Glen-i

Puyo Puyo Tetris has more fun gameplay and a more entertaining story than Breath of the Wild, so I'm going with that.

Virtual Hi-5! Couldn't agree more. That game is an utter joy. Best game I've played on Switch to date. (Granted, I've played three to completion so far. One of them being Mario Kart 8.

Wait, what? I'm confused. Is my little Switch profile picture of my Mii doing a "Draw me like your French Girls" pose just a figment of my imagination?

I think your Switch is trying to tell you something.

No, you're not.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a remake of the Sega Master System game "Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap" that came out in 1989. At least, I think it is, hang on, let me look up Wiki. Oh lord... Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a side-scrolling adventure much like the Metroid games, it's non-linear and focuses on gaining abilities and figuring out where to utilise them. This remake of Monster World II: The Dragon's Trap came out for the PS4, XBone and the Switch almost 2 weeks ago. A PC one will follow in June. I played the Switch version. From what I've heard, they are all basically identical. The game follows a wonderful lad called... Wonder Boy. Or brand new character Wonder Girl, if that's more your thing. Who names these guys? He's right about to finish a quest to defeat the Mecha Dragon. Which happens to be right at the end of the previous game, "Wonder Boy in Monster Land" (Nope, that's the title, I am not looking through those alternative names!) Amazingly enough, he's successful! Alright! Good going! Way to go! That was a proper speedrunner performance there! Time to go home... Well, that can't be good... Unfortunately, our hero is hit with a curse after his gallant victory. A most dreadful curse that has transformed him into a fire breathing Lizard Man. Wait, is this meant to be a curse? Score! What kid doesn't want to be a fire-breathing reptile? Well, not Wonder Boy. For some reason, he isn't delighted about this and must find the Salamander Cross in order to turn back into his normal human self. No, don't ask why... 8 year old me would have killed to be in his situation. The story takes a step back in this game, sets up the problem (Read: Awesome stroke of luck), and plonks you in the game's world to sort it out (Read: Ruin everything). It's very 80's, games couldn't waste storage space on sweeping epics back then and this remake stays very faithful to the original. (More on that later) There's certainly nothing wrong with playing a game that focuses on the gameplay, and the story serves it's purpose well. Speaking of gameplay, it's time I talked about that. First things first, I've never played the original. So keep that in mind. Like I mentioned earlier, Adventure Island is a lot like a 2D Metroid game, shortly after you get "cursed", you'll find yourself in a Village which serves as a kind of hub and it's up to you to figure out where to go. At first, you'll find many obstacles that you simply can't get past, but throughout the game, you'll get various abilities and upgrades that will allow you to reach new areas and further your exploration. The main way of getting abilities is to defeat various Dragons throughout the land, when defeated, each one hits Wonder Boy with another curse that transforms him into another animal. Lizard, Mouse, Piranha, Lion, Hawk. All of them have their own abilities, form Lizard's projectile based attacks to Lion's sheer strength and wide attack range, each one has their own skills, and you have to figure out which one can help you in each area. All in all, this game is an utter joy to play, it takes a bit of practice to accustom yourself to the slightly loose controls (momentum plays a small role when it comes to movement), but it didn't take me long to master the controls. The game has a bit of challenge to it, I did die a few times, but there's plenty of secret things to find to help you on your journey. Not to mention, the numerous shops that sell you weapons and armour to help you survive out there, courtesy of a smoking pig. I'd complain about the health problems, but he does look pretty cool. Now, I'm not gonna lie, there are a few secrets in here that are just a little bit unfair. There's a few invisible doors that only appear once you stand in front of it and press up. But thankfully, you don't need to find these kind of doors to finish the game. Mind you, there are other doors that appear once you find a ? Panel hidden in a nearby breakable block, but these just require you to pay a bit of attention to your surroundings. The game is also pretty short, it took me about 5 and a half hours total (including deaths that sent me back to a checkpoint). But I loved every bit of it. The game manages to throw new mechanics at you throughout, and it never feels stale or outlives it's welcome. Now, if you've read my other write-up's, you'd know that I'm not really one to gush about the visuals of a game. I generally find them the least important aspect. But... Floating cubes? Is this a JRPG final Dungeon or something? HOLY NARDS! This game is drop-dead gorgeous! Everything is hand drawn and pretty masterfully done to boot. If this game had Miiverse support I would have spammed that activity feed with so many gorgeous screenshots. Dragon's Curse does a bang-up job of taking a 1989 game and giving it one hell of a makeover. And if for some reason, you have no taste and don't like the visuals, well first of all, you're a monster. Secondly, don't worry. With just a tap of ZR, a cool swipe transition will happen and transform the game into it's original visuals, blocky sprites and everything, it's really cool seeing the differences between modern and retro at the touch of a button with no loading or menus. It's really swish. You can even add scanlines and a retro monitor effect, for a truly retro experience! I couldn't find a GIF, so an actual screenshot will have to do. There's even an art gallery you can unlock as you progress showing off all sorts of artwork, concept art, comparisons between retro and hand-drawn sprites, and even some neat WIP animations. Like this. And then we move on to the music. Yep, even that got redone. And it got redone well. No, "well" is too much of an undertstatement. The soundtrack of Turma da Mônica em o Resgate rocks! You can put it partly down to the original composition, sure. But let's face it, the remixes in this game do most of the job. Here are two of my favourites. Suffice to say, the soundtrack went straight on to my phone! It's a true masterpiece. And even cooler, just like the visuals, you can swap the soundtrack between the modern and retro soundtracks with just one click of the right stick. You can even make the audio sound like it's coming from some low quality speakers, if you're so inclined to transport back in time. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is an exquisite remake, it takes the solid foundation of the original game and lavishes it with love and care to make something truly special. To me, it has set a new benchmark for remakes of retro games. If you enjoy retro gaming, Metroid style games or even just want to try some 2D action, play this game. You owe it to yourself as a gamer.

Completionist satisfaction, I'd assume.

Tell me, do you play any of the Dark Souls games, by any chance?

Yes, i agree with this, while I do like the new customisation features the Switch Mii Maker brings, (So many shades of hair colour! And my Mii's eye colour is now the exact same as mine!) more clothing options would be nice. It'd be even nicer if playing a game on your Switch lets you access a page on the eShop that lets you download a related shirt or hat or something. Maybe owning Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would let you wear the racing outfit the Mii's use (See below) on the Switch menu. Stuff like that.

Yep, even the star rating. This doesn't work if you do it in Mirror and 200cc though. I assume because of the different track layout and the insane speed. I can't remember if it was a thing in Mario Kart 7, but it definitely was in Mario Kart 8. And because there were only 14 secret characters, you technically only needed to beat the 8 cups in 150cc and Mirror. (And then obtain at least 1 star on those GP's, beat the staff ghosts and get a whole bunch of coins to get everything else, including gold kart parts) And now with every character being available from the start (Except Gold Mario, but he's tied to beating 200cc), there's pretty much no reason for veterans to bother with 50cc and 100cc.

Pretty much, I was banking on him wanting to get rid of Raichu, because Surge Surfer makes it very dangerous. So I took an opportunity to send out Buzzwole and keep Koko ready in case I need to activate Electric Terrain again. It could have easily backfired if he decided to take out Tapu Koko first. The problem with Arcanine's sudden popularity in Doubles is that I've gotten ridiculously good at predicting exactly what it's going to do. I knew he'd try to utilise Intimidate immediately (They always do), so I opened with two Special Attackers. Actually, that's a problem with Smogon in general. Anyone who does a bit of study can very easily figure out your strategy, and with a bit of imagination and experimentation, can totally blindside you by using a Pokemon in a way Smogon don't recommend. My Buzzwole is a perfect example of this, no-one ever thinks of Assault Vest on it, because Smogon don't ever entertain the idea. So when I send it out, everyone always goes for the Special Attacks, unaware that my Buzzwole's Defense is actually lower. (314 Def/332 Sp. Def) It's really fun. Punishing people for relying on Smogon too much. As for Hyper Beam, I can only assume that he used it because Jolteon's moveset is a bit crap. Against two other electric Pokemon, it kinda struggles to do decent damage. Not sure why he kept using it once I sent Buzzwole out though... I thought it might be locked with a Choice Item, but then it used Leftovers, so, no clue. Maybe he's only played Red/Blue? Maybe he thinks that if he knocks a Pokemon out with Hyper Beam, he doesn't have to recharge? Bloody Genwunners! Amazingly enough, he gave me a bit of trouble. Apart from Starmie, I had no clue how he'd use his team. He had two other Pokemon I was certain he'd use other than Oricorio and Togedemaru, and then Oricorio's Z-Move caught me off-guard. Thankfully, Marowak's amazing. Took it like a boss! Managed to tank another hit after that with 2 HP left. (That was really lucky) I've used up all of my battles today. (I was too busy playing Wonder Boy yesterday) No interesting videos to show though. Thouroughly average performance, lost about half of the battles. I hope they start allowing Mega Stones in online competitions soon, I like trying different teams, and I'm starting to settle on which Pokemon from Alola work well for me. If not, I hope they do something like the Kanto X Alola Tournament. Maybe a Unova X Hoenn one? That could be fun. Anything that showcases the forgotten Pokemon really. Ooh, or maybe they can look at what Pokemon are the most popular (You can do that on the PGL website) and maybe have a tournament that bans the 100 most popular Pokemon in Sun and Moon? That'd be a good test of strategy. You can have those for free, Game Freak spies. Wow, this post was longer than I expected. Sorry.

Awww, is someone sick of my Mii shouting "YAAAAAY" in Mario Kart? Seriously though, no, not even a little. First of all, not everything about the Wii needs to be left behind. If that was the case, you might as well wave goodbye to Virtual Console. Secondly, the Mii's excel because of their simplicity, they're easy to implement into other games because of how basic they are. The Inklings are cool, but they kinda have only one setting, cool. I know for a fact I'm not cool, not one iota. So an Inkling wouldn't capture my personality as well as my Mii does. Make them an avatar replacement and you'd have to strip away a lot of the personality from them. Honestly, the Animal Crossing villager would make for a better replacement. As for the Smash Bros point. Like it or not, Mii's are a bigger part of Nintendo's history than the Inklings. They're the stars of one of the best selling games in recent history. They star in a lot of great games, (and quite a few clunkers). Out of the three avatar attempts from the big three consoles. Mii's are the most recognizable. I could go on.

@Dcubed, I have the horrible feeling that your Pro Controller has this issue.

Thanks for the synopsis, @Hero\-of\-Time Sounds like a great pick up and play game. Now that I've seen the credits in Wonder Boy (I can't wait to write about that game in the gaming diary) I might give it a crack. On @S\.C\.G. ...@Dcubed

I'm actually getting the hang of it a little. Lesson mode has some nice pointers on how to set up chains, I recommend going through it.

If you finish a cup on 150cc, it counts as complete on 50cc and 100cc as well.

I've been driving down memory lane by watching back over the N-Europe League highlight videos. And I just remembered why

It runs in the family. I'm great at races, he's great at battles. Together, we annoy a hell of a lot of random people.

Deep down, the three of us know who wore that crown throughout the races. And I never had to share it. So there.

That was fun, Renegade Roundup is inspired. And I don't even like Battle Mode that much!

Oops, communication error! We're open again now. Yeah, why not? Why am I stuck on my own!? You're all meanies!

I am loving the massive Pimp crown. It's such an utter "Please Punch me" sign! Anyway, @Ike, you coming?

Yep, that means there's no space in the room. The game doesn't let you spectate either, so you have no clue when there is a spot. EDIT: This is driving me nuts, @Emerald Emblem should we open a room? We can fill the empty slots with computers or something. @Ike you want in? I promise I won't kick you out. Maybe...

Yeah, it doesn't seem to let you join if the room is full, that's irritating. You can't even spectate until a spot opens up. I've left that room now, so I'll try and join you.

Join us, we're doing global race