing vials, but no enemies, as it's a puzzle or platforming challenge, so you can't actually heal at all. I feel like the game would be far better if the healing functioned like it does in most game - a static amount, or variance as you progress, rather than based off your attacks and not getting hit. The one advantage it has is that 1 vial can potentially be 100% healing even at low health, but that's seldom the situation.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite the above complaint about the difficulty, I am pretty pleased. It was a very fun game with a lot of cool stuff.
• Recommend to others: I would, but I would definitely recommend - if you're not achievement hungry (and you shouldn't be), using a modifier that adjusts how potions work, and maybe a few other quality of life-style ones that don't fully change the game but maybe make some of the back and forth and other minor pain-points a bit less stressful.
  

I did really like Mina the Hollower, but damn it was tough. Besides the what I still think is a poorly executed healing system, some parts of the game are just straight up more difficult than they feel they need to be for this type of game. There is a lot of variance and customization you can do to the experience, even before the "modifiers" come into play. There are 5 different weapons and tons of "trinkets" that customize the experience. Even so, if I were changing my equipment to adapt for every situation it would really effect the pacing of what I already thought was a little bit of a long winded game.

That said the areas all feel pretty unique and each have their own cool set pieces, and the use of the "hollowing"(see burrowing) is generally pretty clever and well implemented. It is a really good game, and you can clearly see the amount of care that went into all the little details and fleshing out every bit. I just can't help but feel it would be a slightly better game if the native experience was a bit more approachable. Sure the argument for using modifiers to make it easier is valid, but in that case, using modifiers to make it more difficult is just as valid. Anyway, I'm not that salty about it, but any time anyone asks me what I thought of it, I will definitely say "I really liked it but it's hard as hell" and campaign for playing easier if they had yet to play it.