Christi Junior on Nostr: (30 - 26) 30) New Pokemon Snap As you just saw, Pokemon on the Nintendo Switch has an ...

(30 - 26)

30) New Pokemon Snap

As you just saw, Pokemon on the Nintendo Switch has an ATROCIOUS track record – but only the mainline Pokemon RPGs! When it comes to Pokemon spinoffs, the Switch has actually been host to quite a few good ones, among the most notable ones being the loooong overdue sequel to Pokemon Snap on the N64. The 1999 Pokemon photography simulator, which plays like the world’s most wholesome on-rail shooter, was a really neat and fun experiment, but so light on actual content that is was arguably never more than a must-rent game. The Switch sequel on the other hand is a very different beast, fleshing out and dramatically improving on the N64 game, while boasting enough content that I felt no compunction about paying full price for it (the game later on even received some very high-quality Free DLC!).

Also, after Pokemon Sword/Shield’s ugly and drab Wild Area, and the only potential distraction from Pokemon Scarlet/Violet’s hideousness being its catastrophically bad performance, it’s so nice to have a Pokemon game boast thoroughly beautiful visuals for a change, and actually make the world of Pokemon inviting and magical again. It’s hardly perfect – triggering various special reactions from a number of Pokemon seems either janky or at the very least unintuitive – but New Pokemon Snap is still such a giant upgrade over Old Pokemon Snap that the 22 year-long wait *almost* feels fully justified.

Based Morality Score: Neutral


29) Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Making a Breath of the Wild prequel that wasn’t even a proper Zelda game, but another Hyrule Warriors was certainly a novel idea, yet one that actually turned out pretty great. Sure, in terms of story Age of Calamity undeniably chickened out, opting for spectacle and wish fulfilment rather than embracing its potential to become Zelda’s answer to Torna: The Golden Country, but it was still an enjoyable tale. Tragically, it’s also by far the strongest BotW-related narrative we ever received in terms of both plot and presentation – THAT’S how bad BotW and TotK both are on the story side of things.

Aside from its enjoyable, if overly safe and ultimately non-canon Zelda story, Age of Calamity is a really good Warriors game, in large part due to just how unique and fun each playable character is, and the excitement of seeing just how deep Omega Force could successfully dive into BotW’s pool of characters. It also looks really nice, attempting to replicate BotW’s gorgeous visuals, though this comes at the price of some pretty bad performance issues. That said, AoC’s gameplay loop was still so rewarding and addictive that I ultimately ended up putting some 80 hours into this bad boy, it being the first ever Warriors game I truly got into (Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U just never clicked with me).

Based Morality Score: Neutral


28) Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition

Speaking of the original Hyrule Warriors, it received a MASSIVE upgrade in the form of a Definitive Edition more than worthy of the name. And after enjoying Age of Calamity and a certain other Warriors game that also made this list as much as I did, I was much more open to give this game another go – the prospect of controlling that likes of Midna, Fi (yes, I really like Fi, fuck you!) and Skull Kid was just too appealing for a Zelda fan like me to pass up on once I knew the Warriors gameplay wouldn’t actually prove a dealbreaker.

And wouldn’t you know it, I ended up enjoying HW:DR tremendously – the character roster is fucking MASSIVE, and yet almost every warrior available is a very worthwhile part of the cast that’s a treat to control, even if I can’t help but resent the anti-Skyward Sword bias (Groose got robbed goddammit!). Sure, the story campaign is much weaker than the one in Age of Calamity, but due to its truly monstrous side content this is just SUCH good time sink, one which will give you stuff to do and work towards for literally hundreds of hours. Whether you just have 10 minutes to spare and want to knock a short and simple mission out of the way, or whether you want to spend hours and hours immersed in this button-mashing power fantasy, Hyrule Warriors delivers the goods – hell, the sheer wealth of characters even helps somewhat ameliorate the game’s repetitive nature.

Oh, and as a bonus the game even boasts some nice fanservice, along with accidental racism (largely in the form of the same character no less!).

Based Morality Score: +1


27) Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Mario + Rabbids is just such an easy game to review, and I’m sure pretty much everyone say the exact same thing about it: this game had no right to even exist in the first place, let alone be this good! There was no reason for Ubisoft to put THIS much effort into the game, to make the visual SO lush and beautiful, to deliver SUCH a lovely soundtrack etc – but they did, and the result was one of the most shockingly excellent games in recent memory. Hell, even the writing and humor is on point (the Phantom’s anti-Mario diss track was an instant classic)

Granted, there are still a fair few turn-based strategy games on the Switch that I prefer to Mario + Rabbids, and the game is also bizarrely unstable – I had it crash on me like 3-4 times, and it only takes 40-50 hours to hundred percent, so that’s a pretty bad track record. Still, during these times when everyone is dunking on Ubisoft for Assassin's Creed George Floyd Edition, Mario + Rabbids serves as a useful reminder that those frogs do employ (or at least used to employ) some genuinely talented people.

Based Morality Score: Neutral


26) Pokémon Legends: Arceus (https://varishangout.com/index.php?threads/pokemon-legends-arceus-writeup.2751/)

Back when it first came out, Legends: Arceus almost felt like an apology for Pokemon Sword/Shield being so shit, and seemed like a sign of Game Freak finally committing to evolve and improve the Pokemon RPGs – only for Pokemon Scarlet/Violet to arguably be EVEN WORSE than SS, a hideous and borderline unplayable glitchy mess that didn’t even boast a great Waifu lineup (Iono is so much better than the other SV girls that it’s not even funny). I guess Game Freak might have something of a Team A and Team B situation going on – one faction just wanting to keep scamming the Pokemon paypigs, while another faction actually desires to make Pokemon the best series it can be.

If so, Legends: Arceus is obviously a Team B product – despite various flaws and shortcomings, this was still an incredibly refreshing Pokemon experience, full of bold new ideas and showing an almost shocking willingness to innovate. It really did feel like Pokemon’s BotW, for better and worse (certainly for worse in the case of the overworld music, I have to say), and while Game Freak is far inferior to Nintendo EPD, Pokemon is actually better suited for the open world format than Zelda is, and the core formula of Arceus works extremely well as a result. Hell, they even made the mere act of CATCHING Pokemon a whole lot of fun, and the normally terrible Forced EXP Share system actually feels justified in a game that so aggressively pushes you to quickly catch and evolve a lot of Pokemon. Also, while hardly a stunning game graphically, I actually think LA’s art style is really quite lovely – too bad the Game Freak dipshits ditched it for Legends: Z-A, instead opting for the ugly and soulless Scarlet/Violet style!

…yeah, I don’t really have the highest hopes for Z-A.

Based Morality Score: -1