Okami is the best Zelda game of 2006 originally made for a 6th gen console and ported to the Wii where you play as a wolf, who is also a reincarnated hero, and need to restore the beauty of the world from zones cursed by demons. That's the end of that sentence.

Actually, Okami is easily my favourite Zelda game so far, period. And it isn't even a Zelda game. Up until this point, no Zelda game has ever really hooked me. I acknowledge them as great games, but often I felt that I had to force myself to finish them. However, this clearly Zelda-influenced game had me absorbed from start to finish. I don't know what to say other than, everything about this game just feels like such a huge evolution and improvement from the Ocarina of Time formula that it only makes me wish Amaterasu was the mascot of such a long-running series instead.

Getting this out of the way, this game has a beautiful art style. Very very very very very beautiful. Especially for a 2006 game. Which boosts this game significantly. But you knew that, so moving on. Amaterasu just feels so good to run and jump around. Both in general exploration and combat, every action has such great movement and feel to it, which makes this game immensely playable. The story is gripping and there are so many memorable scenarios, characters, and locations you'll encounter throughout the game. The game is just so totally relentless with its creativity and originality that even in its long runtime, it always manages to keep throwing in new things to keep your interest. The ancient and mythological Japanese setting helps a ton. Okami fully and totally commits to it, which gives the game such a distinct flavor to an extent that you usually never see. The music is beautiful too; it enhances the atmosphere so much and certain tracks instantly stood out to me as some of the prettiest video game music I've ever heard.

The game also makes significantly better use of its permanent upgrades (in this case the paintbrush techniques) than Zelda, because the world is consistently designed to encourage using them whenever you can, instead of just making you use them in the dungeon you get them in and forget about them forever. Also painting with motion controls was just fun :). The overworld is vast, but intricately designed and super varied from place to place, always avoiding the "barren wasteland" syndrome this type of game sees a lot. The biggest thing I could see Zelda fans complaining about is the very simple and linear dungeons, but I found most of them enjoyable anyway because they have cool settings, set pieces, and bosses. I also never got stuck at any point unless I was just actively being stupid, and I appreciate that.

I had a few issues with the game, specifically the excessive dialogue and tutorials, the camera, some instances where the paintbrush didn't read my intended input, a certain repeated boss fight, and Issun being probably the most unlikable helper character ever made (you thought Zelda game helpers were bad, just you wait). But none of these things detract from this game being so fundamentally fun, consistently engaging, and profoundly beautiful that it became an instant favourite for me. Even though I've already beaten Okami, any time I think about this game, I just immediately think about how much I still want to play it. That's the mark of a good game.

I wish I could give Okami a longer, more structured, and more in-depth review, but there's just so much to dwell on with this game that I don't think I can do it justice. I actually finished this game nearly a month ago, but couldn't bring myself to review it because I knew I couldn't describe everything I loved about this game. The most I can say is, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Regardless of whether you're into Zelda or not, you will surely find something (or likely a lot of things) to adore. This is truly one of those "full package" kind of games, equally exceptional as both a game and an experience. Truly unforgettable.

(But seriously, if you are into Zelda, you have literally no excuse. Come on guys!!! Play the cool wolf-god game!!!)

I can't believe I'm actually writing this review right now. This is kind of a special moment for me, since for the last decade of my life, my Mario Kart status was "played every game in the series... except Double Dash". Since Double Dash is the only game in the series to not be playable on any of Nintendo's 2010s consoles (same story as most GameCube games...) I never had the opportunity to play it. Recently, I finally bit the bullet and installed Dolphin, and my first course of action was to finally close the book with this series and play Double Dash. So other than Mario Kart Tou-...🤮... this is my first "new Mario Kart experience" since I bought Super Circuit on the Wii U Virtual Console all the way back in my childhood.

This game definitely feels like the moment where Mario Kart came into its own. It's so much more refined than the first three games, which allows the series to finally fulfill its purpose of being an accessible and fun racing game for all. This game's permanent contributions include a large character roster, multiple vehicles to choose from, a less punishing grand prix mode, and most importantly, actually interesting 3D tracks. The tracks are consistently very good (except for Dry Dry Desert) and genuinely creative, with tons of cool concepts and obstacles that make them engaging and memorable. This game definitely set the template for track design for the rest of the series, and that's for the better. Special shoutout to Baby Park, probably the greatest achievement of mankind. Honestly it is super hard to believe that this was the next 3D game in the series after Mario Kart 64. Even beyond the track design, it's just so much more polished in every aspect, such as the graphics, the functionality of the items, the physics, and the frame rate, which all make a huge difference.

When it comes to charm, Double Dash stands over the rest of the series by far. Even DS and Wii (which clearly take a lot from this game in particular) just don't capture the same level of charm. The art style, presentation, menus, animations, soundtrack, little details, everything about the game is filled with so much personality that it just makes me wonder where the heck this Mario went. The other thing that makes this game unique is the two character gimmick, which... exists. It just affects item usage, as it allows you to hold two items at once and swap between them freely. It adds a nice layer of strategy to the gameplay but I can see why Nintendo did not view it as an essential element to keep. Same with the special items. It's cool that each character has their own special item, which makes the characters more distinct, but I prefer it when all items are just part of the regular item rotation.

This game has a few pretty major issues that prevented me from loving this game. The big one is the controls. This is easily one of the worst controlling games in the series. This game combines the insane slipperiness of the 2D games with the awful left-right alternating drifting controls of 64 and later DS (which is the single worst mechanic in this series and I am very grateful this series got rid of it), so it makes this game a chaotic mess of sliding and imprecision where none of your inputs will do exactly what you want. Another issue is that getting any airtime in this game makes you go obscenely slow. Like, slower than getting hit by a banana, I'm not kidding. Clearly the trick mechanic was necessary for this series. This game also suffers from it being nearly impossible to catch up once you fall behind. For some reason, there are zero immunity frames after you get hit whatsoever, so it just leads to everyone in the middle of the pack relentlessly pummeling each other with items while the frontrunner breaks away every time. The biggest catch-up items, the Golden Mushroom and the Chain Chomp (the obvious precursor to the Bullet Bill), being restricted to certain characters as special items just makes this issue worse.

Edited to add: Played the battle and VS modes! They're fine. They feel so empty without any CPUs and it's stupid how they're locked to multiplayer. But fun with friends is still fun with friends. Very happy this game's unique battle modes finally returned in 8 Deluxe, because they are really cool ideas. Also the "one person drives, one person uses items" option is really useful if you're playing with someone who is less skilled at the game. Probably the coolest thing that the two characters in one kart concept contributes.

Before I played Double Dash, I believed that Mario Kart as a series consistently got better with each entry (except that it would take until 8 Deluxe to surpass Wii). Conveniently, Double Dash is no exception to that, slotting into that exact spot in my ranking: above the 3 older games, and below the 4 newer games. I think it's a bit odd how this game has the second highest rating of any game in the series, only under 8 Deluxe. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but I can't in good conscience call it better than any of the games that came after it. The 4 newer Mario Kart games, in addition to improving the controls (aside from DS) and further refining the experience, all have so much more content than Double Dash that it just makes it hard to go back to this one. Only 16 tracks, no VS or battle mode in single-player, and no online mode just doesn't cut it when you look at what came after. Overall, Double Dash is a very fun albeit flawed game, and the bridge between classic Mario Kart and modern Mario Kart. It is surreal to finally be able to play this game and mark the end of my Mario Kart journey... at least until later this year when the Switch 2 comes out lol. For now, I'm gonna go back to playing 8 Deluxe non-stop.



HI I'M DAISY

Breaking news: They actually made a Dark Matter trilogy game that I ended up liking??? A lot???

For reference, I don't like Dream Land 2 and 3. I do not find them particularly fun, and they bore me to death, especially DL3. Funny thing is, Crystal Shards shares all of the same flaws with those two games. The movement is slow, the level design barely qualifies as level design, and the collectables needed to unlock the final boss are locked behind ability combos. But somehow, so many things about it just resonated with me more.

The thing that probably sells this game for me is the levels. The level design here is a pretty difficult thing to judge because, on purely a design standpoint, this has the exact same issue as previous games with being super basic and unengaging. However, they took a completely different approach with how the levels are presented. Each level in this game is completely different from the last, and they all have unique set pieces and features that make them memorable. This goes SO FAR to making the game less monotonous, to the point where I would say I was never bored while playing this game because I always wanted to see what would happen in the next level. What a massive contrast to how I felt with the other two games in the trilogy. The game also has some great attention to detail for the era. Most platforms and situations Kirby finds himself in actually seem to have a reason to exist in this world. It's not like every other Kirby game where a door will just appear and disappear out of thin air. Everything that happens in a level is justified within the level itself through elaborate scenery and animations. It actually reminds me a bit of Tropical Freeze, which, if you know me, is top praise. Bosses are surprisingly memorable too; they're all multi-phase and quite well thought out.

Regarding the visuals, I'll be the first to say that I'm not a huge fan of Dream Land 3's art style. It's fine to look at, but just doesn't leave much of an impression on me. But Crystal Shards? This game is gorgeous. The graphics are so cute and colourful even by Kirby standards, but the 3D space and the camera movements also make this game feel grand in a way that is unusual for Kirby. The animations are also great too, and they're a lot more detailed, smooth, and charming than you would expect from this era. The cutscenes are a nice addition too, and they're all equally adorable. This is probably the only N64 game that I would call visually appealing from start to finish, as its style is simply timeless.

Personally, I muuuuch prefer copy ability combos to ability + animal combos. This just does a much better job at building off Kirby's base moveset and encouraging experimentation. I never cared to see what Rick + Cutter was supposed to be, but Spark + Cutter? Sign me up. It's just a natural way of expanding on Kirby's signature mechanic, rather than making things gimmicky and detracting from Kirby's appeal. With that said, I'll still take Kirby Super Star's formula of giving copy abilities complex movesets any day of the week, especially as long as they keep gating mandatory collectibles behind ability combos. STOP DOING THIS. Still, at least the game is actually direct with telling you how to get those collectables (Dream Land 3 found dead in a ditch). Also, I kept missing my shot to combine abilities, which was a bit annoying. Yeah, skill issue in a Kirby game lmao

About the controls, similarly to Dream Land 3, I don't have as much of a problem with Kirby's slowness as other people do. I actually don't think Kirby is slow at all; he runs and jumps at a good pace and he's actually fun to move around with the d-pad (I never use the d-pad in games, but this game kinda forces you to). But you know what is slow? His floating speed. I don't know why they made Kirby's floating speed the ultimate final boss of the snail universe, but they did. If they wanted to disincentivize players from flying over the whole level, they sure did succeed at that, but at what cost?

And final thing, gotta mention the music. It's just straight phenomenal. Jun Ishikawa is a wonderful composer but this might be his best work and that's saying something. Studying the Factory, Rock Star, and Zero 2 are some of the best themes in the entire series and that's only scratching the surface.

It's really fascinating to see how this game took everything about the previous Dark Matter trilogy games, didn't directly improve on any of their flaws, and yet somehow still improved on those same flaws just by taking a new approach. I had an astronomically better time with this game than I could've ever expected, and I think this game is totally worth playing as it's a very unique game in the series that no future game in the series really follows up on. If you're gonna play one game in the Dark Matter trilogy, make sure it's this one and don't bother with the others. And if you do play this one, don't bother unlocking the final boss.

Fun minigames btw