Psychonauts done. I have mixed feelings about this game because a lot of people have given it so much praise, but I'm coming to it about eighteen years late and I don't feel the same awe as people back in 2005 probably experienced. That being said, I think it stood the testament of time because I still was impressed.

Let's get some of the complaints out of the way first. The PS2 was an interesting time in gaming because a lot of them were delving into 3D, oftentimes not really understanding how to handle a camera. Psychonauts isn't great in terms of platforming, which is unfortunate considering the game relies heavily on it. Is it the worst in the world? No, I've experienced far worse (the first Tomb Raider comes to mind), but after living in the PS5 era, I know we can do much better. Playing this game pulled me back into high school and feeling frustration at doing the same jump about seventy times, something I haven't experienced in years.

Other than that, it's a fun game with an interesting concept. You're Raz, a kid with psychic abilities who snuck into a psychic sleepaway camp and uncovered a plot to take over the world by harvesting psychic brains to power tanks. To save everyone, you need to enter people's minds and discover their mindset, their beliefs, their past, their insecurities, their fears... Whoever designed the levels definitely has a special imagination that I cannot comprehend. For example, there is a man who was in his high school wrestling team, and his girlfriend dumped him on the day of an important match to date someone else and he lost. Seemingly random things in his mind, like a bull running around or dogs painting or the queen of hearts, come together in the end (his team name was "the Bulls" and he's working on his own version of the famous painting of dogs playing poker. I would say the earlier levels aren't as interesting, mostly because you're exploring the minds of your teachers who are more ordered and have already faced their demons, but once you enter the "civilian" population, the levels really blossom. The mind of a man with paranoia is a suburb with cameras everywhere. Or the one of a former actress is a play about her failures. Even ones that aren't intellectually stimulating are still fun. One teacher is a dance club where you race on giant balls. Or you're a kaiju monster in another. Psychonauts definitely has great variety that keeps you guessing.

Beyond that, it has a memorable and fun cast of characters. As Raz meets and becomes friends with his fellow campgoers, each of them have their own little plotlines. At the time, the voice acting must've been incredible. Even for a modern-day audience, much of the converasations from NPCs go on waaaaay longer and are more engaging than expected. I found myself laughing aloud more than once.

There are some unanswered questions though, like why Raz has this terrible impression of his father yet he turned out to be the opposite of that. Or what was up with this drowning curse. And the game does end on a cliffhanger, but probably Double Fine didn't expect to take sixteen years to make a sequel. As a studio, I think Double Fine is able to come up with very unique and fun ideas but aren't able to keep it interesting throughout; Stacking got a little boring after a while, and I didn't feel like replaying The Cave to get everything, but Psychonauts not only kept a consistent level of quality, it improved over time.

Diablo IV done. In July I sat down for about nine hours straight playing it and got severe carpal tunnel that lasted for months, which in retrospect is nuts because I injured myself for a game that's only... OK.

I think the issue with Diablo is it should have ended after II. Any extensions to the plot feel forced. Let's step back to III for a bit. I actually would get angry playing the game because of all the retconning happening, which Blizzard did to justify moving this forward. However it ended (particularly with the expansion pack) with the revelation the player is a Nephalem and a heavy hint that from now on the Nephalem would be wrenching humanity's fate back from angels and demons, setting up the next game. Which is crazy because I don't think the word "Nephalem" was mentioned a single time in IV. Although I could see connections between III and its predecessors, no matter how much I disliked the story, IV feels more detached. Cain's dead, and Diablo himself appears I think for maybe half a second in a cutscene. Of course Tristram was shoveled in needlessly, but it feels like we're doing that by rote at this point.

It terms of plot itself it's... it's fine. There's nothing terrible about it, I think it was better than III actually just because it didn't upset me. Lilith is all right as a villain, although I think for a "mother" she's very eager to kill her children, but I guess for her ultimate survival is more important. Starting from II, each act in a Diablo game is in a different area, and IV is no different except you can walk to any location from the beginning of the game (although you may be underleveled) and there are six areas, therefore six acts. Normally each of these is fleshed out, but toward the end I think they were rushing it. I actually timed myself, I beat act IV in a 1.25 hours. I didn't even go to the major town there because the plot didn't direct me toward it. At some point I'm like why did you even make this a separate thing?

The only major criticism I have of the game though is why I was rushing: You max out your level way too early on. Kind of. So you level up normally and unlock abilities all the way to 50. Once you hit 50, it stops and you can just add stats. That's fine, but all the enemies cap at 50. You can increase the difficulty to hard... but to go above that, you gotta beat the game. And I hit 50 toward the end of act II. Meaning I had trudge through four more of these without facing much opposition. And it's not like I was grinding; I just did all the sidequests and extra dungeons I found along the way. I don't see the point of preventing me to have a greater challenge should I wish. Overall I did find IV to be much easier than III, even when I wasn't overpowered. Like remember those enemies that would drop rotating arcane beams on the floor and you had to retreat so you wouldn't die? Yeah, that's not an issue anymore.

In terms of gameplay it's... again, OK. It's Diablo, we all know what it's about by this point. They changed up the abilities a bit in that you can put whatever one you want on any key, including the base attack on say... 1 or 2 instead of on the mouse. It allows for greater flexibility for fighting style and experimentation. But I think III was more fun. Take for example the witch doctor. You could make your base attack a jar of spiders. That was hilarious and enjoyable. I'm not feeling the same in this game.

Also with the environment. III had some pretty crazy areas. Like remember Cydaea? As you went down her web, there were all these giants in bondage gear in the back. Or finally going up to heaven and it had this weird, glass-like quality? IV is just miserable. Here's Russia where everyone is starving and cold. Next is Scotland where everything is muddy and wet. And then there's the desert, again, and after following Zultan Tulle so much in III I'm tired of that. Nothing really stroked my interest until we got to hell, and even then it was... aight. I mean, we've gone to hell in pretty much each game so you need to create something that's really gonna wow me at this point.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older or perhaps because the world feels awful now, but there's something about the helplessness you see in Diablo games that are getting to me. There's no happiness even after you help people; you try to find a cure for someone but it turns out it's too late and they transform into a monster you have to kill. You help a child find their parents' grave, and their ghosts come and attack you, blaming the child for "leaving them alone." A man is looking for his son, and upon finding him, he's transformed into a demon, rejecting his father's love and cursing him. It gets to the point that you wonder how humanity has survived. Like for example, how does trade even exist with all these giant scorpions, murderous trees, bandits, werewolves, and fourteen-foot snakes are running around. You see countless bodies rotting on the ground wherever you go. Like back in Diablo I, yeah shit was terrible, but you get the sense that wasn't the norm and what was happening under the church is an unusual situation. Now in IV it feels like this happens all the time and there's no hope left. You come out of it feeling worse than before.

In the end, if you like Diablo, sure, play it. There's nothing offensive about it, but it doesn't particularly shine in any aspect. I wanted to do the post-game stuff, but my carpal tunnel started flaring up whenever I did, so whatever. I'll move onto Final Fantasy XVI now.

Alex came over and beat Silent Hill 3. Considering we played 2 over a decade ago and 1 I think two or four years ago, my memory is a bit fuzzy for comparisons but I don't think I'm far off. Alex knew the first two installments very well and finished them easily, but even though he was less acquainted with 3, he still managed to beat it in about four hours. So that should give you an indication on how short it is. Not that Silent Hill games are lengthy, but I feel this was a bit of a rushed installment.

Let me elaborate. By no means is 3 a bad game, but it lacks the complexity and nuance of its predecessors. Here's an example. Upon entering the hospital, the protagonist Heather can find a note with a doll from a dude named Stanley Coleman, and throughout the level more notes will reveal his obsession with her and that he's watching her movements. Eventually the player can learn the boss of this level killed Coleman and you can actually find his body in the morgue, making choking noises. The whole situation is creepy because we're currently in a hellscape where there shouldn't be any cognitant people, yet Coleman was able to observe the player unnoticed. Yes, that's Silent Hill-esque, but that's where that subplot ends. He never comes up again, and honestly when Alex played he never completed Coleman's storyline and I had to learn a lot of what I typed here from watching a youtube video. I think if this took place in 1 or 2, Coleman would be interwoven much better into the general plot instead of being this one-off event.

That's just one example but the whole game feels like that. Considering there's only one ending (yeah, OK, there's the aliens and such, but only one canon ending), it really limits the player to a linear path, whereas in even the PS1 game you had many different choices with how to handle the situation as Harry Mason. I think the developers were leaning more on trying to create that weird Silent Hill ambiance without the substance that would make me question the myself and the situation. Another example is noise. All of the games use it to frighten the player, but 3 really oversaturated it to the point it was no longer useful to discern if there are enemies in the area, nor did it scare me as much.

However there were some really great aspects to the game. Heather herself is actually an amazing protagonist. Yeah, OK, for some reason she was a shittier fighter than Mason or James Sunderland, but in terms of personality she's great. One criticism I'd give the previous games—even the much-beloved Silent Hill 2—is the conversations were stilted and unnatural. Maybe it was 90s and early 2000s terrible translations and voice acting, but whenever there was a cutscene sometimes I could no longer suspend disbelief. If I found myself in this nightmare world with demons, and I stumbled upon one seemingly normal person, I would not be entertaining whatever random tangents this person wants to talk about. I'd just be hyping over and over that we need to stick together and figure a battleplan to survive. Heather leans more heavily towards my instinct, and her conversations often follow the themes of who the hell are you, what the hell is going on, and if you're responsible for this get away from me. Also whoever animated her face deserves all the accolades. This game out in 2003 and we played with the original disc in my PS2, and holy shit I think her expressions look better than some modern games today twenty years later. I can easily perceive every single one of her emotions from skepticism to fear to anger... It's all there.

Alex told me this is the last of the original development team and afterward it goes downhill, so probably this is the last Silent Hill for me. I'm glad he was able to play for me because it was truly delight even though I hated every single moment of it.

And within the same day, I beat Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. When Devin watched me playing, he commented how he recently read the breadth of the works and could not recall any scene in which Holmes walked on invisible rocks in a nightmare world, and that is because this game is melded with Lovecraft. It starts with Holmes and Watson investigating a missing servant and ends up with a cult set on ressurecting Cthulu. I think Chapter One remains as the studio's magnum opus, partially because The Awakened is actually a remake, and judging from the wikipedia article, they remained rather faithful to the original. Chapter One was pretty open world and there were tons of investigations to the point I felt I was stumbling upon a new one every block, whereas this has a linear and relatively short plot. I haven't played the original 2007 game so I can't say how they've updated the gameplay or clues, but I would put this on par with Chapter One in terms of difficulty. I didn't like how they dealt with the mind palace with the neurons dealing with small issues. I prefer all the clues laid out at once to show the overall picture, but I guess this game was just one case (as opposed to Crime and Punishment and The Devil's Daughter having a different case each chapter), so we would be left with one mind palace screen the entire time. There was also a lot of Watson action in this installment, and he wasn't a pain in the ass like in The Devil's Daughter so that was pleasant.

I'm willing to cut them all the slack in the world though because the developers reside in Kiev. I supported the Kickstarter for this and occasionally they would send apologetic emails about delays due to cut power from airstrikes and I'm like... it's OK. You're OK.

One interesting note is, judging from the wikipedia article, The Awakened deviates significantly from the original in chapter III, when the pair travel to the insane asylum. For one, Watson was supposed to be waiting on the outside whereas here he stays as a guest doctor and provides pivotal help in Holmes' plan. For two, the wikipedia article states, "Holmes unexpectedly discovers that his nemesis Moriarty is a patient, though a weakened shadow of his former self having survived the fall at Reichenbach. Using Moriarty as a distraction, Holmes extricates himself from the asylum." That is very different from what I played. Moriarty wasn't there at all. I'm bringing this up because of an interesting sidequest. In Chapter One, you can solve a bunch of crimes organized by this individual named "M," whom the player can easily deduce is Moriaty. In The Awakened, Mycroft asks Watson to investigate an agent of his, who is found dead and an M is written in his notebook in different handwriting. Upon reporting this to Mycroft, he immediately orders Watson to forget about everything and do not mention it to anyone, again hinting Moriaty. Considering this remake The Awakening takes place immediately after Chapter One, I'm wondering if the studio is leading us somewhere with this and there'll be another addition in the series where Holmes and Moriaty go head to head.

I did like playing it, but it's my least favorite in the series just because I'm not a big horror fan. I still say go for it, but I would recommend playing Chapter One first because they make lots of references to it, particularly when Mycroft talks about Sherlock's mental illness. (I wonder if that was in the original? They didn't made Sherlock's dissociative disorders with Jon yet.) Just as I finished it, I saw they released The Testament of Sherlock Holmes on PSN, so I guess I gotta get that next. After, you know, Diablo IV, Tears of the Kingdom, and Final Fantasy XVI. Too many games released this year, man. Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario RPG is coming out later too.

Just platinumed Hogwarts Legacy. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the quality; usually games based off of movies or books tend not to be great, but the studio actually threw it quite a lot of effort behind this, and while I wouldn't say it's amazing it's very well done. The premise is the player is attending late 1800s Hogwarts, so the only characters from the books are the ghosts and Phineas Nigellus Black. No explanation is given as to why you're suddenly starting school as a fifth year, your background, or why you specifically can do magic no one else can, because it is first and foremost a fantasy, that you yourself are there.

There would be several things I would change about it though, starting from fighting. Although the battle system is streamlined, and fun, it's easy and you overlevel fairly quickly. I wasn't even trying to go out of my way to do sidequests or anything, but I found myself several levels above any enemy I was fighting. Even those equal to me weren't too much of an issue. That also may be due to the lack of variety in enemies--there's only seven types--so you learn the attack pattern for all of them early on. There are less spells than you'd expect as well, so although you can switch up your combos, you don't really need to.

The second is the map. There isn't one. You have a minimap, but what I would like to see is the whole fucking thing please. Literally when you click on "map" in the menu, an image of the castle pops up. That doesn't help me. I know, I know, it's hard to render a map with a layout like Hogwarts when there aren't any solid stories, but you could've rendered the interior of the whole thing and allowed to player to zoom in and out.

The third is the map itself. It is huge because they were mimicking the Scottish highlands. I've said it many times, I appreciate a large map but you really don't need it. I'm willing to let it slide in this case because I think the developers wanted wide room for flying on your broom or animals, which... yeah, that was pretty epic. However, if you are going to make it this large, you need rewards for exploration. I'll keep throwing Breath of the Wild out as an example because Nintendo did do a great job. In that game, wandering gave you shrines, Korok seeds, or even random sidequests. Here, there are Merlin trials peppered around the map, but the treasure vaults didn't feel like a reward because after the first few hours of play time the treasure was always shitty.

The fourth is sometimes shit didn't make any sense. If you didn't go to Hogsmeade with Sebestian, it's weird how he sacrificed himself in the library for you. Or if you did it the other way around, then it's odd how Natty is really into taking out Harrow consdering she wouldn't've been in the Three Broomsticks. Or like why does Ollivander think his missing wand has anything to do with your missing pages. That's poor writing that with a bit of polishing would've been resolved. Also, explain that shit hovering over the Pensieve is a locket because no one could tell and it comes out of left field how characters are talking about this locket.

There are other small complaints, like how it can get glitchy (but often in a hilarious way), why are there giant spiders but Hagrid hasn't attended yet, how come there are random missions when I have to sneak out after hours but I do that all the time in regular gameplay, why did they only hire two voice actors for the player and then later digitally modified them, why does the menu have a pointer, how come there isn't a close Ravenclaw friend...

However I was pretty blown away by other aspects. I'll say time and time again I love environments and Hogwarts was a fucking delight. The developers took a large page from the movies, but there were plenty of unique areas. The first time I played I think I literally spent about three hours just wandering and staring at everything. The attention to detail was amazing. And it extended beyond Hogwarts. I mentioned before how large the map is, and going through Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, standing on the buffs over the coast... It's a very visually attractive game and I felt like I was hiking back in Ireland.

The plot was actually pretty solid. Not amazing, but it was nice seeing how the choices in the past are affecting the present, and how everyone came together in the end. The characters are also interesting and memorable, even ones you just meet for one sidequest. I can still recall Arthur's unusual voice as he shares his treasure map with you, or Garreth experimenting with potions, or Nellie's enthusiasm for the Dedaelian keys, or Mr. Moon being an alcoholic, or Nerida trying to become an ambassador to the mermaids, or Imelda being a bitch. And I was always excited when the next chapter in Sebestian, Natty, or Poppy's storylines would pop up.

What was a great delight were the puzzles. Although not excessively hard, sometimes you really had to think and I feel it's something that a lot of video games aren't doing as much anymore. Sitting in front of a Merlin trial or standing in a treasure vault, contemplating what needed to be done, was something I haven't felt in a while.

The music was also lovely. The four dudes responsible, Chuck E. Myers, J. Scott Rakozy, Peter Murray, and Alexadner Horowitz really tried emulated Williams' style. There were moments of silence that seem prevelent in video games nowadays, but mostly they tried to keep it flowing.

If you're a Harry Potter fan, definitely play this. If you're not and haven't read the books/watched the movies, I still say it's enjoyable experience. There are plenty of features I didn't cover, like capturing animals or decorating your own room. Good job guys, you fulfilled all of my childhood fantasies.

Forgot to mention I also beat Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It's fun but short, imagine the first game but just one story arc instead of flowing from Kingpin to Mr. Negative to the Sinister Six, but what plot it does have is fun and enjoyable, especially the end scene after the final battle. If I had to complain, the premise is ridiculous: I don't care what the socioeconomic situation is like in Harlem, no one is going to let an untested power reactor be built in the middle of NYC. But the first game also leaned into that with "whipping up a quick vaccine" for Devil's Breath, so it's not like it was unprecedented.

However if I had to chose, I would say it was more fun to play the first installment, simply because of venom. The developers really shoehorned the player into using it as much as possible, making enemies that couldn't be hit unless you used it, whereas I feel the original game allowed greater variety, whether you enjoyed close combant, long-range, gadgets, sneaking, etc.

Minor complaint, but it was also weird to see Miles repping Harlem so much. Kid's from Brooklyn, and Brooklyn kids tend to not let go of their pride.

Overall, a nice quick game to play as we wait for the second game, which should come out later this year.

I just beat the 2018 God of War and it is amazing. I only played the first game back in 2005 and a bit of the second game, but I know the basic plot of the original trilogy. Kratos as a character never really appealed to me and the plot is a fanfiction of Greek mythology but was fine. The draw of the games was combat, which was very fun and I preferred it to another series being released at the time, Devil May Cry.

I heard rave reviews about the new God of War and was very pleasantly surprised to see how much it deserves the accolades. I've stated many times much of my love is in the environments, and it fulfills much of my itche. It's very visually attractive, and the different realms all have a completely different feel that you can appreciate. I particularly loved walked around the central chamber with Yggdrasil, staring at the different etchings on the walls depicting the realms. (Did you know Midgard was missing from there, and the door you walk through I believe is Vanaheim?)

As I said I didn't play III so I can't attest to how gameplay developed, but combat is greatly surperior and very fun. I'm a barely-competent gamer but it was still great trying out all the different moves, and I screamed in delight once the blades of chaos were reintroduced. The studio kept puzzles as well so it didn't become a monotonous blur, and there were involved world-building sidequests with rewarding prizes.

But the real treat is Kratos and Artreus. You don't have to play the original trilogy for this, but I don't think you can fully appreciate Kratos without doing so. As I stated before, I didn't particularly care for him because he was really one-dimensional and his type of hyper-masculine personality didn't click with me. Here you can see how he runs up against a wall when dealing with his son. He is a person of his time with a terrible, daunting past, so he remains the laconic man's man, but he has to change in order to raise Atreus well and not lose him. Their interactions, as well as with Brok, Sindri, and Mimir, were a true and complete delight. The only weird part was Artreus' personality turn around upon discovering his heritage, but otherwise the flow of conversation and growth for the two of them makes this game totally worth playing. Five stars, 100% recommend.

I’m still finishing up Batgirl’s story, but I beat Gotham Knights. I inevitably compare it to the Arkham series, especially considering it’s the same studio that did Arkham Origins, but really it should be its own standalone.

Let me start off by saying it’s not a bad game. The battle system is much smoother than Arkham’s, and there’s quite a bit of variety between the characters, whether it’s Batgirl’s devastating, hard-hitting blows, Red Hood’s instant-kill headshots, Robin’s ability to sneak and take down an area group of enemies before the battle even starts, or Nightwing’s flowing acrobatics. Everyone is well-rounded and I never felt that any character was the weak, useless one. It just depends on your playing style.

I’ve stated before my love is in the environments, and I like Gotham here. The map is on the borderline of being too big, but the developers managed to keep each neighborhood unique with enough landmarks that you’re usually pretty good on mentally figuring out your location. The area around Wayne Industries vs. Robinson Park vs. the industrial area around the Cauldron allows me to subconsciously tell where I am and the general direction of where I have to go. It’s equally fun to climb and jump over the rooftops as it is to drive through the streets with the motorcycle.

The story is solid and pays good homage to the Court of Owls introduction in the comics, although there are some flaws. Like, we’re arresting Kane? For what? We’ve already established the Court gets whomever they want out on appeal. And Judge Moreno may be willing to sign the warrant, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be the presiding judge for the trial. So that whole section of the plot was silly. However other than that, it’s great to see the team come together to try and figure out Batman’s last case. The maze scene in particular is quite poignant. It really portrays Dick and Tim’s insecurities well, and Jason’s fears of being a monster, and I nearly cried with Barbara when I played Montoya’s call to HQ that Gordon got shot.

And it’s nice to see the Batfam act like human beings to each other for once. Batman’s video recordings where he describes his inner feelings, fears, and joys is something you rarely see in the comics nowadays. (Major shoutout to Batman’s VA Michael Antanakos. He’s not Conroy, but his crooning voice was very pleasant to hear.) Jason is in therapy and taking steps to move forward. Tim adores his siblings and likes hanging out with them. Barbara and Dick, although broken up, maintain a strong relationship. Particularly post game, if you just sit in the Belfry and listen to the conversations, you can tell they’re moving forward.

However I need to address the biggest problem: There aren’t enough villains, and to compensate for that the developers made the game repetitious. This game has Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Harley Quinn, and Talia al-Ghul, and you fight the first two twice. Let’s compare that to Arkham Knight, where you fight Azrael, Harley Quinn, Penguin, Deathstroke, Firefly, Deacon Blackfire, Hush, Professor Pyg, Two Face, Nyssa al-Ghul, Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, and Black Mask. And you also had very involved storylines with the Riddler, Man-Bat, and Mr. Freeze. You’re so busy juggling all these enemies and subplots that there isn’t any reason to fight regular criminals out on the street. Not only does Gotham Knights require you to fight these random criminals over and over, 90% of the sidequests are basically grinding them. Oh what does Montoya need? For me to break up a criminal deal at the same parking lot I’ve broken up six criminal deals in the past? All right, time to make it a seventh. That’s not interesting. You know what is interesting? Boarding a blimp-prison after hearing Killer Croc got out, only to discover they’re hanging prisoners in cages on the ceiling. Or duking it out with the Mad Hatter in this crazy book wonderland. Or the visceral horror and feeling physically sick when you walk in on Professor Pyg and discovering what he was doing to all those people.

DLC was super lame too. Literally it’s just the same six rooms repeated for twenty-five levels with the same enemies until you get to the bottom and meet Starro. I was excited to fight him, but really it’s just fighting massive group of regular enemies, whom you’ve already beaten just to get here, as you escort Starro to prison. You remember that example I gave in the previous paragraph about the blimp-prison? That was Arkham Knight DLC. So yeah, they definitely could’ve done better.

Besides that, I think one of the best parts of the Arkham series was overhearing conversations from the criminals in the streets. They were so funny and I would stop what I was doing just to listen to completion. Gotham Knights had potential considering this was the first game with normal civilians wandering around, but everything is just one-line quips. They need to get those writers from Arkham back. They definitely worked on Origins, so what happened?

With all my complaints I did enjoy it; after all I played it four times just to see all the cutscenes with each character. The main story is relatively short, I’d give it maybe ten hours, and including sidequests maybe fifteen to twenty. So if you’d like to have a pleasant weekend or two, I’d say try it. And honestly it’s worth it for this scene:

One question though: Was that lapdop alive, or was she petting a taxidermy?

I beat Link’s Awakening on the switch. I’ve never finished the Gameboy version, although Darnell, who’s played the game multiple times, assures me that the Switch version is very faithful the original.

Link’s Awakening is odd because there’s no Zelda, no Ganon, no triforce, no master sword. The premise is Link’s ship was destroyed during a storm, and he’s knocked out, so this whole game is his dream as he lies on a plank in the middle of an ocean. If he wakes up, the wonderful world he has imagined will be destroyed, but he has to move on. That sounds horribly sad, but the game is so charming and engaging that you forget the bittersweet end and focus on the task in front of you.

Considering this was a Gameboy game, it’s pretty impressive how vast the island is and how varied the dungeons are. My first Zelda was A Link to the Past, and this game was made by the same team so it has the same great feel I got from my first experience. The characters are fun, like Old Man Ulrira who boldly instructs you were to progress over the phone but is super shy in person, or Prince Richard who was thrown out of his own castle but wants his leaves back (why??).

Dungeons are fun. They brought back the 2D sidescroller that was prevalent in the first Zelda but dropped in A Link to the Past. The midbosses have great personality, like that boxer or the hinox that throws you around the room. To be honest I find newer Zelda puzzles to be a lot easier, so I got treated to that old-school feeling to searching every crevice and corner, trying to figure out what I missed.

It’s not the longest Zelda game, but man they packed a lot into a small Gameboy cartridge. Full stars for both the original developers and the team that remade it.