Super Mario Odyssey

6 months in the making and here we go...

For years I had never played this game, I only got it.. 6 months ago anyway. Everyone would tell me "how can you NOT have played it?!" I just always had other games to play and uh money, but once I finally picked it up, alongside another game (I will review later), I got to playing that night.
Now, first impressions weren't a thing. I had seen plenty of gameplay. Not enough to spoil the fun, no not at all, but I was aware of the artstyle and general story. Still, it is amazing to me that this game looks so good! Mario and the rest of the world has a more realistic approach to it than something like Super Mario Galaxy would have had, with tons of detail being put into every aspect of the game. The sound design is incredible too, the sound effect from throwing cappy is really satisfying as well as capturing creatures. They put a lot of care into even the rarely used voice and audio clips. Colors are vibrant and lighting always fits the mood of the story, as well as music being used really well to convey what is happening. It strikes me a little odd when characters like bowser are talking in his own "language" but subtitles show up to tell what he is saying. I understand that getting the story across can be difficult, but its a little jarring sometimes. At least he isn't straight up speaking english though like Super Mario Sunshine...
Presentation-wise, a 4.5/5. Beautiful looking and sounding game, with amazing colors, lighting, and music to fit the mood and help get the story across.

Now, Mario games have never had strong stories, it's really never evolved from saving the princess. It's something built on that, saving the princess in space, or just a castle, or from... jail? I don't know what was going on in Sunshine still... Regardless, all this is to say that Mario Odyssey's story is just what you'd expect from Nintendo. I like how there is a driving force behind bowser taking peach this time, being that he wants to marry her (although we don't get why he wants to marry her??) However, there is no hard hitting story beats or even any development, which makes me not really care for these new characters very much, since odds are we won't be seeing them in any future games again. There are quite a lot of cutscenes for story, which are all skippable luckily. It's not like they don't add anything, again it is cool to see a reason behind bowser taking peach and to see them expand on it, but they don't intrigue me, I feel like I could pick up on what's going on through just playing the game, the cutscenes help get it across but they aren't generally necessary.
Story-wise, 3/5. While it is interesting to see bowser have a reason to take peach this time, it's still following the same story beats as most other mario games, which really doesn't get me super invested into this new world and these new characters enough.

The best part about the VIDEO GAME of course is the gameplay, and Mario Odyssey knocks it out of the park! For one, controlling mario is a breeze, and easy for everyone to pick up with basic movements like jumping, long jump, cap throw, dive, roll, and more. There is a skill ceiling to his movement too. If you can get really good at moving around you can skip a ton and make huge jumps with ease. It's super smooth no matter how good you are at it. The camera is almost always on point, with a few points where it can get awkward no matter how you move it, its a step up in terms of past games i think. Of course, we can't leave out the main gimmick being the capture mechanics, being able to capture and take over the body of whatever you do capture. The abilities you gain from the captures are super fun, and most of them are extremely unique, but I will say it might sometimes be slightly over used? Sometimes they give you a capture that you use once and never again and its only for one moon, but that's really the only issue I have.
Gameplay-wise, a 5/5. Controlling Mario is so smooth and feels nice, with a low skill floor and high skill ceiling. Captures and cappy entirely adds a whole new dimension to the game which makes it a ton of fun to explore and run around. Short of a few weak captures, it's a extremely well developed aspect of this game.

Overall: 4.8/5. Super well polished game, impressive all around. Gameplay is so strong but doesn't carry it at all. The game has insanely well designed worlds and moons which provide a genuine challenge at some points, and 100%ing the game is so tough that it gives you reason to play for a long time. I would love to see more games like this come from Nintendo, one of my favorites in a long time!

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

*This review was written before the DLC of this game was released*
Pokemon has always been quite the franchise. Every generation has had backlash, but not many have had as much as this generation got. Do I think it's deserved? Yes, all of the glitches and bugs ruin the experience quite a bit. However, what I see many less people talk about are the AMAZING positives this game brings us. But let's not get too hasty now, there are flaws to go still. They for some reason have removes some quality of life options, such as set mode, often used as a faux "hard" mode in pokemon games. They made all NPC buildings incapable of entering, which is minor, but is a big fan favorite due to the fact of being able to interact with the world. The open world-ness of the game cannot be ignored, but it can lead to you going into areas you are not supposed to be in. I did that myself, and was in an area with pokemon 20+ levels higher than my own. The gym leaders, team star bases and titan bosses are not ordered, which would make sense for an open world game, but the levels don't change depending on your levels or badges, so its really difficult to go out of "order." The difficulty is really tame throughout the entire game, unless you accidentally go to the final gym right away, until the end where it kind of ramps up. Next, the positives. I ADORE the new pokemon. I think almost every single one would go in the top half of my pokemon list (if I had one.) Notable ones that I love are Garganacl, Annihilape, Meowscarada, Pawmot, Kilowattrel, and way more. The names for most of them are really cheesy but I think its funnier that way. The story is actually.. good? For a pokemon game, its amazing, not quite to the level of Black and White, but easily the second best story in the game, and they had to split it across 3 paths! My favorite is definitely the titan bosses with Arven, but the team star path and gym leader paths are also great!
At the end of the day this is my new favorite pokemon game to date, however I am about to play through Platinum and SoulSilver, so we'll see if it compares to old fan favorites!
If you enjoyed, please like. It took me like 10 minutes to make this 0_0

Mario Super Sluggers

Dear god I love this game. I don't know what it is about the game but I just adore it. There are flaws, and you know me, I like to get into the flaws more than the positives, so lets do that. The HUGE character roster is amazing, and certainly quite the accomplishment, but the fact that they had to make so many characters means that sometimes characters can feel quite bland. Each character has a special ability, special animations, etc. but you can see that in actual gameplay characters can sort of just be like others. Of course, its not a big issue, and it certainly does not detract from the game itself, especially since it is barely even apparent that it exists. Of course the biggest flaw of the game is that nearly all actions are motion controls. Run? Shake the wii remote. Swing? Shake the wii remote. Pitch? Shake the wii remote. Catch, throw? Shake the wii remote. Of course, some can think this is an issue, but I personally don't. You can attach a nunchuk to make the actions more precise, and it still can require some skill. If you don't attach a nunchuk, then you are free to just shake to win, but you are susceptible to the AI's mapping, which is sometimes not the greatest, so I think that it balances out and is fair. Yes, that is all of the negatives I have, seriously this game is amazing and I love it. Biggest roster of any Mario Sports game by far, beautiful fields, even for a Wii game this game looks great. And oh my gosh the music is such a bop, I legit have playlists with nearly all the songs from this game in them. I don't know if it's nostalgia talking or what but everything about this game just screams love and passion from the creators. I don't want Nintendo to even make another game in this series, I don't want them to ruin something as beautiful as this like they did with Mario Strikers. I won't get into that here I already reviewed it, but if anyone else has played this game, tell me what your thoughts on it were!

Super Mario Maker 2

Before I begin, I was teetering between 3 stars and 4. That's not to say it is at all a bad game, no, but like the style of my past reviews, I like to rate sequels in comparison to the other games in the series. What did this game add? Quite a bit actually. We got new enemies, new power-ups, new themes, new music, new blocks, just so much to improve on the game. Of course the main addition to this game (aside from slopes) was Super Mario 3D World game style. When I heard about this I was so excited. I love Super Mario 3D World, and may do a review on that game sometime soon as well. I was so hyped to try out the new mode, and when I got the game I realized how.. lame it was. Wow, this theme was so extremely advertised as the selling point of the game aaand why was it so lacking? We got the cat suit in a former shell of itself. They moved the button to cat dive to ZR. Some of you may be wondering why its a big deal, its just a button change. Well see, for nearly all powerups with another move, they had the same formula. Stick it onto the run button so if you want to use it you have to stop running and press the button again. So this kind of change was shocking. Aside from that, the cat dive now does not only stay in effect while holding the button, you have to press the button again to cancel it. Why did they change this you may ask? Because in Super Mario 3D World, there was an exploit where you could gain a ton of speed from cancelling the cat dive and starting another one quickly. So all of that was to fix a small exploit that didn't even make a difference. Well, the cat suit was a failure, but does that really mean the theme was ruined? Well on its own, no, however they also decided that they can't make new models for enemies, blocks, or items that were in other themes. So, if you wanted to make a level in one theme, then switch to the 3D World theme, it destroys your whole level. Ok, maaybe that would make sense, since 3D World has so many different items, enemies, etc. Then how come they made models for some enemies that weren't in 3D World, then they decided to leave out some of the most used features from other themes? Ok. It may sound like I'm nitpicking, but to me, when the main gimmick of a game is this.. weird, it rubs me the wrong way. This game is great too, and I love making levels and stuff, but in most ways it feels almost like a downgrade from the first game. No mystery mushroom, no weird mushroom, but now the game design in the maker almost feels... rushed? Yeah I kinda believe this game did not have the time it needed to truly be a second Mario Maker. There are multiple features in the story mode levels that did not make it into the maker, which just boggle me. They already have the sprites/models for them, so why not just let us use them?? Well, it's quite the game, and it is still a fun game. I definitely recommend it to most switch owners, however it has problems that you might have wanted to hear before you buy it.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

sigh... I mean, as much as I hate on this game, I can't give it anything lower than 5 stars considering how it improved the franchise so much. My first smash game was Super Smash Brothers for Wii U, and I had a blast playing. I never tried to do anything even slightly competitive, mostly just played it with my brother and e had a ton of fun. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate comes around and I am actively watching the reveals, even though I did not have a switch at the time. I got my switch late 2019 with a few games, most predominantly this one. To this day it is the game I have the second most hours on. It honestly is such an improvement in every way. Sure, it doesn't have trophies like Smash for Wii U, sure it doesn't have the subspace emissary from Brawl, sure it doesn't have quite the competitive hype of Melee, and sure it doesn't have... uh... numbers in the title like 64, but the things it gives us instead is just amazing. SO many characters, SO many stages, you see there is really no reason that I can give it anything less. Except that the announcer doesn't shout "SUPER SMASH BROTHERS" in the intro so 0 STARS.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Really the biggest problem with this game is the lack of effort put in. Sure, they made a brand new overworld, sure they brought back walking with your pokemon, SURE they updated the graphics. But as with most Nintendo brands, Pokemon, at least this game, fell victim to the "free DLC" curse. Released with the main game, some legendaries, and the Battle Tower. Not much to say here, they released multiple legendaries after the game launched. This game was pretty much nothing but nostalgia pandering and filler until they released Pokemon Legends Arceus.

Mario Strikers: Battle League

Where do I begin... this game is... dead. Unfortunately after only 1 month of being released it has started to lose all relevancy, lets talk about why shall we? Ugh what a game, I hate to talk bad about it but it just is that. Oh, of course the gameplay is amazing it is Mario Strikers after all, cutthroat soccer. Complicated but really fun to play and difficult to master. So you might be asking, why am I giving it a 1 star review? Well, I can't in good faith give it anything higher knowing it had potential to be SO much more. With 10 characters upon release, no sidekicks like in the previous games, and a shocking lack of single player content, it is a downgrade in nearly every category. First lets talk about the things that are better from Mario Strikers Charged. The graphics have obviously taken a huge leap, this game is gorgeous, most of the time. The game is not notoriously glitchy, but it has its moments and you can get some funny results from it. The Strikers Club is a great idea, but not executed the best. The problems I have from it stem from the main flaws of the game itself, being that there are only 10 characters, but you can have 20 people in a Strikers Club all with their own Striker. So, hypothetically, you could have a strikers club with all waluigis, but don't worry, they can be completely different characters with gear... hang on I have more positives to say. The Hyperstrikes look amazing, the online mode is good in concept, and... I guess the gear looks ok? Seriously I am struggling to find reasons that this game is better than Charged. I guess it's time for the negatives. MAN ok get ready for a lot of them. The characters have all softened up and because much less cutthroat-y than the last games and in turn, while being well defined characters, has lost the "Strikers charm" that the past games had. Everyone is all happy or sad, or in some cases, a little mad but they just shrug it off. The roster of characters is embarrassing, boasting a total 10 characters as compared to the roster from charged with 12 captains and 8 sidekicks to choose from. Because of the lack of characters all matches have become a 4v4 with just main characters to choose from, and because of the online mode being the way it is, you can have two of any character in any normal game mode, one on each team. Adding on to this, Yoshis and Toads can have multiple of them on any team, so you could just play a game with 8 toads. No one needs that much of Toad. Trust me. Time for the Cup Battles, and while they were challenging to a degree, it wasn't challenging to fight them because they were better AI, it was harder because you have your one character you are controller and 3 computer players that never do anything you ask them to do. It just feels unfair unlike the past games where the difficulty came from actually good opponents not better AI. On top of that the game mode is so short, with only 10 cups in total each with at most 5 matches if you lost, which isnt common early on. So 50 matches and its over. Do you get a new character for beating all of the cups? No. Anyways, the stages are a complete downhaul also, with now just 5 stages that can be cut in half to combine with another half for a total of 15 possible stages, aaaand all of them are just reskins of a basic field with no obstacles at all. Yeah, the goalie is the biggest obstacle in any field and it is embarrassing. I could go on and on but I think I shouldn't. You guys wouldn't like that, neither would I (and I would be going on for a while.) I'll just end it at this. Mario Strikers: Battle League was promised DLC to increase the roster size, but since they have waited far too long, people have quit the game already, and it shall go down in history as the worst mario sports game on the Nintendo Switch, easily. Thank you.

Terraria

Currently halfway through the game but it has been quite the ride. I recommend highly to anyone who enjoys games about exploring, adventuring, and understanding the world you live in. It starts off slow but once you get into it, it is a blast. Very difficult though, will probably need the wiki if you want to play.

Mario Kart 8

Let me start off by saying: this game, like many others would say, is nothing short of amazing. It's stages, characters, music, they all are steps up from most previous games. Well, for the most part. I would like to warn you that while this may be a negative review, it does not mean I dislike the game. I just think there are a lot of low points that should be discussed, and I am slightly afraid for the future of Mario Kart. 1. The character roster is abysmal. Filled with characters that just take up space like Metal Mario and the Koopalings. They also have gone out of their way to make entirely new characters just to make them nearly complete clones of others, like Baby Rosalina and Pink Gold Peach! They added some more fan favorites in the jump from the Wii U to the Switch, but the problems are still there, and glaring. 2. The dlc additions are good, but they scare me. I really enjoyed the non-Mario related characters we got with the dlc, however not all of it is great. Cat Peach and Tanooki Mario were unnecessary and tacked on likely to promote Super Mario 3D World. The other characters were fun and certainly a good idea, but it is not very innovative, and takes away from the special feeling Mario Kart has. Now it has become more of a crossover game, with more than just karts and mii costumes, full characters and stages are here. Maybe they are going for a more connected world between the series', but Mario Kart may never truly be "Mario" Kart again. 3. The new dlc. I like the approach they are going with this, but the fact that all they are doing is practically importing tracks from Mario Kart Tour and slightly touching up on them makes me think that this was not made for anything aside from just taking more of our money. Eventually, half of the DLC tracks will be from Mario Kart Tour, and I don't see that being a good thing. Anyways, that was my review. I know it was lengthy but I appreciate you reading it. Yes, I love this game, that's why I gave it 5 stars, but the above reasons are why it is not quite as good as people say, and why I am worried for Mario Kart's future.

Mario Kart: Double Dash

It's quite obvious that many people have differing opinions on Mario Kart games, but one that no one can argue against is that this game, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (which is the only Mario Kart game to have an exclamation point in the title,) is one of the boldest choices Nintendo made for the franchise. Unlike adding Baby Rosalina and Pink Gold Peach, this one leap was filled with love and care. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is no doubt the best way to get a Mario Kart experience, but if you are looking to have a ton of fun, with double the laughter, for sure pick up this game and play it with some friends.