Reviews

Kirby Air Riders Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

When the Switch 2’s early software lineup was revealed, the game that confused me the most was Kirby Air Riders. I’ve never actually played the original Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube, but it was not a great seller or much of a critical darling. Not to mention, it’s a mascot racing game, just like the Switch 2’s flagship launch title, Mario Kart World. While I didn’t understand the business strategy, I still wanted to check the game out. So how did it turn out?

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Going Bananas: Donkey Kong Bananza Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a little over a month since the Switch 2 released, and if you read my impressions post, you know I was very happy with it. That being said, although I really like Mario Kart World, something seemed to be missing during the launch period. Since at least the Super Nintendo, there has always been a new, single player, first party adventure on a new Nintendo platform. Those can range in scope, like the fairly small Luigi’s Mansion on the Gamecube and the gigantic The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch, but there’s always something. Mario Kart World is a very good multiplayer game, but it didn’t scratch that same itch. Thankfully, Donkey Kong Bananza is here to set the Switch 2 straight.

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A Review Of Big Buck Hunter Arcade For Some Reason

~ Andrew Lokken ~ 1 Comment

The other day, popular Twitter and Bluesky account, Wario64, posted that Big Buck Hunter Arcade was being delisted from Steam on Tuesday and it was currently $10. With the exception of an old Windows Phone version, I have never played any of the home releases of the Big Buck Hunter series, mostly because I just don’t think the game would work without the actual arcade setup. That being said, I love the arcade game, so I decided to download Big Buck Hunter Arcade to my Steam Deck.

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Carte Blanche Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

Not every video game needs to be an epic adventure that breaks new ground. Sometimes, it’s nice to just have an easy and convenient way to play a classic card game or two. This is the category of game that Carte Blanche, a new release from How Seven! for the Playdate, falls into. But just how good could a collection of old card games be?

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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been seeing something of a beat ‘em up renaissance lately. We’ve seen successful revivals of Streets of Rage, River City Ransom (as River City Girls), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and others. One I really didn’t expect to see happen was Power Rangers. While there were Power Rangers beat ‘em ups on consoles, and were pretty good, they’re not something I regularly heard people asking for. But that didn’t stop Digital Eclipse from putting out a brand new Power Rangers game in the genre.

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Crow Country Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

The original PlayStation gave us some of the most genre defining survival horror games. Games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dino Crisis, and many more introduced us to the idea of puzzle solving and inventory management while overwhelming monstrosities tried to kill us. This approach would later shift to being more about action after the success of Resident Evil 4, but many people missed the slower, scarier style of the older games.

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Emio- The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

Famicom Detective Club was a short series of two visual novels that released in 1988 for the Famicom Disc System that never left Japan. That kind of changed in 2021 with the release of remakes for the Nintendo Switch which did find their way over here. If you’ve been a reader for a long time, you know that I loved those remakes, with them being tied for fourth place in my top ten list that year. I always assumed that that would be the last we’d see of the series, but to my surprise, Nintendo announced a brand new game and it released this year.

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Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition Review

~ Andrew Lokken ~ Leave a comment

Nintendo’s always finding new ways to reintroduce people to the NES library. Whether it’s putting them out on the Game Boy Advance, including them as bonuses in Animal Crossing, available for download on the Wii and Wii U, or available with the Nintendo Switch Online service, there’s almost always a way to play Super Mario Bros. on a Nintendo console. But those are always straight ports of the old games. They did do the NES Remix series on 3DS and Wii U, which changed things up a bit, but otherwise, it’s been the same thing. This year, Nintendo released Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, bringing with it a new way to experience these games.

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