Wario Land 3

Wario Land 3
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: Game Boy Color
System Played On: 3DS (Virtual Console)
Rating: 4 1/2 stars 

On February 15, 2025, I defeated the Hidden Figure, thus finishing Wario Land 3 for the Game Boy Color (via the 3DS Virtual Console)! This is the 3rd Wario Land game I have finished. And I did it in 14 3/5 gameplay hours in a span of about 2 weeks / half of a month.

I actually do have some prior experience with Wario Land 3. Sometime during childhood, shortly after getting my Game Boy Color, for either birthday or Christmas, I asked my parents for any Game Boy Color game, just to merely increase my library of Game Boy Color games. Randomly, they got me Wario Land 3. I remember playing the game, and I also remember never finishing it. I remember getting stuck, and with the internet still young and video game walkthrough websites still new, I couldn't find the answer online, so I gave up on the game. This is why, when it came time to sell my Game Boy Color to buy a Game Boy Advance, I included Wario Land 3 as a package deal. Replaying this game as an adult, my childhood frustration of getting lost and getting stuck is still warranted. The only in-game hint system is the temple, in which the Hidden Figure will tell you where to go, and that's it. It tells you neither which color key/chest to go after nor which power up you will need to get there nor were exactly that color key/chest is. While this hint system prevents anybody from becoming lost on where to go, it does not prevent getting lost once there. Luckily for me playing this game again as an adult in 2025, I found a very thorough walkthrough on GameFAQs, which I had to consult plenty, especially near the end of the game. I can't imagine how anyone can get through the game without it.

I wasn't expecting Wario Land 3 to belong to the "Metroidvania" genre. Yes, Wario Land 3 belongs to the Metroidvania genre. The entire game takes place in 1 world. Certain areas of the world map unlock depending on which treasures become unlocked. Certain areas within each level become unlocked by discovering treasure that give certain power ups. This requires a lot of backtracking to older levels, as now certain power ups allow Wario to travel to previously unreachable areas in the level. It was very interesting starting out a Wario Land game with a Wario who did not have all the abilities that he did in Wario Land 1 & 2 from the onset. Once near the end of the game, however, Wario does have all those abilities, and it once again feels natural controlling Wario.

Once again, Wario in Wario Land 3 does not have power ups like a traditional Super Mario game does. At best, Wario regains his abilities by collecting certain treasures, but that's about it. The next closest thing is that certain enemies give Wario status changes, almost like a "power down." In Wario Land 2, these power downs were implemented well, as most often, Wario needed these power downs to access certain parts of an area. While still happens in Wario Land 3, it happens a whole lot less. More often, these power downs become more of annoyance or an inconvenience, as they drag Wario away from where he needs to be. Therefore, I would say that the power downs in Wario Land 3 are done poorly, especially in light of Wario Land 2, where they are done well.

Once again, Wario Land 3 takes an alternative route when it comes to boss battles. Unlike a traditional Super Mario game, Wario cannot lose a life or get a game over in a boss battle (minus the final boss battle). Instead, Wario simply gets booted out of the boss area and has to go back to the boss area to start all over again. Between finishing Wario Land 2 and playing Wario Land 3, I watched a YouTube video which explained why this fits his character as originally a bad guy, and I have to say, I've come to like this way. Nintendo must have received complaints about how long it takes to get back to the boss area, though, for Nintendo fixed that with Wario Land 3. Wario Land 3 has a whole lot of shorter paths to return to the boss battle than Wario Land 2. Still, I would still prefer if the boss battle would allow me to pick up where I left off instead of having to begin the whole ordeal all over again.

You may have noticed I didn't record my progress toward completion. The game really doesn't do a good job of it, especially in comparison to prior games in the series, i.e. no completion percentage after the credits. As a matter of fact, one of the treasures to collect in the game is a magnifying glass, which lets the gamer know which treasures have already been collected without entering the level. Same goes for the music box coins, the other collectable in the game. While I know I collected all 4 treasures in multiple levels, only 1 level I collected all 8 of its music box coins. If previous games could let the player know the completion percentage, then so could this game. I could tell you, however, the game's coin counter maxes out at 999, for I did that a couple of times, including by the end of the game.

Wario Land 3 also has a minigame of minigolf. It does the typical golf video game gameplay, with a meter for both power and accuracy. Personally, I found it hard to control. I felt like the best strategy was to just it the ball as powerfully and accurately as possible and then hope for the best. The courses come up randomly, and it does cost money to play, but finding money becomes quite easy, so it's nothing to fret spending all this money.

In conclusion, to sum everything up, Nintendo continues to experiment on what makes a Wario Land game unique, distinct from a Super Mario game. The first game of the franchise was very linear. The second game of the series experimented with a branching narrative. The only way to go up from branching story was naturally a Metroidvania, which was exactly what Nintendo did. The Metroidvania genre makes Wario Land 3 feel fresh from the rest of the games in the franchise. At first, not having all of Wario's abilities expected from earlier games in the series feels quite frustrating for the seasoned veteran of Wario Land games. As the game progresses, however, the limitation allows and invites the gamer to experiment how to reach goals with said limitations. Despite the lack of game overs due to Wario's inability to die, the game finds way to annoy and frustrate the player to discourage the player from powering through the levels. While overall Wario Land 2 did a better job of the enemies powering down Wario, the power downs in Wario Land 3 further reinforce avoiding enemies, despite the fact Wario can't die. With all this in mind, I therefore give Wario Land 3 4 1/2 stars. It's somewhere between a good game and a very good game. I would play this game until you finish it, and if you liked it well enough, then fully complete it, but do not feel obligated to do so.

Running Ranking
1. Wario Land 3
2. Wario Land 2
3. Wario Land 1 

Wario Land (1): Super Mario Land 3

Wario Land (1): Super Mario Land 3
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: Game Boy
System Played On: 3DS (Virtual Console)
Rating: 3 1/2 stars 

On January 10, 2025, I cleared all 40 courses and defeated the Genie, thus finishing Wario Land (1), also known as Super Mario Land 3, for the Game Boy (via the 3DS Virtual Console)! This is the 1st Wario [Land] game I have finished. After my playthrough, I ended with 1,585 coins and 3 treasures. Once I traded those treasures in for coins, my price increased to 12,585 coins, which equates to 2 moneybags, which earned Wario the tree stump house. I also collected a maximum of 19 extra lives. And I did this all in a matter of 5 3/4 hours over 7 gameplay sessions (averaging 3/4 hour per playing session) over the real-time span of 10 days / 1 1/2 weeks / 1/3 month.

Just like the Yoshi games, Nintendo did not want Wario Land to become just another platforming game. The gamer can play that way, however, if he or she chooses. I did choose that route, hence why it only took me 5 1/4 hours, hence why I had a poor final score. This game encourages exploration. I do have some grievances, however, for some of the game mechanics go contrary to this encouraged exploration.

First, why is there a time clock again? Yoshi was smart about this. They turned off the time clock, so the player did not feel rushed to find all the collectables and raise to the finish line. Wario does bring back the time clock, causing a hesitancy in exploring, because spending the time to seek and find will be something the player may not be able to afford down the road.

Second, why didn't the game just leave the end goal gates wide open? OK, to be fair, Nintendo did try to teach this in game. At the close of the first level, Wario watches an NPC opens the door to conclude the level. The only problem, however, is that the game never tells the gamer which controller inputs to use. I honestly had to look up a walkthrough on how to progress. Apparently, the correct answer was Up+B. To be fair, I don't have the manual, and to be fair, I imagine a player with a manual can easily look it up. As a gamer new to this series, however, I am neither familiar with the mechanic of having to open the end goal gates, nor do I have a manual to look these things up for myself (people lose manuals, as evident by the number of "game cartridge only" listings on eBay). Do better, Nintendo, for your future games. You need to more explicitly teach this in the game.

Third, the treasure concept was never fully fleshed out for the players. All my trophies were found randomly because I just so happened to stumble upon either the key or the chest at the end. To make matters worse, if you get a game over, you lose a treasure. If you have no treasures to surrender, upon getting a game over, you lose half your coins. To me, this is too steep of a punishment. Because you lose trophies, you now need to go back to that course to find it again and manage your way through that level again. Losing half your coins is not as bad in the beginning of the game, but is a whole lot worse near the end of the game. That's unfair to players who have experience who just slip up near the end. I say the penalty for game over should have been a simple loss of 100 coins. Not too little, not too much.

Bosses lacked creativity. Most of the bosses were just giant-sized common enemies. Most of those bosses had the same exact way to defeat them: throw their babies at them. I don't know how many of my enemies and foes I defeated by throwing their kids at them. Speaking of bosses...

[SPOILER ALERT!!] I did not enjoy playing flip cup, or rather, flip lamp, while dodging genie attacks. As far as I am concerned, there is no way to guarantee for the lamp to land right side up, so the gamer can catch the cloud elevator up. Therefore, the player is just playing points at this point. Of course, as a Game Boy game, final boss battle takes 6 hits, not 3. Since the boss never changes phases, this rote repetition, which is tedious [/END SPOILERS]

Despite my gripes with the game, I found the game to an overall enjoyable experience, and I liked playing it. Although the subtitle of "Super Mario Land 3" was probably attached at the end to sell more games as a sequel to a beloved series, the subtitle fits. At the heart, this game is a platformer, just like the previous Super Mario Land games on the Game Boy. Just like the prior Super Mario Land games, the gamer aims to reach the goal at the end of level by jumping from platform to platform while either avoiding or attacking enemies. Just like Super Mario Land 1 & 2, the player has power-ups at Wario's disposal to make gameplay easier. At the same time, however, Nintendo mad enough changes to the formula to make the experience feel unique to Wario. Mario eats mushrooms to grow big; Wario eats garlic to grow big. Mario uses flowers to throw fireballs; Wario uses a dragon pot to breathe fire. It's not just the power-ups, it's also the attacks. Small and weak Mario can only resort to jumping on enemies; big and bulked up Wario can body slam and ground point. It's not just the attacks and the power-ups, but it's also the worlds, the enemies and the bosses, too. Yes, even the bosses. While the bosses lacked creativity, they felt like they could not belong in a Mario game, but they definitely belonged in a Wario game. Nintendo will continue to experiment on how to make a Wario Land game feel unique to Wario and not just another platforming game, but as for right now, having a Mario-like platforming game with Wario skin suffices. 

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
Developer: AlphaDream
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: 3DS
System Played On: 3DS
Rating: 4 stars

On November 15, 2023, I defeated Bowser and Paper Bowser, thus finishing Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam on the Nintendo 3DS! During my playthrough, I leveled up Mario & Luigi & Paper Mario to level 38, and I rescued all the Paper Toads, and I did it all in 35 1/4 gameplay hours over a span of 2 1/2 months.

To quote the Simpsons & Family Guy crossover: "Yay! A crossover always brings out the best in each show! It certainly doesn't smack of desperation, the priorities are always creative, and not driven by marketing..." This sarcasm accurately portrays how crossovers seem like a good idea, but too often they rely on the marketing of the crossover itself than actual good writing. I am glad to report that Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam does not fall under this category. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam truly wants to explore the idea of what would happen if the characters of Mushroom Kingdom would meet their paper equivalent. The writing was on point. More on that later.

The most notable thing that a Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario crossover brings to the table is a third member to the party - Paper Mario. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Insider Story had Bowser as a third playable character, but Bowser play was asynchronous with Mario & Luigi play. Mario & Luigi: Dream had a team of Luigis playing with Mario in Dream World, but it was more like the Luigis were powering up Mario than actual playing alongside him. The last game to really have more than 2 playable characters was Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, which included Baby Mario & Baby Luigi. With 2 games between Partners in Time and Paper Jam, more party members felt fresh. Paper Mario wasn't just another member of the party, though. He had some unique properties. He can make up to 6 copies of himself, which get destroyed before Paper Mario loses health. Naturally, to balance things out, Paper Mario has less HP. Of course, feeding Paper Mario enough heart beans can get Paper Mario caught up. Just in case gamers struggle with Paper Mario having fewer hit points, Paper Mario has flutter jump to dodge enemy attacks. Naturally, the developers accounted for this, but it's still an advantage, nonetheless. Paper Mario copies also come in handy for the attack. Instead of the usual double jump Mario & Luigi can do with a timed jump attack, Paper Mario can do a jump for each copy, up to 6. Of course, the developers accounted for this, making Paper Mario's individual jumps less powerful, but again, enough pow beans and equipment can bump that up quite a bit. Paper Mario's hammer attack also comes with a benefit. With up to 6 paper copies, Paper Mario's hammer can attack up to 6 enemies at once. It's nice to have a basic attack that can attack multiple enemies. He even comes with his own special attacks called Trio Attacks. As the name hints, it requires all 3 party members to execute. All these characteristics of Paper Mario play into his paper attributes, characteristics and personality well. The only one thing I don't get about Paper Mario's RPG battles is that his input color is yellow! I think it would have made more sense to make his color blue. Not only because of R-G-B, but because they all blue overalls!

The one paper aspect that I don't get was the papercrafts. The papercrafts replace the Bowser battles from Bowser's Inside Story and the giant Dreamy Luigi battles from Dream Team. To some extent, I get the Bowser battles and the giant Dream Luigi battles. They show off the hardware capabilities of the 3DS: the vertical 3DS gameplay, the touch screen and the microphone. The papercrafts use none of these. The gamer holds the 3DS horizontally, not vertically. The player puts his inputs with the buttons, not with the touch screen or the microphone. Therefore, I don't understand why this is in the game. Perhaps its intention is to give the gamer a break from the RPG gameplay, but I came here to play an RPG! Maybe the developers needed a break from designing an RPG to design some other game play. Whatever the reason, I just don't understand it. This is the bad, if not the worst part of the Paper Mario series (or at least the latter part of the series)- distracting from the RPG with different gameplay.

Another gameplay mechanic that distracts from the RPG gameplay is making the papercrafts in the first place. In order to make the papercraft, Mario & Luigi & Paper Mario have to rescue Paper Toads. Sometimes rescuing Paper Toads means chasing and catching them, when other times rescuing Paper Toads means finding them hidden in an area. Sometimes the Paper Toads rescues requiring avoid enemies, and if you get attacked, you have to start from the beginning, while others have time limits. Some have both, while others have neither. Some are required to advance the game, while others are optional, but the optional have some good payoffs, like a Bros. attack. I rescued all the Paper Toads for these benefits, and I would recommend it, too.

I won't spoil the plot, but I will say it's not a McGuffin search. I can always appreciate it. The problem with McGuffin searches is that the plot ends once all the McGuffins are found. Without a McGuffin search, the plot always have the player guessing if the plot is resolving sooner than later.

I will spoil, however, the final boss. [SPOILER ALERT!] Ok, this isn't really too much of a spoiler because it's easy to guess. The final boss is Bowser and Paper Bowser. I will allow this because of the dynamic of Bowser and Paper Bowser teaming up for double the trouble. Something less expected is that, halfway through the battle, Paper Bowser turns into armor for Bowser. Again, the combination works, so I will allow it. Still, it on the easier end of boss battles. I only failed once before succeeding, and my one and only failure came during the Paper-armored Bowser, which they were kind enough to reset me to the beginning of the Paper-armor Bowser halfway point. This is a little disappointing, considering a lot of the other boss battles did take a few rounds to learn. On the other hand, the easiness of the battle made the battle feel very fair at all times [/END SPOILERS].

And with that, I have played and finished all 5 Mario & Luigi games, thus ending the Year of Mario & Luigi. Here's my ranking of the games within the series, from favorite to least favorite-

1. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
2. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
3. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
4. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
5. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga

I will still say, however, that the best Mario RPG is Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Good thing it's received a remake, so that future generations can enjoy it with easier access to it!

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Developer: AlphaDream
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: 3DS
System Played On: 3DS
Rating: 2 stars 

On August 21, 2023, I beat Antasma and defeated Dreamy Bowser, thus finishing Mario & Luigi: Dream Team for the Nintendo 3DS! In my playthrough, I leveled up Mario & Luigi both to level 37, I recovered 100% of the Pi'ilo, and I recovered 86% of the blocks. And I did it all in 43 1/3 gameplay hours spanning over about 1 3/4 months (average 1 1/2 hours per gameplay session).

What sets Mario & Luigi: Dream Team apart from the rest of the series, as the subtitle hints, is that Mario can enter Luigi's dreams. Therefore, the player plays in 2 different worlds: Pi'ilo Island and Dream World. This isn't just a change in setting, though. It's also a change in gameplay. Pi'ilo Island has Mario & Luigi exploring on a 3D plane, while Dream World has Mario & Luigi (Dreamy Luigi in the Dream World) explore on a 2D plane. This transition is so seamless that they gamer may not even tell unless they are actively paying attention to it. The change in worlds also denotes a change in battle. While exploring Pi'ilo Island, Mario & Luigi fight side-by-side, with their own attacks and stats, as with the tradition in other games in the series. When in Dream World, however, Mario and Luigi merge into one, giving Mario a stat boost, but reducing Luigi to a supporting role. Naturally you would expect this to mean 2 types of boss battles, but actually, it results in 3 types of boss encounters. Boss battles in Pi'ilo Island are just like traditional Mario & Luigi boss battles. Boss fights in Dream World can take on the same format, but they can also become giant battles, similar to the Bowser battles of Bowser's Inside Story.

Listen, I wasn't a fan of the giant battles in Bowser's Inside Story. To me, they were glorified quick time events with a little strategy thrown into them. Still, it did make a little sense to contrast big and brawly Bowser to Mario & Luigi. In Dream Team, giant boss battles make even less sense. Yes, I get they take place in Luigi's Dreams, so Luigi can make himself whatever he wants, but that leaves the question on why he doesn't make himself a giant whenever he approaches any enemy of any kind, especially ALL the boss battles (not just some). I think even the game knows this because after enough failures, the game asks if you rather just skip them. No, I did not skip them. After enough attempts of learning patterns, they make sense and can easily be learned.

Remember how, regarding Bowser's Inside Story, I complained about how it relied too much on DS features, as opposed to Partners in Time, which minimalized utilizing the DS hardware? Well, it's about to get worse with Dream Team. As the first Mario & Luigi meant for the 3DS, it wants to use all the 3DS features, including touch screen, gyroscope, and holding the 3DS vertically. This doesn't just infiltrate certain areas of the game; this molds the entire game as a whole. You'll find touchscreen controls, gyroscope and holding the 3DS vertically in exploration, puzzle solving, battles, quick time events, minigames, and the list goes on and on. It's sometimes a little jarring when the gamer constantly has to move the 3DS from vertical to horizontal, when the player has to keep taking the stylus out and putting it back in, and when the gamer has mentally switch over from controlling Mario & Luigi with the circle pad to controlling them with the gyroscope. I know developers receive more support from publisher Nintendo with the more hardware features they incorporate. Still, with this constant switching, it almost feels like AlphaDream did not know what direct they wanted to take Dream Team.

As the first Mario & Luigi game designed with the 3DS in mind, however, one positive does come from it. This is the first Mario & Luigi game that can actually be played in 3D. AlphaDream designed some pretty cool features with it, too. Previously, countering or dodging an attack from a foe came down to jumping over the attack or swinging your hammer in tandem. In Dream Team, dodging can also include moving up and down to move out of the way of the trajectory of the shot. Sometimes, countering a move requires moving up or down to line up with the shot. Furthermore, sometimes enemies will surround Mario & Luigi, and the gamer has to tell Mario & Luigi which way to look in order to counter or dodge. Sometimes, the game will add an extra enemy in the background, which the player can choose to engage with a taunt, which gives the potential of greater reward at the cost a more challenging opponent. To top things off, the 3D in this game is never too straining on the eyes. I may have only played and finish 16 3DS games, but this game is one of the better uses of 3D.

[SPOILER ALERT!] So since there is 3 types of boss battles in this game, the end game has to be all 3 boss battles in a row. The first one is a giant boss battle, the second one is traditional boss encounter but in Dream World, the third one is a traditional boss fight in a traditional Mario & Luigi fashion. Fortunately, and smart on their part, they did put save points in between the boss battles, so you can put it down if too frustrated and pick it back up later. Probably my least favorite was the giant boss battle with Bowser. It's already bad enough that I didn't get enough boss battle experiences because it's part of the tertiary gameplay loop, Bowser has got some attacks and counter never experienced in a giant boss battle before. This was the closest I was tempted to go into easy mode for any kind of boss battle. There is very little difference between the boss encounter with Antasma in Dream World and Dreamy Bowser on Pi'ilo Island. Both are allowed to bring minions in battle, both are allowed way too many attacks before Mario & Luigi can get off 1 attack, and both can way too easily heal themselves (yes, I know it's technically unfair that I brought in 40 1-Up Deluxe Mushrooms and 30 Max Mushrooms for healing, but the computer doesn't have feelings!). I will say, though, that this is the first final boss battle in a Mario & Luigi game that didn't feel like a huge difficulty spike. Yes, they still took an hour each to vanquish, but it never felt like it was because I was too weak. Heck, I think I could have done it with Mario & Luigi at level 35 or even level 30! Again, it came down to simply learning the patterns of their attack, and then either countering or dodging appropriately. [/END SPOILERS]

Just a few other things I will quickly note. I was a bit annoyed that they removed a control for both Mario & Luigi to jump at the same time. Typically, that was assigned to the Y button, but not anymore. Now the X button acts as a second A button, and the Y button acts as a second B button. I don't see why the gamer needs a second A button or B button, but I can see why the player needs a simultaneous jump button. More often, the gamer wants Mario & Luigi to jump at the same time, and less often, the player wants Mario & Luigi to jump differently. Heck, I can even see a better reason to have a simultaneous hammer button than a second A and B button. Speaking of controls, instead of the L and R buttons functioning as a sort of move wheel, with the R button rotating clockwise and L button rotating counterclockwise, the R button does indeed rotate clockwise, but the L button merely resets it back to the beginning. The former is intuitive; the latter is not intuitive. I can definitely attest to this, as halfway through my gameplay, my R button decided not to work too well. One last final minor gripe: why did they bring Starlow back? Starlow had a purpose in Bowser's Inside Story. He was the information dump, the tutorial coach and the hint guide. In Dream Team, Prince Dreambert acts as the information dump, the tutorial coach and the hint guide. So why is Starlow there then?! I can imagine some people say he's there to interact with real Luigi to change the environment in Dream World, but why couldn't Luigi just move in his sleep? One companion is enough. There is no need for 2 companions, and Starlow is the weaker companion here, so he should have went.

While I definitely like Dream Team better than Superstar Saga, I think it falls in comparison to the rest of the games in the series. It seems to fall back to the vanilla version of the series, except it utilizes the 3DS hardware to the fullest extent, perhaps even too much.

Luigi's Mansion (2): Dark Moon

Luigi's Mansion (2): Dark Moon
Developer: Next Level Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: 3DS
System Played On: 3DS
Rating: 3 stars 

On February 26, 2022, I defeated King Boo and rescued Mario, thus finishing Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for the Nintendo 3DS! In my playthrough, I fully upgraded the poltergust & dark light, captured 18 Boos and collected 20,600G (the in-game currency). And I did it all 14 gameplay hours over a span of about 1 1/2 months.

Nintendo must have heard the complaints about the first Luigi's Manson game being too short, for they definitely fixed that. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon took 5 hours longer than the original Luigi's Mansion. Unfortunately, their approach to expanding Dark Moon's gameplay time wasn't exactly the best. Their solution to adding more gameplay time? Add more mansions! Dark Moon has a total of 5 mansions that need exploring. Give or take, that means I averaged 3 hours per mansion. The problem with that is, in the previous game, I spent 9 hours in 1 mansion. More mansions mean less things to do in each mansion. Each mansion has a set of missions. Nintendo laid out these missions on a monitor in E. Gadd's lab, so the gamer selects each mission, pretty much on a home screen. I'm not sure if this was to pad gameplay time, make the game more accessible to casual players or to make smaller gaming sessions for a handheld system (as opposed to a console, in which gaming sessions last longer), but either way, it definitely robs the game of a unified world (mansion?) that was ever-so-present in Luigi's Mansion 1. Clearly the emphasis has gone from exploring (a) mansion(s) to hunting ghosts, and technically, Nintendo fails on that one, too. Portrait ghosts no longer exist. While I continue to praise Nintendo for not making the Boos the only ghosts of the game, the ghosts in this game seem generic, besides their different colors and abilities. It's such a shame because with all these different mansions having different themes, they could have easily matched mansion themes with portrait ghost personalities. [SPOILER ALERT!] At least the final boss battle was actually against Boo instead of a pseudo-Bowser boss battle. And I'm actually glad they revealed near the end of the game that Luigi is rescuing Mario again. Yes, it's not really a plot twist (quite predictable, actually), but it gave Luigi more motivation than just "E. Gadd's ghost assistants went haywire, and E. Gadd thinks Luigi is the best solution to this problem." [/END SPOILER]

Overall, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon succeeds as another "baby's first horror game." I even recognized some spots that may be considered "jump scares" for children. Ultimately, though, I liked Luigi's Mansion 1 better. Like I said in my review of that, Luigi's Mansion has more of the feel of "baby's first horror game," as I could make more parallels to traditional horror games, like Silent Hill. At times, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon felt more like a typical action/adventure game, just with ghosts.

Luigi’s Mansion (1)

Luigi's Mansion (1)
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: GameCube
System Played On: 3DS
Rating: 5 stars 

On January 15, 2022, I defeated King Boo and rescued Mario, thus finishing Luigi's Mansion, originally on the Nintendo GameCube (I played the 3DS port)! In my play, not only did I defeat King Boo, I captured 21/22 ghosts (I think I glitched the game because I failed to capture 1 ghost, the lights turned on, and I could not find the ghost again), I captured 46/50 boos (that's over 90%!), I collected over 4 1/2 million G (the in-game currency), and I accomplished all beginner and easy achievements. All this, however, only got me a Rank E. And I did it all in 9 1/10 gameplay hours over a span of 2 weeks/half month (more like 3 weekends because I only played it on the weekends).

Overall, the gameplay was a new and fun concept. I've heard Luigi's Mansion called "baby's first horror game" because it has all the horror tropes (haunted house, ghosts, etc.) without the game feeling too scary. Well, as an adult, I did not feel too scared. I have friends, who played this game as a child, and they said it did scare them at points, so I guess the game ultimately succeeded at being a horror game for kids. In all seriousness, though, in a way, it succeeds as a horror game in general, even if it does not scare adults. At some points, Luigi's Mansion did give me some Silent Hill vibes. Like Silent Hill, the mansion had plenty of locked doors, which needed unlocking. Like Silent Hill, to unlock those doors, the gamer has to explore the unlocked rooms to find keys. Like Silent Hill, the player sometimes has to defeat the horrors in the room to get to the keys (with Luigi's Mansion, that's sucking them up with the Poltergust, unlike Silent Hill, which is attacking them with a weapon). Also, because Luigi's weapon is the Poltergust, the game gives off some serious Ghostbuster vibes. I imagine that was done on purpose.

I don't want to complain too much about the controls since I played on the 3DS, not the GameCube. I imagine the GameCube controllers are much more intuitive with the 2 joysticks. Nintendo did try to remedy this. They gave gamers 2 possible options, one of which Luigi always points the Poltergust in the direction the joystick moves and the other has Luigi move while facing the same direction. Players will have their own preference, but both still fail in comparison to 2 joysticks. The best way to play is to get the 2nd circle pad extension or play on a New 3DS that came with a second circle pad built into it. Without it, you'll have to learn to strafe by holding down the B button or use that D-pad to readjust the aim, but the game was originally made with 2 joysticks in mind, so the game isn't intending the gamer to take his hand off the circle pad (movement) to put it on the D-pad (aim). It expects players to move and aim at the same time, and the 3DS port doesn't calculate it. This is my biggest complaint, and possibly, my only complaint.

The game also felt a little short. Truth be told, it wasn't short. 9 1/10 hour is just slightly below average from what I expect for game (I expect on average 10 hours to finish the main story). It just felt short. It could be the Metroidvania-like aspect that there is only 1 area, which gamers unlock as play progresses. It could also be the fact that the players knows the end goal from the start, and the game does not to really add to it. Locked doors merely keep the player from marching down to the final boss and defeating it.

[SPOILER ALERT!] Speaking of final boss, the game had me a bit worried there. At first, when I heard of a King Boo, I actually didn't mind. Yeah, it's Nintendo typical "make common enemy bigger to make him a boss," but at least it wasn't Nintendo's typical Bowser as the final boss. Then I started hearing the name Bowser thrown around, and I thought Nintendo did make Bowser the final boss! To my relief, it was a faked out fake out. King Boo was indeed the final boss, even if he did wear a Bowser costume. Oh, and speaking of the final boss battle, I found my surprised that I missed Nintendo's typical 3 phases of the final boss. Once I figured out how to defeat King Boo, all I had to do was do it, and I was done. A little anticlimactic [/END SPOILERS]

In the end, I appreciate how Nintendo figured out a way to enter the horror genre and keep it family friendly. I also like that they did not simply make it another Mario game (in the sense that Mario is a main character), but rather, they handed it off to another character. It worked out well, too, as now Mario needed rescuing, not Princess Peach.

2021: The Year of Paper Mario

 After The Year of Super Mario in 2020, after playing 21 platforming games in 2020 (22 if counting Super Mario 35), I wanted a changed in video game genre. I considered changing over to the RPG (role playing game) genre. I had not played an RPG since my Pokémon days, and I thought it would be nice to get back into them. My only hesitation is that I know RPGs can be an investment in time, and going through both an adoption and a dissertation, I could not afford a game which required an investment in time. I looked for a light RPG, and I assumed that Paper Mario looked like a lighter RPG. I also found myself interested about the recent conversation about the Paper Mario series. It seems like the Paper Mario series has gone from RPG to RPG Light to RPG elements. With the recent Paper Mario games, you either love them or hate them; there is no middle ground. As somebody not blinded by nostalgia glasses, I wanted to see if these games held up by themselves, with or without embracing the RPG genre, and if one can just like Paper Mario games. Therefore, I declared 2021 the Year of Paper Mario! For the year of 2021, I aimed to finish all 6 Paper Mario games. Naturally, it only made sense to begin with the original that started it all, and then play in order of release.

On February 27, 2 months in 2021, I saved all 7 star spirits and defeated Bowser (twice!), thus finishing Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 (via the Wii U Virtual Console)! In my playthrough, I collected 33 star pieces and 28 badges. I leveled up Mario to level 23, giving up 55 HP (maxed out), 55 FP (maxed out) and 18 badge points. I also leveled up all 8 party members to super level and 5 party members to ultra level. And I did it all in a matter of 21 hours. If familiar with the back story of Paper Mario, this game was originally supposed to be a sequel to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. While Nintendo went a different direction early in development, some of the gameplay still felt reminiscent of Super Mario RPG. For example, the quick time events give the gamer something to do, besides selecting attacks and waiting. At the same time, however, the gameplay feels watered down compared to Super Mario RPG. Mario only has 1 partner to help in battle, as opposed to 2, although these partners can switch out. Only Mario can use items and the special star moves, whereas each character in Super Mario RPG can use attacks, special attacks, items and a defense stance. The level up system rewards increasing HP first and then FP, whereas Super Mario RPG rewards equally improving the characters. I think I prefer the gameplay of Super Mario RPG over Paper Mario. Nintendo had a good attempt at an RPG, but Nintendo should have left RPGs to Square (Enix), the king of RPGs. Similarly, the story of Paper Mario resonates with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Again, Mario has to collect 7 stars, but this time, the stars are alive (that is, personified), and these stars give you power (which gives the stars more importance than the McGuffin status in Super Mario RPG). The only problem is that big bad boss is Bowser again, instead of an original character like Smithy. Yes, I know Shigeru Miyamoto does not like his original property messed with, and yes, I know it will get worse, but Mario versus Bowser just feels like another Mario game. It's just that now the combat is RPG instead of platforming. And why does Mario have to face off against Bowser? To save Princess Peach, of course! Again, this feels like another Mario game. Just substitute platforming with RPG.

About 2 months later, on May 1, I defeated the Shadow Queen, thus finishing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for the Nintendo GameCube (via the backwards compatibility on the Nintendo Wii). During my playthrough, not only did I collect the 7 crystal stars, I collected 73 star pieces, 48 of 85 badges (that's a majority of them!), all 42 shine sprites (thus fully upgrading all partners but the optional partner Ms. Mouz), and I also journaled 95 of 124 tattles. And I did it in 36 1/2 hours. And I have a hot take: the original Paper Mario is better than The Thousand Year Door. I felt the game had both positives and negatives. Let me get the positives worth complimenting out of the way first. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has more RPG elements. I like how now Mario's health and the partner's health are separate. I also like how the quick time events give something to do as turns play out, not just a set it and forget it. I like story, for the most part. I appreciate how it wasn't Bowser trying to steal the Mushroom Kingdom from Princess Peach. As a matter of fact, both Bowser and Peach have their own subplots, which the gamer can play. My favorite were the Bowser parts, as many of them re-enacted famous levels from the first Super Mario Bros. In some regards, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door is more of the original Super Paper Mario, with some fine tuning. Now let's get to negative. Somebody should really discipline the game developers, for at sometimes I do not think they understand good game development. It seemed like every chapter involved backtracking with no good reason. I sometimes even thought the developers included so much backtracking to pad time, which it really didn't need. The worst infringement was near the end (semi-spoiler, I guess) when the game has the player travel the entire world map to look for a character, only to find out he was at the starting point! Yes, I know that was the joke, but without any real instant quick travel, it was annoying! The puzzle segments were not always self-explanatory. I got the official Nintendo Power walkthrough packaged with my game, and without it, I would never have solved the puzzles. True to Mario, sometimes the game required platforming, and the platforming felt off. I would press A and Mario would not jump. Mario would fall short to a jump he should have made. Yes, ultimately it is a RPG, so jumping is not supposed to spot on as a platformer, but it should be manageable and not frustrating. Then came final showdown, which was like an Elite Three because it had 3 boss fights in a row, only allowing healing and saving between the second and third. I only survived the first two because I figured out a way to level up between the first and second, thus healing me. But I legitimately got stuck on the final boss. The only way I could get through was through grinding. Those past 2 sentences I should never have to say in a casual RPG, like Paper Mario. Since Mario maxes out at level 30, once the player reaches level 25, leveling up becomes grinding to its fullest definition. No matter who are Mario's opponents, Mario only gains 1 star point (Paper Mario's experience points) per battle. If you do the math, then yes, leveling up Mario to level 30 would take 500 star points or 500 random battles. I managed to get to level 27, but from then, I focused on upgrading my partners. While Thousand Year Door had fine-tuned RPG gameplay and a fresh story, it also had dully repetitious backtracking, puzzles more confusing than intriguing, off platforming and bosses requiring grinding to the right level. Nevertheless, after playing through the entire series, I looked back at this game and decied the positives outweighed the negatives. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door would become my favorite game of the series.

About a month later, by the end of the month of May, I beat Count Bleck and defeated Mr. L & Dimentio, thus finishing Super paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii! This is the 3rd Paper Mario game I have played and finished. In my playthrough, not only did I collect the 8 pure hearts, I also collected all 12 Pixls (which means I did do both Pixl side quests, including the Pit of 100 Trials in Flipside), 46 of 256 cards, 4 of 96 recipes and 999 coins, thus maxing out my coin counter. I earned a high score of 783,270, leveling up Mario (and team) to level 17, giving Mario (and gang) an HP of 50 and an attack of 10 (20 for Bowser). And I did it all in 18 3/4 gameplay hours over the span of roughly a month (more like 8 days because I only played Super Paper Mario on the weekends). Super Paper Mario is so controversial among Nintendo fans, not because it's a bad game, but because the gameplay shifted from a full RPG to a platformer with RPG elements. Yes, if you're looking for a full RPG, Super Paper Mario will disappoint you. If you're willing to try a platformer with RPG elements, Super Paper Mario is a good choice. They do seem to blend the two together well. For starters, some of the levels clearly have their inspiration from the first Super Mario Bros., which will give you a dose of nostalgia. Then inserting the RPG elements allows the developers to provide a new game experience to old level designs by experimenting. It was nice to take damage and not get an immediate game over. By adding elements from RPGs, which not only includes gameplay mechanics but also story mechanics, Super Paper Mario has demonstrated that platformers don't merely have to consist of reaching the end of the level. Platforming levels can have both enemies and NPCs to interact with, which can progress the story.  Platforming levels can have buildings to enter and dungeons to explore. The story does not have to be an overarching premise. It can develop in every world and in every level. It's a shame Shigeru Miyamoto tries to keep the story in a Mario game to a minimum because Super Paper Mario demonstrated that platformers can have in-depth stories, especially thanks to the RPG elements. Speaking of story, this story feels the closest to Super Mario RPG because it has Mario teaming up with Bowser and Princess Peach to fight a brand new boss, whose henchmen consist of both familiar enemies and new enemies. While criticism might come for taking Super Paper Mario far away from the RPG gameplay of Super Mario RPG (from which the Paper Mario series descended), Super Paper Mario has the closest story to Super Mario RPG yet in the series. While I lean more towards the like it than dislike it crowd, I do see it has faults. I don't understand why only Mario can flip from 2D to 3D, besides the fact it becomes Mario's special skill. If this is Paper Mario, where even enemies can flip, every team member should flip, too. Think of something else to give Mario a special skill. On a similar note, it became annoying that every team member's special skill was mapped to a different button. Since the A button has no use outside Mario (because the A button is mapped to Mario's special skill), then map all the special skills to the A button. Speaking of buttons, I also missed the feature where the player could back in dialogue if the player missed something by reading too fast. The B button remained unmapped throughout the whole game; it could've had that purpose. Sometimes the worlds felt unbalanced because one world could take a half hour and another world could take 2 hours. One could argue that the game is too easy. Coins are too easy to get. I maxed out my coin counter a couple times, despite buying 2 warp pipes. I didn't get a single game over (OK, technically I did once, but I would argue that I got softlocked because I got stuck in a place where I couldn't get out and only receive damage). This would especially include the final boss battle, but one could technically argue the final boss battle was so easy for me because I leveled Mario (and team) up so much. For my overall opinion, I will again say what I said earlier. If you're looking for a standard, typical RPG, it's a bad game. If you're looking for a platformer with RPG elements, it's a good game.

Almost a month to the date of finishing the last time, on June 27, I Defeated Bowser, thus finishing Paper Mario Sticker Star on the Nintendo 3DS. In my playthrough, I collected all 6 royal stickers, all 38 comet pieces and all 16 HP hearts, giving Mario the max HP of 100. Unfortunately, I only discovered 4/5 Luigi stickers, and I came up much shorter on secret doors. Altogether, it took me 20 gameplay hours over the span of about a month (according to my 3DS, I averaged 1 hour 57 minutes per session). And now I see why Nintendo fans and Paper Mario fans alike consider Sticker Star the worst game in the series. A little background to preface this review. When planning for Paper Mario Sticker Star, Shigeru Myamoto has 2 new rules for Paper Mario. First, since Paper Mario is a subseries of the Mario series, all characters had to come from the Mario world (i.e. Mushroom Kingdom) and no new characters could be created. Second, since Paper Mario is a subseries of the Mario series, Mario games do not have complicated stories, so the story must be simple. These 2 rules did a great disservice to the Paper Mario series. In order to keep the story short and sweet, the story downgraded to yet again Bowser kidnapping Peach to get ahold of a magical power. In order to keep the story to just Mario characters, there are no teammates for Mario. Mario works alone. Any "ally" (here defined as a non-combatant NPC) has to be a Toad, and there a lot of Toads in this game. All the enemies are familiar from the Super Mario series. Even Bowser's sidekick got downgraded from Kami Koopa to random generic magikoopa. The only original character is Kersti, a crown sticker personified, but she is the Navi of this Paper Mario game, only there to give hints and tips to Mario when lost. This lack of original characters and plot made the story quite bland. Then there's the gameplay. The "good news" (if you want to call it that) they brought back the turn-based battle system, and it even comes back with time hits. The bad news is that Mario does not gain experience points or level up from the battling. It makes you wonder, "Then what's the point of this battle system?" To make matters worse, in order to execute attacks, you must have a sticker, which can be found around the world and in shops. Without the sticker, you're out of luck. Without the experience points and leveling up, alongside needing stickers, the gamer wants to avoid battles. When caught in a battle, the player wants to run away, which he or she can, as long as he or she mashes A enough. Still sometimes, though, the even that won't allow Mario to escape. The gamer asks, "Why do I have to stay and battle?" and the game answers, "Just because." A game where the player wants to avoid the primary gameplay loop is not a good game. By the end of game and by the end of series, I joined so many others by concluding that Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the worst Paper Mario game in the series.

2 months and 1 day later, on August 28, I defeated Black Bowser (man, that sounds racist), thus finishing Paper Mario: Color Splash for the Nintendo Wii U! In my playthrough I collected all 60 basic cards, 37/72 enemy cards (that's a majority of them!), all 27 thing cards, 24/40 artwork (that's a majority of them!) and 20/33 records (that's a majority of them!). I also earned 5/6 banners, meaning I found all the cut-outs, executed over 200 excellent attacks, collected over 10,000 coins, bought over 200 cards, and beat all Roshambo temples. The only banner I did not earn was the colorization banner because I only reached 61% colorization (hey, that's 3/5!). And I did it all in 40 gameplay hours over a span of 2 months real time. Just like Thousand Year Door, Color Splash had both its positives and negatives. Let's start with the positives. Up to this point, Paper Mario: Color Splash is the most beautiful Paper Mario game, in aesthetic and graphics. Everything in the world genuinely looks like paper or carboard, especially with the white border around all the characters (I know that's a hot take, but I think the white border really sells the paper aesthetic ). Someone might even think Nintendo found a way to make a stop motion video game. Nintendo knew if they want to make the focal point of this Paper Mario game colors, they had to bring the colors. Indeed, they truly brought the colors. All the colors in the game were bright and vibrant.  I especially appreciate how they divided the game's world into 6 main colors, and the levels within the world all have shades of those colors (for example Cherry Lake & Crimson Tower in Red World and Plum Park & Violet Passage in Purple World). Also deserving praise is the soundtrack. Up to this point, Paper Mario: Color Splash has one of the most beautiful soundtracks. Koji Kondo has created one of the best soundtracks in his career. The soundtrack covers a wide array of genres, and none of them seem out of place. The game credits 29 musicians, each for their own instrument, and they deserve it. This game definitely needs to be played with television sound all the way up or wearing headphones or earbuds. Then comes the gameplay. The primary gameplay loop from Paper Mario: Sticker Star returns to Paper Mario: Color Splash. The battle sequence is turn-based, but it is not a turn-based RPG, meaning no experience points and no levels, but time hits still reappear. This time, however, it's more complicated. Instead of stickers, Color Splash uses cards. First, the gamer has to select the card on the touch screen. Nintendo must have heard the complaints about the lack of space for stickers because Color Splash has room for 99 cards, and all cards are the same size, just taking up 1 slot. Rarely will the player run out of room for cards (that only happened once or twice for me). Second, the player has to paint the card. After all, it would not be a color splash without paint. Paint increases damage and likelihood of perfectly timed attacks. Players can use cards without paint, but it will do less damage, and it will less likely lead to multiple attacks. Third, gamers have to flick the card from the Wii U Game Pad to the TV. Yes, 3 moves to execute an attack (four if including pressing A/tapping the screen for timed attacks). It felt like a lot to execute an attack, especially next to Sticker Star, in which the player had to merely tap on the sticker. Furthermore, this new primary game loop requires the gamer to have both cards and paint in inventory to execute an attack. Again, yes, technically an attack does not need paint, but it will hinder without it. And yes, some cards come already painted. Furthermore, to be honest, the game provides plenty of opportunities to collect point, as I personally only ran out of paint once or twice. Nevertheless, it complicates the primary game loop. It has come a far way from merely pressing a button to select an attack, as seen in the first 2 Paper Mario games. The complication becomes even less worth it knowing it will not give experience points or leveling up (oh, more HP comes as a result of beating a world boss and recovering a big paint star). Just like Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Paper Mario: Color Splash divides into 6 worlds. Since this Paper Mario game is subtitled Color Splash, all the worlds have color names. Furthermore, the levels within the world all  the levels within the world all have shades of those colors. For example Cherry Lake & Crimson Tower in Red World, and Plum Park & Violet Passage in Purple World. Nintendo deserves praise for that creativity. On the flip side, however, Color Splash has no good reason why the divide the game into worlds and levels. Dividing into worlds and levels made sense for Sticker Star, for the 3DS may not have the power to handle a single, open world. The original Paper Mario had a single, open world on the Nintendo 64, and Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door had a single, open world on the GameCube. Surely, the Wii U could handle a single, open world. Just like Sticker Star, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka supervised Color Splash, which explains a lot. If unfamiliar with Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka supervise the Super Mario series. Super Mario games always divide into worlds and levels, so naturally, Paper Mario: Color Splash has to divide into worlds and level to feel like a Super Mario game (perhaps to attract a wider audience?). What makes worlds and level so bad is that it makes apparent the pacing of the game. I kept track how long it took me to get each big color star. It took me (in order of getting the stars) 6 1/4 hours for the red paint star, 4 3/4 hours for the yellow paint star, 5 3/4 hours for the blue paint star, 4 3/5 hours for the purple star, 5 1/2 hours for the orange star, 6 3/4 hours for the green star, 6 2/5 hours to beat Bowser, for a total of 40 hours. Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door took a little less (36 1/2 hours), and Thousand Year Door required collecting stars, but it did not feel so slow because it had a single, open world. Splitting the game into worlds and levels made apparently the slow pacing of the game. Once again, because Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka supervised Paper Mario: Color Splash, the game has no unique characters besides the companion Hugh, a paint can (get the pun?). This companion Hugh is not to be confused with the partners of the original or Thousand Year Door (and maybe Super Paper Mario?) because Hugh does not attack. Just like Kersti in Sticker Star, Hugh merely gives hints, and to be honest, Hugh is not good at giving hints. Whenever the gamer wants a little hint, Hugh gives a big and obvious hint, pretty much saying the answer. Whenever the player needs a big hint, Hugh pretty much says, "I don't know, go ask the Hint Toad," which is all the way back at the "hub level" Prism Plaza and requires 10 coins for a vague hint! Just like Kersti in Sticker Star, Hugh is almost worthless. Also just like Sticker Star, Color Splash has a problem with puzzles that it thinks is obvious, but in reality, it is not so obvious. Similar to Sticker Star, nothing feels more annoying than needing a certain thing to solve the puzzle, but that thing is not in the inventory, so the gamer has to either find the thing again or traverse back to the "hub level" Prism Plaza to buy the thing. Also due to Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka supervising Color Splash, the game plot comes down to Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach. At least this time Bowser delays kidnapping Princess Peach to change things up a bit. [SPOILER ALERT!] The game tries to portray Bowser not in control, rather, controlled by the black paint, but this does not really change things up that much [/END SPOILER]. Probably also due to Miyamoto and Tezuka supervising Color Splash, each world's boss is a Koopaling. Although the first appearance of the Koopalings in the Paper Mario franchise, the oversaturation of the Koopalings in the Super Mario Bros. series makes the boss levels in Color Splash feel unoriginal. Even an oversized standard enemy, another staple of the Super Mario series, would have felt more original. While a bit tempting to mark this game as the worst, even worse than Sticker Star, I ultimately recognize this game is an improved Sticker Star, and since Nintendo improved on Sticker Star with Color Splash, Color Splash, by default, ends up higher than Sticker Star.

Once September rolled around, I started on Paper Mario: The Origami King, the most recent and last entry of the Paper Mario series. About a month and a half later, on October 16, I defeated Olly, thus finishing Paper Mario: The Origami King on the Nintendo Switch! This is the 6th Paper Mario game I have played and finished. During my playthrough, I also rescued 353 Toads. And I did it all in about 27 1/2 gameplay hours over a span of about 1 1/2 months. Aesthetically, Paper Mario: The Origami King looks just as good, if not better, than Paper Mario: Color Splash. The paper is so realistic-looking, somebody might even wonder how Nintendo made a stop-motion video game. This is especially noticeable when the game has ripped up paper and paper confetti, which both add to the aesthetic. The colors still vibe like Color Splash, although it had no reason to, which Color Splash did have a reason. New to Origami King, the water also has a paper aesthetic, and its physics work as it should. From a gameplay perspective, my favorite part of the aesthetic was that the enemies were origami, and the friendly NPC allies were flat paper. This made it easy to distinguish friend or foe, unlike past Paper Mario games, in which distinguishing friend or foe came down to past Mario experiences, and even that was sometimes unreliable. The soundtrack is good, just good. The music itself has the quality of the past 2 Paper Mario games. It just doesn't have the variety as Color Splash did. Don't get me wrong, Origami King's soundtrack isn't bad, but I would prefer the soundtracks of Sticker Star or Color Splash over Origami King (probably the only compliment I will give those 2 games). The premise of this game is that Olly, the Origami King (hence the title), wants to turn the world of Paper Mario into an Origami World and make himself king over it. He kidnaps Princess Peach and turns her into origami. He also kidnaps Princess Peach's castle by ripping it out of its foundation and wrapping it with 5 streamers. Mario must unwrap the 5 streamers to enter Princess Peach's castle and save Peach. Don't worry, though, Mario has Olly's sister, Olivia (yes, I know, how creative), to guide Mario. Finally Nintendo goes back to original characters!... well, they sort of go back to original characters. Well, technically, the only original characters are Olly and Olivia, but it at least makes the plot not a typical Mario vs. Bowser over Peach. And Olivia is tolerable as a companion. She has fun going on an adventure, and her advice actually helps. Paper Mario: The Origami wanted to focus on puzzles. Yes, as Nintendo continues to debate what genre the Paper Mario franchise will be, this time it tries a an action-adventure puzzle game. Let me tell you, though, when I say puzzle game, I mean puzzle game. Puzzles saturate this entire game, even the combat. Again, this entry in the Paper Mario series is pretty much stripped of its RPG elements. At the closest to an RPG, Mario's confetti bag increases in size after every boss battle, but that's about it when it comes to gaining experience and leveling up. Mario can gain more HP, but that comes by discovering hearts hidden in areas. Mario can increase attack and defense power, but that comes via buying items in a shop. Again, this creates the problem of encouraging gamers to avoid enemy encounters. To further discourage enemy encounters is the way battles are done. It's no longer a simple turn-based combat. Now the player has to line up enemies to create patterns, which in turn creates maximum damage. I can't count the number of times I paid off Toads to do it for me (yes, that's an option) or I just simply dealt lower damage because I gave up on the puzzle. It made me wonder just a one-worded question: Why? Why is this a thing? Why do it this way? The good news is that the gamer no longer needs stickers or cards to attack. The bad news is that upgraded weapons break, meaning the player will have to buy them again or suffice with the basic weapon, which do not break. The secondary gameplay loop is that you have to beat a vellumental creature halfway as a miniboss to gain a new, powerful attack, and then you have to defeat a boss to release the streamer. The game splits up into 5 "chapters" (besides the tutorial prologue and the final boss epilogue). 5 streamers means 5 bosses, but there is only 4 vellumentals. The vellumentals are earth, water, fire and ice. See something missing here? They could have easily made an air or wind vellumental, making 5 vellumentals and 5 bosses for 5 streamers. For the bosses, Nintendo really grasps the paper aesthetic, as they are all office supplies. Somehow Nintendo made bosses that are both very creative and lack creativity at the same time. Despite my gameplay session lasting 27 1/2 hours, I wish it would have lasted longer. They could have easily made a 6th streamer, an orange one. The miniboss before the final boss could have been the one guarding the 6th streamer, and it could have incorporated part of the final boss battle into that boss, so no need for a 6th vellumental. Yes, I know I shouldn't complain about not enough to do without fully completing the game, but fully completing the game is a collectathon: find all Toads, treasures, ? blocks and holes. That's not fun; that's boring. I would have liked some more secondary gameplay loop, but not the 1st or 3rd one. [SPOILER ALERT!] The final boss was dragged out. Yes, I know that typical Nintendo final bosses have 3 phrases, but the middle phase was unnecessary. The first phase has Olly transforming all vellumentals, and Mario has to figure out the type advantage vellumental. Technically, Mario doesn't have to face all the vellumentals. He can do it in 1 or 2 vellumentals. It all depends on how long it takes the gamer to figure it out, since Olly can replenish health. I would have preferred 1 health bar for each vellumental, instead of recharging health from Olly. The 2nd phase introduces brand new gameplay mechanics, which means it was totally unnecessary. The 3rd phase involves solving one last slide and spin puzzle, which is fair due to the primary gameplay loop, but the only problem is that is periodically is interrupted by QTEs, which can 1-hit or 2-hit kill Mario (also, this Paper Mario entry also has the problem of random 1-hit KOs throughout the game like past entries). The slide and spin puzzle is legit, but the QTEs are not. Either somehow introduce QTEs in the primary gameplay loop or do not bring into the final boss battle. [/END SPOILER]vWhile Paper Mario: The Origami King has realized that the gameplay of Sticker Star and Color Splash is not the way to go for the future of the Paper Mario franchise, it still stands far off from the RPGs of the original or Thousand Year Door. The Origami King truly does sit in the middle. If gamers still longs for the RPGs like the original and Thousand Year Door, they will feel disappointed by Origami King, but outside that, the player will enjoy a major improvement over Sticker Star and Color Splash.

And 9 1/2 months into the year, I have played and finished all 6 Paper Mario games! 🙂 Over those 9 1/2 months of the year, I played 163 3/4 hours of Paper Mario games, which means I averaged 27 2/7 hours per game. During my Year of Paper Mario, I felt the highs and lows of the Paper Mario series. I understand why the Paper Mario fanboys feel so upset. I would agree with the Paper fanboys that the first two games in the franchise rank the highest. I too would like to see them return to that form. Nintendo took the right step forward by abandoning the format used in Sticker Star and Color Splash, but I'm not sure Origami King has the right format either. I will disagree with the fanboys, however, in saying that Paper Mario should abandon their attention to the paper aesthetic. Indeed, I though Nintendo found some cool ways to incorporate it. I just don't think that paper has to take the forefront of the primary gameplay loop. I would agree with the fanboys in saying that the Paper Mario series should return to the RPG elements of the first two games. After all, Nintendo originally intended Paper Mario to succeed Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I guess that still makes Super Mario: Legend of the Seven Stars the best Mario RPG, and I guess that means that if Nintendo fanboys ever want to see a truly good Mario RPG again, Nintendo must team up with Square Enix, the king of RPGs. Make it happen Nintendo and Square Enix!

E3 2018: Preview and Prediction

ALL ABOARD the hype train know as E3! As I prepared for this year's E3, I looked back on the previous years of E3. And yes, I have come to realize E3 is just a bunch of hype. How many times have developers and publishers made announcements about games, only to have the game come out completely differently, to have the game delayed for several years, or the game never comes out at all! Still, with all the hype, any gamer watching gets a magical feel, like anything can happen in the world of gaming. For the 2nd year, the floor of E3 has been opened to everyone, not just the press. Knowing the wider audience, E3 has jam packed the week with events, from famous developer interviews to video game tournaments. Still, with all this ruckas, the press conferences of the first and third party developers stand as the most important part of the expo. Here is a preview of what to expect, as well as predictions for what each development team will do come out on top.

FIRST PARTY DEVELOPERS

Microsoft XBox

Last year, Microsoft displayed the XBox One X. No doubt the XBox One X is the most powerful out there, but unfortunately, Microsoft did very little software-wise to prove that gamers need an XBox One X. This year, to prove that the XBox One X was not a waste to neither Microsoft nor consumers, XBox One X has roll out a slew of games that make the XBox One X look good. Backwards compatibility won't do. Why bother to buy an XBox with 4K abilities if it mainly gets used for games that display 720p and 1080p graphics? Indie games, like Shovel Knight, and retro games, like Mega Man, won't do. Why buy a system with 4K capabilities if it plays games that the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis could have played. Microsoft needs to display real, full, hardcore 4K games. It can't just be a theatrical trailer; it has to be real gameplay footage that displays 4K detail. I suppose Forza Horizon 4 could do the trick, but really, how shiny does a developer have to make the car to prove 4K capabilities? Besides, XBox will overshadow it by bringing in a real car.  Activision has Call of Duty: Blacks Op IIII coming out this October. I can see this game being the star of the XBox presentation. The only other game that could upstage the whole XBox presentation is if Microsoft gives a sneak peek of Halo 6. Halo 4 pushed the XBox 360 to its limits, but it meant little to nothing on the XBox One. Halo 5 did show off what the XBox One could do. Now it's time for Halo 6 show what the XBox One X can do for Halo. All in all, Microsoft needs to give the gaming community a desire to buy an XBox One X, and if they don't have one already, a 4K TV, too.

Sony PlayStation

After the most powerful console of the 7th generation lost a humiliating defeat to the weakest console of the 7th generation just because of motion control, it looks like Sony will win another console generation with the PlayStation 4 [Pro]. Sony has done an excellent job convincing gamers that real, hardcore gamers play a PlayStation 4 [Pro]. Unlike XBox, who tries to convince gamers that through hardware, PlayStation does it through software, more specifically, its games. In order to demonstrate how seriously it takes its games, PlayStation will probably take an artistic view on games. For PlayStation, it's not just about a game having the best graphics or the best gameplay. For PlayStation, both the graphics and gameplay contribute to a good story. The games PlayStation has already lined up will convey that message. Both Death Stranding, Dreams, Ghost of  Tsushimi, The Last of Us Part 2 and Spider Man will all demonstrate how PlayStation approaches games artistically. As for hardware, I hope Sony continues to support PSVR. In my opinion, PSVR has one of the best VR out there. I like to see them continue to develop it, for it can only get better. I think Dreams would work wonderful on VR, so I hope Dreams gets VR support. I know rumors have begun cirrculating about a PlayStation 5. Although the PlayStation 4 is 4 1/2 years old, the PlayStation 4 Pro is not even 2 years old. It's too soon to tell everyone who bought a PlayStation 4 Pro that their newest piece of hardware will soon be out of date. Besides, I can see the PlayStation 5 not coming out until holiday 2020, and Sony couldn't hype it up for 3 E3 presentations. If Sony wants to have the best E3 presentation, they need to demonstrate continual support for the PlayStation 4, especially PSVR.

Nintendo

Nintendo has made so many big announcements in May, I keep thinking to myself, "Hold off something until E3!" Nintendo has held off a few things until E3, and I think those things will be the headlines of the Nintendo showcase. First and foremost, there's the Super Smash Bros. for the Switch. This is probably the most hyped game. Nintendo announced development for this Super Smash Bros. while the Switch was still known as the NX. Nintendo has thought up the best way to display this game. They will host a Super Smash Bros. tournament with the latest installment in the series. This is a good game to highlight, as it really highlights the system's ability for mobile multiplayer. I imagine 4 Switches can utilize 8 joy-cons for the 8-player multiplayer. I hope to see all the characters from all the previous games return, as well as new characters, like in the Inklings. Last year, Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4, but all they gave nothing more than a title card. If Nintendo can give us even a little bit of gameplay or a short cinematic trailer, it would leave a big impact. I hope they can keep Metroid Prime 4 their first person shooter. On top of the Super Smash Bros. tournament, Nintendo also will host a Splatoon 2 tournament. It would not surprise me if this tournament can with a big Splatoon 2 announcement, like a major DLC pack. Although Nintendo has already made a bunch of big announcements in May, I still expect to hear about those game. Of them all, I expect to hear the most about Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. Some Pokemon fans fear this will make the Pokemon games too casual, so Nintendo will have to appeal to the sense of nostolgia to remind them of Pokemon Yellow. And with that, I proclaim Nintendo 3DS dead. Don't believe me? I got 3 good reasons. First, the Switch is a better handheld than the 3DS. It allows mobile multiplayer without needing 2 separate systems, on top of having better graphics. Second, games important to Nintendo's handhelds have already migrated to the Switch. Kirby, which began on the Game Boy, had its first console game since Return to Dreamland on the Wii. Now with the next generation of  Pokemon moving to the Switch, the 3DS doesn't have much left. Third, notice how Nintendo calls their presentation a "Switch showcase." No mention of the 3DS. When the Wii U was on its way out, Nintendo focused on the 3DS and mentioned very little about the Wii U. I see the same thing happening. Nintendo's quiet on the 3DS means they plan to fade it out. With that in mind, I expect Nintendo to announce the next edition of the Switch, either a "deluxe Switch" with a bigger hard drive and more accessories, or a "Switch Lite," a cheaper version of the Switch with fewer accessories. Nintendo, don't focus on keeping up with the competition, but focus on appealing to your lifelong fans, and you'll win again.

THIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS

Electronic Arts (EA)

Electronic Arts will not present a press conference at the expo. Gee, isn't this what happened to Konami? :-P Jokes aside, the gaming community has vocalized their disapproval of their practices, from micro-transactions to using controversy as marketing. EA has got a lot to prove to their games that they really do care about authentic gaming experience. I'm not going to get into EA Sports, for I think EA Sports will once again make a little change to their sports and still try to convince the audience they need to buy the newest edition. Since the Battlefield series has already matched punches with the Call of Duty series, I expect a majority of the presentation to cover Battlefield V. I still think it will be a hard sell. The gaming community has already had enough World War II games. EA will really need to convince gamers that Battlefield V is the best WWII game out there. For the rest of their presentation, EA will talk more about Anthem.  I think they should focus a lot on the details on Anthem, for that;s their best shot at standing out among the third party developers. If not, everyone will see the Electronic Arts presentation as another Battlefield sequel and more EA Sports sequels.

Bethesda

Last year, in my "E3 2017: Preview and Predictions" blog, I said Bethesda's first presentation in 2016 spent too much time on too few games, and they needed to talk about more games. Then, in my "E3 2017: Review and Reaction" blog, I complained that Bethesda spread themselves too thin by talking about too many games in such a short time period. I know it sounds like I contracted myself, but think it more taking back what I said. I think Bethesda will return to their original press conference plan by going back to going into great detail about a few games. On May 30, Bethesda teased Fallout 76. It's so good, it skipped Fallout 5 to Fallout 75 :-P. Jokes aside, at the Bethesda press conference, we'll learn how the new Fallout plays. I expect to hear a lot about Rage 2 as well. Perhaps in between, someone will mention a major update or major DLC pack for The Elder Scrolls: Legends card time, but it will be a brief mention. Just like in 2016, if Bethesda keeps their presentation simple yet action-packed, they will give a decent press conference.

Square Enix

Just like Bethesda, I expect Square Enix to only talk about a couple or a few games, but they will go into great detail about those games. I have 2 games in mind that would work perfectly for them. First and foremost is Kingdom Hearts 3. Square Enix has the gift to take any license and turn it into a great RPG. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is still my favorite of all the Mario RPGs. The Kingdom Hearts franchise is no exception. Disney could have never made such a good RPG on their own. Kingdom Hearts 3 is the long awaited sequel to Kingdom Hearts 2, and the fans will clamor at any news they learn, especially if has a cinematic trailer or gameplay. Square Enix will also cover in great detail Shadows of the Tomb Raider. Ever since rebooting the franchise, Square Enix seems lost on what direction to take Lara Croft. I'm hoping this press conference will show that Shadows of the Tomb Raider has given clear direction to the Tom Raider reboot, and now merely an Uncharted copycat. Just like I told Bethesda, I tell Square Enix to keep it simple yet action-packed.

Ubisoft
I try not display partiality towards Ubisoft because they  are my favorite third party developer, but I can't help it.  They always cover a variety of gamin genres, so there's always something that someone would like. Recently, however, Ubisoft has led toward making every a sandbox game. I'm almost surprised that even Just Dance has not become a sandbox game yet. So I expect Ubisoft's press conference to present a slew of sandbox games from different genres. First, we'll see Assassins Creed Oddyssey. From the name and the title art, expect a game dating back to Ancient Greece. Since Ancient Greek takes place way before the Crusades, I'm wondering if they will approach this game as a "2nd sequel." Speaking of Assassins Creed, remember how Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag introduced us to the ship sailing mechanic to the series? Well, just because Assassins Creed took it out doesn't mean they abandon it. Skull & Bones brings back the sailing mechanic with a pirate feel to it. No assassins, just pirates. Back to sandboxes, I expect to hear a lot about Tom Clancey's The Division 2. I like that their took their shooter game a different route than just war, especially than World War II. I just hope they don't turn it into Assassins Creed in the modern context. Speaking of sequels, I believe Beyond Good and Evil 2 will come out of development limbo. We will hear more details about it, as well as a release date. Ubisoft won't keep hashing out sequels. I'm looking forward to Starlink: Battle for Atlas, the new toys-to-life game. I look forward to seeing how building the ship will contribute to space exploration. Last, I expect somewhere in the middle for Ubisoft to mention an update or DLC in regards to For Honor. With such a wide array of games and game genres, Ubisoft will stand out as the best third party developer at E3.

With only 1 week until, let's review what has to go done for each developer to win. Microsoft needs to prove it has the best console out there and the best games to highlight the best console out there. Sony needs to continue to support PSVR, as well as produce artistic games. Nintendo needs to appeal to the nostalgia of its fans. Electronic Arts needs to prove the sequels are way better than their predecessors. Bethesda needs to keep the games few, yet at the same time, go into great detail about them. Square Enix needs to demonstrate it still does best what it does best, yet at the same time, display they can try new things. Finally, Ubisoft needs to continue display a plethora of game and game genres. Let's hope our hype balloons do not deflate.

E3 2017 Review and Reaction

If you were to describe this year's E3 in 4 words, it would be, "Trailers now, gameplay later." Most of the developers chose to merely present a cinematic trailer during the actual presentation, and then they would follow up their presentation with some kind of display of the gameplay. I get why they did this. A good gameplay demo could take 5-10 minutes, which is 5-10 minutes wastes talking about other games. This approach, however, has its negatives as well. Many gamers will tell you that a lot of times cinematic trailers may not even appear in the final game. Even the trailers that claimed to have "in-game footage," they mean it's an in-game cutscene, not gameplay. Cinematic trailers don't tell you how to play the game. A lot of games looked like they might be potentially interesting, but I could never know because I had no idea what it was about. All the developers were guilty of presenting this way. Still, some rose above the others. As normal, I will start with 1st party developers and then go to 3rd party developers, and as normal, I will go in the order they presented.

1ST PARTY DEVELOPERS

Microsoft Xbox
Last year, Xbox closed its briefing by teasing the audience with "Project Scorpio." Opening its press conference this year, Xbox wasted no time. Immediately, Project Scorpio had a new name: Xbox One X. The presentation did an excellent job putting the new half console update on display. No doubt it is now the most powerful console out there. Highlighting the new half console upgrade was its superior ability to deliver the best 4K experience. While Xbox demonstrated the hardware could deliver the 4K experience, they did not display the software that could do the job. 4K is best for games which are trying to achieve a realism look, but Xbox displayed games that use caricatures and cartoons as characters, not realistic people. Does Minecraft really need to be in 4K? Even with the games aiming for realism, Xbox spoke to a minority of its fans when it talked about 4K. Not many people have 4K TVs due to their high price. Without a 4K TV, the graphics go back down to 1080p, which means it's equal again to the PS4 (Pro). It had to argue more than graphics to compete with PlayStation. Perhaps it did have the games to compete, but we didn't really get to see them. It look like the goal of the Xbox press release was to put on display as many games as possible. It may have revealed that there is such a thing as too many games. In order to display as many games as possible, they presented a lot of small trailers for the games. I never got to see gameplay. Heck, I didn't even get enough time to consider what the game was about. The Darwin Project looked interesting, like a Hunger Games kind of game, but it never stopped long enough to talk about it. The most we heard about was Assassin's Creed Origins, showing both cinematic trailer and gameplay, but Ubisoft had enough to say about it. Xbox closed their press conference with announcing backwards compatibility now included the original Xbox games. This announcement I also found lackluster. Backward compatibility for games from the original Xbox may sound impressive, but with so many of those games already remade into HD versions, and so many 360 games still needing backwards compatibility, it doesn't wow me. All in all, while the Xbox proved that the Xbox One X proved it was stronger than the PS4 Pro in graphics, it did not present a new console that brought new gameplay, like the Nintendo Switch did.
+Positives+: Most powerful console, best 4K resolution, backward compatibilities for original Xbox games, displayed huge library of games
-Negatives-: Too many games, not a lot of gameplay demos, games did not demonstrate the 4K potential, not a lot of explanation of games, no mention of next Halo game
~Best Game~: The Darwin Project
*Medal*: Silver




Sony PlayStation
After watching the Xbox briefing, Sony's briefing of the PlayStation was quite disappointing. Microsoft came out in full force and said, "The Xbox One X is the best console out there!" Sony did absolutely nothing to convince gamers not to trade in their PlayStation 4 (Pro) at GameStop for an Xbox One X. They never compared or contrasted their consoles, no did they argue their console was better. Their silence pretty much admitted defeat. The only nod towards hardware they did was continuing to support PlayStation VR by increasing the game library. But some of those games that they did display had me wondering, "Does that game really need to be on VR?" Just like Xbox boasted in their 4K ability but failed to put on stage games that displayed it, PlayStation bragged about their VR, but they failed put on stage games that demonstrated it.

Continuing with this year's theme, PlayStation's goal was to just jam pack their showcase with as many games as possible, probably to display a huge game library. Because they did, most of their game presentations were merely cinematic trailers. I rarely saw gameplay. That's important. While I appreciated PlayStation displayed brand new games, when I don't see any gameplay footage, I really don't know what it's all about, nor do I know what to expect when I play the game. For all I know, all these games are interactive movies, like Heavy Rain. I got that feeling the strongest when I watched the footage from The Inpatient and the Spiderman game.  Speaking of the Spiderman game, when I watched it I also felt like it was trying too hard to be the Marvel version of the Arkham series. If that was their big game to wow, then all the other games would fall short, and they did. Days Gone felt like just another post-apocalyptic zombie slayer, this time on motorcycles. Shadow of Colossus was just a remake, and I'm afraid the Shadow of Colossus will remake will do to the original game what remaking Silent Hill 2 and 3 did to that series. More surprisingly than what was displayed was what was not displayed. Nothing regarding Last of Us 2. Nothing new was presented about Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The presentation on Detroit: Become Human felt like I was watching PlayStation's 2016 E3 press conference all over again. Same goes for the new God of War game. These should have been the flagship games of the presentation, yet they seemed absent. All in all, nothing attracted me towards the PlayStation 4 (Pro), and I imagine a lot of people watching felt the same way.
+Positives+: Huge game library, continued support for PSVR
-Negative-: Did not choose good games to display, fogginess on what the game was actually about, no mention of Last of Us 2, nothing new on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy,Detroit: Become Human, or the new God of War game, PlayStation 4 Pro looked lackluster next to Xbox One X.
~Best Game~: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
*Medal*: Bronze




Nintendo
Well, Nintendo followed suit of every other briefing. They presented a cinematic trailer during the briefing, and then they showed gameplay after the briefing. Although not verbally stated, you could see what Nintendo was trying to do. They emphasized the local multiplayer abilities of the Nintendo Switch console, showing off plenty of multiplayer games. They emphasized the third party interest in the Switch with Mario + Rabbids and Rocket League. They also made it look like they were getting back to the good ol' days of the Game Cube, announcing games we haven't seen the Game Cube era, such as Metro Prime 4 and "an unnamed Pokémon RPG for the Switch console" (I'm thinking a gameplay sequel to Pokémon Coliseum/XD). This may seem like Nintendo is stuck in the past, but this is exactly what Nintendo needed. This is why Nintendo fanboys really love Nintendo. In its own odd way, this is Nintendo's way of telling its fanboys that it really loved them, and it further showed with another Kirby game, another Yoshi game, another Fire Emblem game and another Xenoblade game. This may be the Nintendo fanboy inside me, but this press conference got me the most excited out of all of the presentations, especially among the first party developers.
+Positives+: Continued to show off Switch abilities, demonstrated support from 3rd party developers, provided quality sequels to nostalgically beloved franchises
-Negatives-: Briefing itself was a short half hour, very little mention of the 3DS, too many Switch games are "Deluxe" versions of a Wii U game, Super Mario Odysseys looked and felt like Sonic '06.
~Best Game~: Arms (Switch) & Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
*Medal*: Gold




3RD PARTY DEVELOPERS

Electronic Arts (EA)
In my preview and predictions of E3 2017, I said I expected the Electronic Arts briefing to pretty much be a presentation of sequels. No surprise came to me when I saw a bunch of sequels. What did pleasantly surprise me was that EA proved that their sequels were not the same old game, but rather they could be a new and improved game. EA Sports is really taking hold of adding a story mode to their sports game. Not only will FIFA 18 continue the story of Alex Hunter, Madden NFL 18 will add its own story mode, centering around Devin Wade. NBA Live 18 will bring build-your-own-player to a whole new level. Outside of EA Sports, the other EA did the exact same thing: prove a sequel is not just the same, old game, but new and improved. Need for Speed: Playback has a brand new story for the same open world gameplay as the last one. Star Wars: Battlefront II has an original, single-player story available offline that anyone could look forward to. I also think EA made a smart move with Battlefield 1. Instead of pushing another sequel and making gamers dish out more money, they simply created more DLC to expand the world of an already great game. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But the game I'm most excited about is A Way Out. It has both original story and original game play. It's a breath of fresh air in a gaming world of such much repetition. My biggest criticism would be that Anthem looked like it had the potential to be a great game, but EA said nothing about it. I get it why, though. They wanted to display it on the Xbox One X, but at the time of their press conference, it was still Project Scorpio, and Xbox would not allow EA to steal that thunder. Still, EA could have displayed Anthem on the PS4 Pro, and we would have gotten the same effect. Overall, while we have seen FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, Need for Speed, Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield 1 in past briefings, and we will see them again in future showcases, I still feel like EA presented us with brand new games.
+Positives+: FIFA 18 continuing story mode, Madden 18 adding story mode, NBA Live 18 improving the player creator mode, Star Wars Battlefront II adding an original, single player story mode that can be played offline, Battlefield 1 DLC expanding the Battlefield 1 world, A Way Out offers a brand new story with brand new gameplay
-Negatives-: Feels like the same game franchises are presented at every EA E3, more mentioning of how EA is working with Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 Pro/VR, needed to see and hear Anthem
~Best Game~: A Way Out
*Medal*: Silver

Bethesda
The best part of the Bethesda briefing was its display of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch. Bethesda just didn't simply republish Skyrim for the Switch. Instead, they took full grasp of its capability. It grasped the amiibo capabilities. The Breath of Wild Link amiibo will give you Link's outfit, including the Master Sword and Hero Shield. It gets even better. Skyrim grasped the motion controls of the Switch. Now Skyrim can be played with motion controls. How cool is it that you can now play Skyrim anywhere, dressed as Link, using motion controls. If I do not have Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim yet (and I don't,) I would get it for the Switch. That was highlight of the Bethesda press conference. Everything else was downhill. Bethesda wanted to show they were onboard with VR, liks PSVR and Oculus, so they announced they would be working on VR games. What VR games are these? Fallout 4 VR and Doom VR. From what I could tell, these games were not any different from Fallout 4 and Doom, except they were now in the 1st person view for VR. It felt like Bethesda was taking the same route with VR, trusting in well-liked old franchises instead of risking it a fresh, brand new idea. Speaking of trusting in old franchises, most of their showcase centered around new DLC for old games. Once again, while I appreciate them not rushing into an old game, by just adding on a good current game, I feel like Bethesda is playing the safe route again. Bethesda's safest move yet, and probably the most disappointing was at the end. Before E3 even began, Bethesda hinted at their briefing with a drawing of a theme park called "Bethesdaland." 2 areas of Bethesdaland were covered up, labeled "Coming Soon." With that, I would expect I brand new title. Boy, was I disappointed. Instead, we got The Evil Within 2 and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Like I said, safest route yet. Yes, these are brand new games, but coming from old franchises, it's a safe route. Overall, Bethesda did nothing to wow me. I was glad their press coference got over as soon as possible, before it bored me to death.
+Positives+: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is made for the Switch, Bethesda is not afraid to try VR
-Negatives-: Playing it safe by trusting in old franchises, too much DLC and not enough new content
~Best Game~: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch
*Medal*: Bronze

Ubisoft
Ubisoft also followed theme of "We'll show you a cinematic trailer now at the press conference, we'll show you the gameplay demo later on after the show." Again, there might have been great new games that Ubisoft had thought up, but we couldn't tell what they were about because all the audience saw was a short cinematic trailer. The few gameplay demos we did see were highly rehearsed, almost to the point they were music videos! As they have done in years past, Ubisoft again demonstrated they had games for all players from all genres. This year, what they added is that they proved that they had games from consoles. No matter what console you had, whether that be a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (Pro) or a Xbox One (X), Ubisoft had games for them all. This great variety, in both game genres and game consoles, gives Ubisoft the win for the 3rd party developers.

+Positives+: Presented games from all genres, presented games from all consoles
-Negatives-: Too many cinematic trailers, game play demos were highly rehearsed, no Aisha Tyler
~Best Game~: Far Cry 5
*Medal*: Gold