Also available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Windows Far Cry is a series that I’ve only played a bit of but always enjoyed when I did. I absolutely loved Far Cry 4, and it was Far Cry Primal that got me into the series. Far Cry: Blood Dragon is an absolute masterpiece of 80s parody, and I even enjoyed Far Cry: Vengeance on the Wii back when it came out. Far Cry 6 is no exception; the game is fantastic. My sole complaint is that I got burnt out about 2/3 of the way through and had to take a break. Some games are immersive enough to keep me hooked for 80 or 90 hours straight - Tears of the Kingdom, Fallout 4, Skyrim - but Far Cry 6 wasn’t one of them. To be clear, Far Cry 6 is a great game with a good albeit familiar story. You play as a guerilla named Dani (regardless of whether you choose male or female) fighting to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Anton Castillo. It’s not at all subtle about basing the nation of Yara on Cuba, but for those familiar with the governmental history of Cuba and its relationship with the United States (the CIA plays a background role in the story), it’s an interesting basis. You go around Yara striking at Castillo’s army and centers of power while also convincing rival rebel groups to ally with you against the regime. There are side quests and a TON of collectibles. The collectibles are my biggest problem with the game; some are on the mini map and some are not. For someone with obsessive compulsive tendencies when it comes to objectives on maps, I have a compulsion to go after EVERYTHING on the map, but when that gets me to 87% complete in an area, the nearness to 100% bugs me. When all I have left are tiny collectibles hard to see in passing and not on the mini map, it frustrates me. 100% a me problem, but I know I’m not alone in that compulsion and frustration, so I figured it bears mentioning. Visually, the game looks great. The big winner here is the sound design, though. Gun sound effects are satisfying, the squelch when you hit an enemy soldier in a car going 90 KPH is meaty and visceral, and most importantly, the sound track is BANGING. I played through a lot of the game with my BFF Grant, and we would routinely just be driving through Yara rocking out to this eclectic assortment of Latin Americans music. There’s one song that I’ve only heard a couple of times and have never been able to figure out the title or artist of that has part of the chorus that I swear to God sounds like Mexican Pinkie Pie. It remains my personal mission to figure out which song that is. Another issue I had with the game - really more of a minor annoyance than anything else - is that while 99% of the game’s dialogue is English (unless you choose a different language in the settings menu, obviously), there are sporadic and seemingly random words that are consistently Spanish. The word guerilla, for example - I know the word is Spanish in origin, but it’s consistently the sole word pronounced as it is in Spanish in an otherwise fully English sentence. “Soldado” instead of soldier, “gasolina” instead of gasoline, “fascista” instead of fascist, and “comemierda” are the other ones that are consistent. It’s the juxtaposition that irks me; either have the dialogue be all Spanish and stick to subtitles for other languages, or have everything be in English. They’ve all got Latin American accents anyway, so it’s not like they sound like they’re from Chicago or something. Minor annoyance, I know, but I spent 84 hours being annoyed by it, so I had to mention it. Far Cry 6 is a good game. A really good game, even. It’s just a little too long for what it is, in my opinion. There’s LOADS to do aside from the main quest line, but a lot of it feels like fluff, inconsequential padding. If you’re a fan of open world games where you shoot or mutilate with machete hundreds if not thousands of fascists, then absolutely check it out. Just be prepared for a 60+ hours experience. My Rating - BAlso available on Super Nintendo, Wii, and Wii U (original version) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is one of the almost legendary Super Nintendo games, one of the games that always commands a high price and that every Super Nintendo enthusiast worth his salt would include on a Top 10 list. It’s been released on Virtual Console on Wii and Wii U as well as being included in the Super Nintendo Classic Edition, so even if you don’t have the fairly pricey Super Nintendo cartridge, it’s been pretty readily available. Still, fans have spent twenty years clamoring for a remake, and we finally got it in late 2023 - a full from-the-ground-up and extremely faithful remake for the Switch. The premise is that Bowser kidnapped Peach (as usual), but as he was gloating his victory, a giant sword crashes into his castle. Mario, Peach, and Bowers are all ejected from the castle which is then overrun by minions of an unknown antagonist named Smithy. Mario begins to make his way through the world on his quest to find and then rescue Princess Peach. As he progresses, he assembles a team of four allies to help him - the cute and kind of pitiful Mallow, the iconic doll-possessed-by-a-star-spirit Geno, the Koopa king Bowser himself, and even Princess Peach. Over the course of Mario’s quest, the intention shifts from “rescue Peach” to “defeat Smithy and his army.” You’ll find enemies both familiar and foreign as you quest your way across the land. Being an RPG, the purpose here is to win battles to get money to buy better equipment and to gain experience points to level up and improve your stats. There is some platforming, as it’s still Mario, but the platforming really takes a back seat to the RPG action. One of the cool aspects of the game that makes it a little more engaging than “press A to win” like a lot of turn based RPGs end up being is the chance to increase the damage of your attacks or totally nullify enemy attacks. If you press A just before your attack lands or just before an enemy attack lands, you’ll boost your damage or nullify any damage to you, respectively. The timing is different for each character, each weapon, and each enemy, but once you get a feel for it, you can really turn the tides of an otherwise difficult fight. As far as RPGs go, Super Mario RPG is very short. The remake lets you choose between the normal difficulty and an easier difficulty, but even on normal, I cleared it in about 10 hours, and several of my friends have done it in 7 or 8 hours. Still, though, this game is a case of quality over quantity. It may not be the 40 to 60 hour JRPG a lot of us expect from the genre, but the hours it does last are endlessly charming and addictively fun. Another nice feature of the remake is the ability to switch on the fly between the original 16-bit music and the new modern renditions of the game’s music. I kept it on the modern music for the full remake feel, but it was definitely a nice nod to our collective nostalgia from the 1990s. Super Mario RPG isn’t necessarily a perfect game, but it is devilishly fun, and I consider it a must-play for any Switch owner. If you’re not an RPG guy, this may be your exception to that rule, and if the family-friendly nature of the Mario franchise has never been your cup of tea, this might get you to reconsider. It’s not brutally difficult but still extremely engaging, and it’s just an all around fun and charming experience that’s uniquely ‘90s now brought into the 2020s with all of the care and polish you’d expect from a modern game. My Rating - AAs amazing as 3D Mario games are - and they are truly amazing - I’ve always been partial to the 2D Mario games. Some of that is definitely nostalgia for the Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3 I grew up with, but a good portion of it is that 2D platformers have a different feel to them than 3D platformers. When everyone was going “3D > 2D,” I was the voice of dissent. Fortunately, with the DS, Nintendo brought back classic 2D Mario with the “New Super Mario Bros” sub-series. While Super Mario Bros Wonder abandoned the “New” part of the naming convention (it’s been almost 20 years; it’s really not that “new” anymore), it definitely follows the spirit of that sub-series with a gloriously tight and responsive 2D Mario experience. Wonder breaks from the norm of “Bowser kidnapped Peach.” This time, Bowser stole a neighboring kingdom’s entire castle. Then he fused his body with the castle. So now he is the castle. Even by Mario standards, this is kind of weird, but I applaud the novelty. Mario then adventures through the flower kingdom alongside its useless but likable enough prince. To free the castle from Bowser’s control, you have to collect six Royal Seeds, one of which in each of the kingdom’s realms. These are your six worlds. In each level, there are between one and three Wonder Seeds to collect, and you’ll need a certain number from each world to pass checkpoints in that world. Once you get all six Royal Seeds, you’ll play a few levels in a Bowser mini-world. There is also a special world with challenge levels. In addition to the return of the classic Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Power Star, and Ice Flower, there are a handful of really cool new power-ups in Wonder. You’ve got an Elephant Fruit which turns you into...a bipedal elephant. You’re a little slower, but you can swing your trunk as a powerful melee attack. There’s also a Bubble Flower that turns you purple and lets you throw bubbles that can encapsulate and kill enemies. Then there’s the Drill Mushroom that causes a drill to sprout from your head and lets you tunnel into the ceiling or the floor. Lastly - and not really a power up - is the Wonder Flower. If you find it, it totally transforms the world and sometimes your character and lets you find a hidden Wonder Seed in each stage. Super Mario Bros games have always been known for excellent music and tight controls, and Wonder is no exception. The music is as amazing as ever, and the controls are some of the tightest and most responsive of the series. Visually, the game is absolutely outstanding. It’s got all the graphical prowess of Super Mario Odyssey in a 2D format. It’s stunning, genuinely. The best part of the game, though, are the multiplayer options. the array of characters has some character to suit most player’s preferences. Obviously, you can play as Mario and Luigi, but you can also choose Peach, Daisy, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Red Yoshi, Yellow Yoshi, Light Blue Yoshi, or Nabbit. Mario, Peach, Daisy, and the Toads all play standard, but the Yoshis and Nabbit are like “easy” mode; Yoshis don’t take damage and flutter jump but do flinch when touching an enemy or obstacle, and Nabbit takes no damage and doesn’t flinch when touching an enemy or obstacle. Local multiplayer allows up to four players, and you can actually help each other somewhat instead of just hilariously hindering like the older New Super Mario Bros games; if you die, you’ll have five seconds as a ghost to find an ally, and if an ally touches you within those five seconds, you’ll respawn on them without losing a life. There’s also online functionality that can match you either with your friends privately or with random players from all over the world playing the same level as you. If you die, your online allies can revive you just like in local multiplayer. Players can also drop standees that can revive you if you touch them as a ghost. Super Mario Bros Wonder is honestly my favorite 2D Mario game if I look past my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses for Super Mario Bros 3. It’s the perfect modern 2D platformer - seriously fun local multiplayer, seamless and useful online multiplayer, and flawless single player fun. Couple that with amazing music and stunning visuals, and this game is an absolute masterpiece. There’s no other way to describe it. This is an absolute must-play for Switch owners right alongside Super Mario Odyssey. My Rating - S |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
April 2024
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