The 2019 reTROview reTROspective!!!

This is a Game Boy Advance

It's time for my favorite post of the year, the year in reTROspect! My faithful reader and I look forward to this with baited breath each year. This post will summarize the games I completed for the first time with no evaluation trickery to speak of. I accept using save states in ways that I could replicate on a physical console (using a save state instead of having to put in Mega Man passwords, or a save state rather than simply leaving my physical console on if I have to go somewhere), but I actually did very little in terms of emulation this year. Of the titles I played, only Darkwing Duck, Super Star Wars, and Wario Land 3 were emulated, and all of those were on official collections. Here are the games I completed in 2019:

Advance Wars

Animal Crossing

Azure Striker Gunvolt

Darkwing Duck

Dragon Warrior

Dragon Warrior 2

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

Game & Watch Gallery 4

Golf Story

Jeanne D'Arc

Mario Golf: World Tour

Marvel's Spider-Man

Metroid Fusion

Metroid: Zero Mission

NBA 2K19

New Super Mario Bros. 2

Phantasy Star

Pokemon Let's Go Eevee

Pokemon Sword

Super Mario RPG

Sonic Mania

Super Punch-Out!!

Super Star Wars

Warcraft III

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Wario Land 3

Wario Land 4

Xenoblade Chronicles

Here were last year's gaming resolutions, and how I carried through on them:

1. Clear out 25 unbeaten games

I cleared 29, including some really long ones! Check.

2. Clear out more unbeaten games than I buy new games for my collection-not including Humble Bundles

Miserable failure, and I didn't even buy any Humble Bundles. I bought 60 new physical games this year, mostly on a handful of big local lots. They were great deals, so I'm really happy I didn't stick with this one.

3. Spend more time revisiting some old favorites just because I'm feeling like it (potential candidates include Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Mario RPG, and Punch-Out!!)

Great success! I played through DKC 1 and 2, and quit halfway through DKC 3 as I was getting a bit bored. I played through Super Mario World and Link to the Past again, and also beat Super Mario RPG

4. One of the 25 unbeaten games must include Bahamut Lagoon, and another must be Secret of Mana

Ouch. I actually played a ton of Bahamut Lagoon, and am knocking on the doorstep, but got waylaid several times by shiny new games and didn't actually finish it. I turned on Secret of Mana once, got bored, and didn't finish it. Let's roll this one over!

5. Play more new (defined as being originally released on a system capable of outputting in HD without modifications) games

Well, I finished 7 games between the Switch and PS4, and in total completed 11 games from the 2010s, so I'll say this is good enough.

6. Spend some time playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn-whether I beat the main campaign or not

I jumped on every free login promotion, and even subscribed for a month. I'm now level 43, and think two or three more free weekends should be enough to get me through the base campaign. Check!

7. Feel free to dump egregiously bad games and review them without finishing them if I feel like it

I really didn't play hardly any egregiously bad games this year, save for Super Star Wars, and I rather enjoyed that one despite the fact that it was not good at all. So I'll say this is good enough.

Five out of seven is pretty good for me, and one of them I don't regret breaking at all, so I'll say 2019 was a great gaming year. I finished a game every 12.6 days, which feels like about the right pace for me. One every two weeks is great.

Here are a few delightful visualizations of my low sample size year in review:

In 2019, I doubled down on my favorite genres, RPGs, sports, and platformers. I also played several Metroidvania games, as I've really grown fond of the genre in the last few years.

Buoyed up by two flawless games, RTS is the king of 2019. I loved Warcraft III so very much at release, and very little has changed. It rules. The true king of the year is probably Metroidvania games, as I played three separate titles for an average of nearly 9.0. Run 'n Gun games were obviously driven down by Super Star Wars, but that genre isn't exactly my favorite in any case. The big takeaway is that I played a lot of good to great stuff this year!

I was a bit surprised to see the GBA so high up here, as it felt like I played my 3DS a lot more. And I truly did in terms of total time, especially considering the lengthy run I had through Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, which is counted here as a Wii game. My runs through GBA games were also very short Metroidvanias in general, with only Advance Wars taking me more than a few days to beat.

The PC is king here thanks to Warcraft III, but I really enjoyed the vast majority of the systems I played this year. The PS4 was probably the highlight in general, with a ton of joy derived from Spider-Man, Sonic Mania, and NBA 2K19.  It was a very disappointing year from the Switch for me, with subpar Pokemon experiences, and a very dull run through Golf Story.

Nintendo weirdly dominated this category despite me playing fewer Nintendo games than usual (12 in 2017, 14 in 2018, and a mere 8 in 2019). I was a bit more democratic in selecting games this time around, and also played fewer in total.

I know. You get it. I love Warcraft III. In non Warcraft news, Nintendo killed it again with a rating near 9 on 8 games. Most other developers were in on a single game, so there aren't a ton of trends here to see.

This is the most even split I've had between home and handheld since I started counting. Typically, I play a lot fewer games on handheld because I play so many RPGs on handheld to burn time. But this year, I played several Metroidvania handhelds and shorter RPGs that let me keep things more equal.

This was also a very even year in terms of quality. Home barely edges out handheld by .03!

When I said that I played fewer Nintendo games than usual, I worry that what you heard was that I played fewer games on a Nintendo console than usual. That is obviously not the case. I did play fewer Nintendo developed games than usual, but Nintendo's firm grasp on my gaming time continues to reign supreme.

While Nintendo may remain the king of quantity, I'd have to give the quality crown this year to Sony, which managed to maintain a rating of over 9 with four separate games.

I really kept my word to play more newer stuff in 2019, as displayed here. It also helped that I've played most of the stuff from the 80s and 90s that I want to, and that I've gotten a bunch of good deals on some newer stuff in the last few years.

The 2000s had a really well-reviewed decade here, with ten games averaging slightly more than 9.0 a piece.The 90s are the clear loser, with four other good games drowning under the weight of Super Star Wars.

And now for our annual reTROview Awards!

Game of the reTROview Year: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

This expansion and the base game are as good as RTS get. I was so thrilled to revisit these, and even more thrilled at the thought of a remaster coming, with some actual people against whom I can play.

Stinker of the reTROview Year: Super Star Wars

In truth, this is the kind of bad game that's still its own kind of fun despite being bad. It doesn't even compete with previous award winners that simply had no fun at all, but it was definitely the worst game I've played this year.

Median Game of the reTROview Year: Wario Land 4

Giving top ten lists and measures of central tendency for sample sizes this small is an exercise in silliness, but this one feels right. I enjoyed it, it wasn't among the standouts, and that's about it.

Newest Game reTROviewed: Pokemon Sword

This is about as new as it gets, and it's also the only game released in 2019 that I played this year! It was extremely disappointing.

Oldest Game reTROviewed: Dragon Warrior

I played the port of Dragon Warrior, but I really liked it!

The reTROview 2019 Top 10:

10. Animal Crossing
9.  Xenoblade Chronicles
8. Super Punch-Out!!
7. Dragon Warrior
6. Bravely Default (I didn't finish it yet, so spoiler alert for one of my next reviews!)
5. Advance Wars
4. Sonic Mania
3. Marvel's Spider-Man
2. Wario Land 3
1. Warcraft III/The Frozen Throne

These are all really good games, and I would recommend them to anyone.

The reTROview 2019 Bottom 10:

10. Metroid Fusion
9. Pokemon Let's Go Eevee
8. Phantasy Star
7. Darkwing Duck
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2
5. Azure Striker Gunvolt
4. Game & Watch Gallery 4
3. Pokemon Sword
2. Golf Story
1. Super Star Wars

Due to my top heavy selection of games this year, I can only honestly say that one of these games is truly "bad". Super Star Wars is a total mess, so avoid that one, unless you really love Star Wars, bad games, or run 'n gun shooters. But I rated Golf Story as a 7, and Pokemon Sword at a 7.5, so I would say "average" is a more accurate rating for most of the games on this list. And I actually thought that Metroid Fusion was quite good, but when you only beat 28 games in a year, and the vast majority of them are pretty good, the top of your bottom ten is going to be filled with pretty good games. Maybe I'll just do a bottom 5 next year if I do a similar workload.

Now for my gaming resolutions for the upcoming year:

1. Complete 30 previously uncompleted games

I feel like I can play more this year as my infant son is a toddler now and a bit more self-sufficient. My wife has also pledged to play a few co-op games with me this year, so it's likely I'll pick up a few cheap ones there I would have previously filled with watching The Masked Singer. I also have 3 or 4 in the pipeline that are half done or more, so I think I should be able to do 30. It also makes doing top and bottom ten more interesting if there are a few games on neither list.

2. Buy all the new games I want, as long as it's a good deal. Also, add a really pricey game (more than $80) to my collection just for fun. Maybe Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance or Lufia II.

Last year's resolution to cut back collecting was just dumb, and this year I'm doubling down on collecting. I'm in the market, baby!

3. Replay some old favorites again

I can't tell you how enjoyable it was to run through some SNES favorites last year, and this year I'm going to do the same. I feel the urge to run through Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, Mega Man X, and Chrono Trigger this year, along with my customary Super Mario World and Link to the Past runs. It has been a decade since my last Chrono Trigger playthrough, and that's unacceptable.

4. I MUST finish Bahamut Lagoon

If I don't finish it this year, I pledge to the internet that I'll sell my copy of Earthbound. I really am fine with not playing Secret of Mana, though, so I'm not going to pledge it.

5. Finish the main campaign of Final Fantasy XIV once and for all

I have been really enjoying short bursts of the MMO, and could easily see myself subscribing for two months out of the year this year. This one is very doable.

And that's a wrap for the previous year. Hope you guys have a great one!

-TRO

2010s Gaming reTROview Part 2: The Top 10

I covered some honorable mentions last time, so I'll just jump in here with the true top 10 of the decade. This will almost certainly not be the top 10 when I mentally revisit this is 2030, but as of right now, here are the 10 games from this decade that I enjoyed the most:

10. Diablo III

Diablo III was such an incredibly communal experience for my family that it will always be a game that I cherish. We have specific memories about this game and playing it over our extended Christmas vacation that it has an endurance for me beyond the quality of the game (which is high). We still talk about the time my father-in-law got killed so many times in a boss fight that he was literally running around in his underwear. And we have video. Cheers to this game, and you can be certain that my family is greatly looking forward to Diablo IV.

9. Pokemon Y

Pokemon Y is the last great Pokemon game, and I hope that will not always be true. I've been greatly let down by the last two games, and this one had left me so hopeful for my Pokemon future. If you've never played it and think you're too old for Pokemon, go take the plunge. It's truly incredible.

8. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

A Link Between Worlds shows how to do retro-styled games right. It nails the balance of reverence for a treasured property while iterating just enough to give you an experience that could only exist on a modern console. This is an extremely good Zelda game in a very good decade for Zelda games.

7. Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker was the game I never knew I needed, but I totally did. It's another great example of adapting retro properties to the modern day (that's a bit of a theme on this list). Mario is brilliant. The internet hivemind is brilliant. Combining the two gave me weeks and weeks of innovative levels to explore; levels that even the geniuses at Nintendo never could have accomplished. I really need to get the second one, if only anyone would sell theirs on the secondary market. The fact that I can't find one attests for the greatness of this concept.

6. Grand Theft Auto 5

The cranky old man in me wants to point out that like with Red Dead Redemption, the actual gameplay in this game is not always particularly fun. There are better driving games. Better boxing games. Better shooting games. Better golf games. Better flight simulators. But as a madcap sandbox experience combining good enough gameplay, unbelievable audacity of scope, brilliant writing, and a genius concept, Grand Theft Auto 5 sucked weeks and weeks of my life away, and I regret nothing.

5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Anybody who knows me even slightly knows that JRPGs are my preferred style of RPG. I'll take Final Fantasy over Baldur's Gate any day of the week. But the 2010s were a rough decade for JRPGs in my experience, with a few bright spots acknowledged in my honorable mentions. Western RPGs from the decade captured my attention far more, and Skyrim isn't even my favorite (see one spot up). But the incredible openness of the world, detailed and haunting lore, diversity of playstyles available between classes, and a tremendous soundtrack places this among my favorite RPGs of all-time.

4. Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is video game writing and storytelling at its zenith. I don't normally play video games for story, preferring engaging and immersive action far more. But Mass Effect 2 is a premium developer's A+ fastball of a game in terms of storytelling, and the quality of the action isn't too far behind. The scary thing is, I actually prefer Mass Effect to the sequel (for character building and roleplaying dynamics), but that was last decade. Experimenting with different combat genres with roleplaying mechanics has been one of the signatures of 2010s RPGs, and Mass Effect 2 is a nearly perfect exemplar of that experimentation going perfectly.

3.  Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight is amazing. About the only bad things I can say about it is that some of the expansions have not been quite as perfect as the original game. Seeing as these are brand-new, free campaigns makes this complaint fall pretty hollow. The base Shovel Knight campaign is platforming genius on the level of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, and I don't say that lightly. It's also an exemplar of how to handle crowdfunding ethically while also making a ton of money for the company. Yacht Club Games deserves all of the credit for forging a new way to make high-quality games, provide tremendous value to the customer, and profit along the way. Here's to Shovel Knight Dig!

2. Super Mario Odyssey

I generally prefer my PS4 to my Switch, but the top of this list shows why Nintendo has been around the gaming throne, if not on it, for the last forty years. Super Mario Odyssey is an insanely good 3D platformer. The best ever. I don't think anything else even comes close, save perhaps for Super Mario 64, and that only for pure inventiveness. If you haven't played it, you're missing out on one of the most polished video games of all-time.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

What if Nintendo made Skyrim, only it was more beautiful, bigger, more inventive, and the combat was twice as fun? That's what you get in Breath of the Wild, the game of the decade. As a devoted adherent to the 2D Zelda games, you can understand that me putting a 3D Zelda at the top of this list shows how high the quality of this game is. Link to the Past will always be my favorite, but Breath of the Wild is the best of the 3D bunch, without any question.

And that's it for the top 10! I really enjoyed this decade in gaming, and think that at least two, if not three, of the top 10 here would make it on a top 10 of all time list for me. On to the 2020s!

-TRO

2010s Gaming reTROview Part 1: The Honorable Mentions

We are nearing the end of the decade, and like every other sheep on the internet, I've decided to put together a best of the decade list! I love lists, so this is the type of content I adore doing. At first, I thought putting together a list of the best games of the decade would be pretty simple. There's a clear top five to me, and the rest could be my own pet picks. The 2010s has been a decade with some wonderful gaming, and some all-time great consoles. I think after another decade has gone by, my already high rating of the PS4 and 3DS will go up even more, and will end up being among my all-time favorites. It hasn't quite been the 90s to me, although some of that is colored by nostalgia, but I also haven't even scratched the surface of what I want to touch from the decade, while the 90s are pretty well tapped out for me.

So, before I begin my true list, we'll start with some honorable mentions that could absolutely be on anyone's list, in no particular order:

Marvel's Spider-Man was a true joy to view and to play, and represents cinematic-style gaming at its peak, to me. Heavily story driven style gaming has never been my cup of tea, but when combined with great controls and combat, this one was absolutely tremendous.

Fire Emblem Awakening was a wonderful modernization of one of my favorite series. While I prefer the first GBA title by a hair, there's no denying Awakening's greatness. The writing is sharp and the strategic combat excellent.

Mario Kart 8 is a visual marvel and a gameplay delight. It's a must own for anyone.

Sonic Mania is an excellent example of why the 2010s have been a great decade for retro-styled games. We're certainly not getting the quantity of retro games that we did in the 80s and 90s, but there have been some real high flyers this decade, and Sonic Mania is one of the best.

New Super Mario Bros. U and its super expansion are more great retro-styled platformers from this decade. This game gave us another huge drop of great Mario levels, and led the way towards the greatness that is Super Mario Maker (more on this later).

MLB: The Show felt cheap to include in a top 10, since there are so many installments. But it has consistently been delivering the best sports simulation of any game, ever, so it definitely belongs in the honorable mentions.

Ultra Street Fighter IV is the pinnacle of a wonderful game. This feels like cheating, since Street Fighter IV was released before this decade, but it reached its heights here, so I don't feel bad. Street Fighter V just felt too focused on microtransactions to reach the heights, but this one followed the time-honored tradition of pumping out new versions to increase content, even if the cosmetics were still ludicrously expensive.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a weird pick for a grown man, but I really can't tell the story of my gaming decade without at least one game from this quirky franchise. In a day and age that supports playing games online with friends, this game was capable of bringing my family together, passing the controller, and having some good old fashioned co-op fun. I've had a great time with a bunch of the games in this series, but this one is the best.

It has been an odd decade for fans of JRPGs. We've gotten lots of clunky attempts at the genre in a time when it feels like Western studios are pushing the creative envelope in the role-playing space, but we've had a handful of standouts, with Xenoblade Chronicles coming to mind immediately.

It's impossible to tell the story of the decade without mentioning mobile games, but it's such a hugely fractured marketplace that it's difficult to know what's relevant and important to people. Terra Battle was one of the first mobile games that really captured my attention, and it's better than ever to play right now due to some quality of life improvements to the game. Check it out now before they take the servers down!

We'll keep going with the mobile games here for a few more. If you love the 16 bit era of Final Fantasy, you'll find Final Fantasy Record Keeper as charming and delightful as I do. There has not been a day since I downloaded this game that I haven't at least logged in once to get my daily bonus. Not one.

I don't think there's any single game on this list that's more emblematic of the capabilities of modern technology to continue delivering new and unique gaming experiences to the masses. It's super fun, it's a communal experience for my whole family, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Candy Crush Saga took the genius of piling up points in Bejeweled and added a social aspect along with differential gameplay styles to take it up a level. Including stamina and microtransactions also made King very rich, but not from me. This is a really fun game.

Super Mario 3D Land is a really tightly crafted and well designed Mario game that's an essential for anyone collecting for 3DS.

I'm really not one for cinematic story-telling games, but I really enjoyed The Last of Us, even if the gameplay is a bit clunky. Someday I'll finish it, too...

Bravely Default, along with Xenoblade Chronicles, are the two examples that make me optimistic for my JRPG future. To be fair, I haven't played too many JRPGs from this decade, but I'll get to them eventually! I'm working through this game at the moment and think it's extremely good. I'll have a review at some point, perhaps before the new year?

Check back in next time for the cream of the crop from this decade!

What I'm Playing (Volume 129): Pokemon Sword

Pokemon Sword was one of the very few games which I have pre-ordered in the last few years (Final Fantasy XV, Pokemon Sun, Pokemon Sword). I love Pokemon, and was extremely excited for the game to be dropped off at my house on a Friday, and to spend a huge amount of time over the weekend playing. Since I am a grown man with many children, I had far less time than I estimated, and only recently have completed my journey to become the Galar region champion, but this is certainly one of my more contemporary reviews, so I trust that my faithful reader will have compassion on me.

It is really difficult to know where to start with this game. It had a huge amount of buzz and backlash surround the game, but I won't cover that in significant depth. The biggest issue surrounding the game's launch is that for the first time in the main series' history, you would not be able to obtain all of the previously released Pokemon in this one. With around 1000 Pokemon released to date, the fine folks at Game Freak decided that they would release a game with a more carefully curated selection of Pokemon (400).

I am conflicted by this decision. On the one hand, as a compulsive Pokemon collector who takes a tremendous amount of joy in "catching them all", it was a bit disappointing to me that I would have a far more streamlined amount of Pokemon to catch and evolve in this game. They had already begun in this direction in Pokemon Sun, and I frankly ripped them for it in my review. In Sun, they included assets for all of the Pokemon, but not Pokedex entries for them, which seemed like one of the easier parts of the process. Maybe I'm naive about creating Pokedex entries. Well, be careful what you wish for, because now they've gone all out and have stripped out more than half of the Pokemon from the games.

What is worse, some Pokemon that I have really enjoyed in the past didn't make the cut, along with some that I despised (I'm looking at you, Vanillite). Every Pokemon is somebody's favorite, and they're not making the games for me, but it did seem that they should have started with at least including each generation's starters, and they definitely did not do that.

With all of that being said, I also understand the case from Game Freak's perspective. Name me another RPG that is not named Pokemon that has 400 playable characters with individual character models, movesets, stats, etc. I'll wait. And they certainly put a significant amount of effort into animating the Pokemon at a much higher level than they have in the past. Pokemon now have models for the world map, camping, Pokedex entries, and battle, with way more detailed animations for every interaction.

On net, I'm disappointed, but still feel like you can deliver a functional Pokemon experience with 400, and maybe even a higher quality experience with some more depth. It's not what I would have chosen, but I also don't have to perform dozens of high-quality animations for hundreds of Pokemon in a wide range of settings, so I'll just be disappointed and not outraged.

This, in case you weren't aware, is a pretty standard Pokemon game. There are Pokemon to catch, Gym Leaders to challenge, and you are trying to become the Pokemon champion. You have a rival who will pester you for battles along the way, and really actually have more like 3 rivals in this game. You'll go through icy regions, rainy regions, idyllic regions, caves, etc. There are a few changes from previous games, however.

The wild Pokemon largely appear on screen now, rather than being concealed within the grass or under the water. This is a really nice change, and the single best improvement continued on from Pokemon Let's Go Eevee. No longer will you be ambushed by endless Pidgeys along the road. You can now avoid the Pidgeys and face the rarer creatures that will appear more infrequently, or take your chances with those monsters that are more concealed and roll the dice a bit.

There are no more gimmicky controls like in Eevee, which is wonderful. The catching experience is the same as it is traditionally, which is a very welcome return to form. They do include a nice little feature called casual controls that will let you play the game with 1 hand, which is a godsend for those of us with babies who demand to be held or wives who request backscratches and thus deplore evening video game playing. Note: this is definitely NOT me.

There is no more Elite Four, which hit me harder than I thought it would. Your Pokemon are now healed between the final sets of battles between challengers to become the Pokemon champion, which severely limits the already limited challenge of the game. I miss the Elite Four.

There is no mention of any of the mechanical changes from the last several games, including Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and the use of environmental factors to trigger evolutions in certain Pokemon. For example, Glaceon, one of the Eevee evolutions, previously needed to be leveled up in the presence of an icy rock which was only located at particular points in the world, but now evolves with the simple application of an ice stone. I kind of miss the more intricate requirements for evolving these Pokemon, but the lack of Mega Evolution hits me the hardest. Some of these evolutions were extremely cool, or provided viability to Pokemon that were previously not very useful. RIP black Charizard.

In the place of these mechanics is the new Dynamax and Gigantimax forms, which allowed you to balloon your Pokemon up to unsustainable size and power for a few turns. This was not my favorite new mechanic, as it turns all of your moves into milquetoast nukes depending on their type, and seems to strongly favor sweeper-style Pokemon (I could be proven very wrong on that  by the mathcrafters, but that's the way it feels). What's more, these forms can only be triggered in gym battles, raids, and during the end of game tournament, which really walls them off from a wider range of applicability. This leads to the feeling that these were a simple gimmick that will be quickly discarded in subsequent games.

They also removed all HM or HM style abilities from the game. Long-time observers will know that HMs used to be actual moves you would teach to your Pokemon that would enable them to interact with their environment out of battle by flying you to different cities, pushing heavy stones, cutting down plants blocking your way, or crusing across or under the waves. These were wonderfully replaced in Sun by ride Pokemon, dedicated creatures who could perform these functions for you, but now most environmental obstacles have been removed. You can now use your bike to travel on land or water, serving as both a bike and a surfing function, or call an air taxi to transport you to a city to which you've already traveled. But the lack of Cut, Rock Smash, or Strength crippled the ability of this game to engage in even the most rudimentary of puzzle solving skills, and the gameplay felt very dull as a result. It's just battle catch rinse repeat, with no variation at all. The gyms, traditionally the most prominent location for some puzzle solving, generally felt boring, with a few exceptions (the water and fighting gyms were excellent) because of the lack of these skills.

So, with all of these stripped out features, it would be safe to imagine that Sword rethought a lot of existing Pokemon features and added in a ton more, right? Especially with regards to the online experience, which a modern console should be able to more readily deliver? Right? Not really. The most sizable inclusion of new features is the Wild Area, an area that connects a few circuits of more traditional Pokemon cities, and has insanely varying weather that causes all manner of Pokemon to spawn at different times depending on said weather. You have a freely manipulable camera, and an open world to explore, with the opportunity to engage in raids of Dynamaxed Pokemon with other online Pokemon trainers. The promotions say that the Wild Area is as large as one of the regions in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it certainly didn't feel that way to me. I also haven't seen all of it, to be fair. These features sounds really cool, but I found the raids to be quite dull. It seemed impossible to find any other trainers online, which sounds insane for the launch week of a huge new game, because it is insane. Other trainers will show up in the Wild Area too, but get ready for massive framerate sputters and lag. The online for this game was not thought out particularly well, and was executed even more poorly.

The worst part of the online was the stripping out of the Global Trade Service, which was one of my favorite parts of the more modern games. In this system, you could propose a trade, and any person in the world could choose to accept your stipulations, and you'd receive the Pokemon when you logged back in. Well, in typical Nintendo fashion, they've now restricted your access online to your friends or mysterious people with no ability to set strictures on what kind of trade you'd like. Or you can take your luck with a totally random and immediate trade. In short, if you want to catch 'em all, you'll need some real friends. And real friends with the other version of the game. This exclusion alone knocked this review down a full half a point for me.

You can also camp with your Pokemon, which is cute. Once. I guess if you really roleplay this game hard and see yourself like Ash, defending the importance of your relationship with your precious Pokemon, you might enjoy throwing out Poke Balls for them to fetch, or petting them, or watching them play. You can also cook curry in an inscrutable system that is beyond me to explain. This will give you experience. Hooray.

One thing I expected was a more elaborate game filled with sidequests or more extended adventures between gyms. Weirdly, we got exactly the opposite. You basically will follow short routes between towns, and it will only take you roughly 10 minutes to go from gym to gym, with none of them save for the last one being difficult in the slightest. I took my time and caught every Pokemon I saw, and still only had about 18 hours in the game when I became Champion. You'll almost always have to explore a sinister organization's hideout to save the day several times throughout the Pokemon games, and there was almost none of that in this game. That is disappointing enough, but we also had almost no end game content in this one, save for a brief side story involving some legendary Pokemon, and the Battle Tower, as usual. I really expected this thing to be jam packed with content to trade off for all of the stripped Pokemon and features, and was genuinely disappointed.

There are also some new Pokemon included in the game, and some Galar forms of old Pokemon. The new designs are also pretty interesting and likable, and I genuinely found picking between the starters difficult this time.

Visually, the game is fine. It looks like a Pokemon game, plus about 20% of what you would expect on a 3DS. I expected a bit more, but I was never upset about it. The animations and models were definitely superior to those in Eevee, with many more to see. Occasionally you would get weird animations, like my Cinderace (a Pokemon based on a soccer player theme) using Headbutt by kicking, but for the most part, this is the most detailed "combat" we've seen in a Pokemon game.

The music is really, really good. There are a ton of gems in the soundtrack, and I really enjoyed the entire thing. Great music has defined the Pokemon franchise, and this continues that trend.

This was a very disappointing game. It felt thin throughout, with new features lacking the punch that they should have. None of the individual design choices they made throughout were indefensible, but the cumulative effect of those choices is a game that continually leaves you wanting a significant amount more. The dream of all Pokemon fans was to have a true, AAA style Pokemon adventure with all of the horsepower of a modern console, and while this game promised to fulfill that dream, it fell woefully short. With that being said, the core Pokemon mechanics are just so great and fun that it's impossible to call this a bad game. It certainly falls short of Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire, Diamond/Pearl, X/Y, and even Sun/Moon. But compared to most video games, it has to be considered solid. But Pokemon did not become the highest grossing media franchise of all-time by being "solid". Continual excellence is the path to maintaining the level of success that they have seen, and the last three entries leave me concerned for our collective Poke future. 7.5/10.

I'll be chewing through catching all of the 400 Pokemon the next few weeks, and am still unsure of what I'll be completing next, so stay tuned!

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 128): Metroid Fusion

Metroid Fusion is a Metroidvania game for the Game Boy Advance, and it was astounding when re-reading my review for Metroid: Zero Mission how similar my critiques are regarding the two games. This will, thus, be a pretty short review. If you're interested in a more in depth study, feel free to check out the link I mentioned earlier! I'll cover any relevant new points in brief below:

Graphics: Really good!

Music: Good, from what I can tell. The GBA SP has no headphone port, so listening to music at work is really tough.

Story: More in depth than other Metroid games, but also it's a bit too chatty and spoon fed, taking away some of the lonesome self-written story of the previous Metroid games. I prefer the previous approach.

Gameplay: Solid, Metroid gameplay. Bosses stink, as usual.

Experience: The path you take in this game is much more driven by the story, and is less free and open than in previous Metroid games. There's always been a "right" way to explore whatever planet Samus lands on in each game, but this one feels very forced and contrary to the philosophy of the genre.

Progression: Samus actually has a few new abilities here, which is cool. It felt like you weren't just going through the same progression of roll-bomb-missile-super missile-super bomb that you get in the other games.

Length/Pacing: Superb

Final judgment: This is a solid game, and fans of the genre will enjoy it. I'd recommend Metroid: Zero Mission over this one for a more faithful take on the exploratory nature of the genre, but I'd really recommend Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as the premium game in this genre for this console. I'll give this an 8.4/10.

Up next on the handheld track of What I'm Playing is a game that I've held off playing due to being scarred by an earlier game from the same development team. After two hours, I'm really kicking myself that I didn't listen to the reviewers, and wish I'd started it earlier. This is going to be a long one, so I'd guess that I will be reviewing a home console game before the next handheld, but we will see what time will tell. See below for a teaser.

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 127): Metroid: Zero Mission

Metroid: Zero Mission is a Metroidvania game for the Game Boy Advance, and is also an enhanced remake of the original Metroid for the NES. I've played a precious little bit of Metroid, finding the morph ball, and quickly losing myself in the depths of Brinstar, so I came into this with pretty fresh eyes. Metroidvania games are quickly moving up the charts of my favorite games, so I was really eager to get started with this one when I found it in a really good local pickup (Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, all with manuals, for $20. End brag). Unfortunately, I was knee deep in an RPG at the time, then it slipped my mind a bit, but I finally circled around to try this one. I figured I'd go with Zero Mission first, as it's the first in the timeline, as well as a remake of the first one released.

Most of my experience with Metroidvania games has been with the Castlevania games, which I frankly prefer to Metroid. The grind of leveling up gives Castlevania meaning as you traverse back and forth across the landscape in a way that the Metroid titles really don't. I did enjoy Super Metroid quite a bit, however, and definitely appreciate Metroid and Super Metroid for establishing fertile ground in which Castlevania was able to take root.

Metroid: Zero Mission is a mostly faithful remake of the original, as far as I can tell. The map is definitely more expansive and the environment more detailed than the original, and the controls and UI are greatly improved. Most importantly, you now have a map, which is basically the reason why I quit Metroid so soon after starting it. Interestingly, they have added a substantial postlogue after the events of the original game that adds a good deal of content to the game. This extra portion has some extremely creative game design that subverts the traditional Metroid experience, and was easily my favorite part of the game.

The controls are pretty good, if a bit slippery. Luckily, you have tons of health, so falling into some lava or onto an enemy won't end your quest to stop the Space Pirates from unleashing the Metroids on their foes. The combat itself is mostly dull, to be honest, especially compared to the more precise and exacting nature of combat in the later Castlevania games. This is particularly focused in the boss fights, which mostly consist of firing as many appropriate shots at a vulnerable core as possible, as avoiding their attacks is nearly impossible in most cases.

You'll have a range of weapons from blasters to missiles to bombs to Samus' signature screw attack. Getting access to these various weapons and other powerups will unlock other areas of the map to continue the story. This gives a nice, satisfying feedback loop as you'll be able to return to areas which had powerups that were previously unaccessible and these are plentiful and feel rewarding. There is a great conveyance of the rules of the game, too, as it will naturally place you in areas that will introduce new power ups in an easy context, and then ask you to apply them in more and more difficult fashions.

I honestly didn't listen to the music too much, but what I did hear was excellent. Metroid has always had some great music, and this game seems to continue that trend.

The visuals are really nice, and work well on the GBA. There are some huge sprites for bosses, and the animations for your character and enemies are nicely detailed.

This is a well paced game, and felt like it was the right length. There's definitely a lot of pointless traversing back and forth that really demanded a teleportation function, especially given the lack of interesting things to do as you head back and fort on the map, but it definitely didn't feel like it was overstaying its welcome. I was able to clear it in less than 5 game hours, and could probably do so in far less time now that I've done it already. A nice, quick, tightly controlled game experience is always preferable to me, but be aware that you're not going to wring a ton of time out of this one, unless you greatly enjoy speedrunning, which seems to fit Metroid games very well.

I really enjoyed this game, although I felt it lacked some of the depth of competing titles of the era, which has Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow reigning comfortably as king. It's a very good game, and well worth inclusion in anyone's collection. I'd consider it a must buy for fans of the Metroidvania genre, as well. I'll give it an 8.9/10.

I honestly have no clue what I'll be tackling next on the handheld version of What I'm Playing so stay tuned! I might just run Metroid Fusion for a quick one off before I'm ready to dive back into a longer RPG. I guess we'll see where the spirit leads...

-TRO