Games

Mario Kart 7 (3DS) Review

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Surprise! … to even myself really. As I’ve been playing through all the Mario Karts I’ve talked about how this was the only non-arcade Mario Kart I’ve never played due to not owning a 3DS, but guess what happened last month? I brought a New 3DS XL in CeX for just over £100 like new and brought this with it (plus Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for later review as I get through that series, though that’s an original DS game this has a bigger screen than my old regular DS I’ve used over the years) So before we actually end this look at the Mario Kart series with 8/8 Deluxe, let’s take a look at Mario Kart 7, my first 3DS gaming experience despite the year being 2024…

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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Manga) Review

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After three “big” adaptations the Zelda manga reaches some of the lesser-known games for the rest of the run (well, until Twilight Princess, which again I don’t own yet!) starting with Oracle of Seasons. The two Oracle games I knew nothing about until a few years ago when I watched a YouTube video about them, which was then followed by a few more articles and bits when they hit Switch Online last year. While I don’t know if I’ll ever get round to playing them myself let’s see if this Manga re-telling was at least worth my while…

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Mega Man 11 (PC) Review

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A couple of years ago on this website I decided to use the Mega Man collections to finally play through “all ten” original Mega Man games, and although it was often hard (and in a frustrating way a lot of time rather a fun way) I did it! … just in time for Mega Man 11 to get released. It’s taken me a while to gather up the courage to do another Mega Man playthrough but a recent Humble Bundle gave me this game on Steam at a crazy price, so I thought I may as well finally be able to say “I’ve completed all core numbered Mega Man games”, at least until Mega Man 12 is revealed shortly after this goes up, probably… Let’s take a look!

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Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2) and Snake Eater Master Collection Ver. (PS5) Review

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A short while ago I mentioned starting two game review features on one series I’ve always wanted to play, Kingdom Hearts, and another I’ve played many times and the Metal Gear series is the other half of that, as after the likes of Sonic and Resident Evil it’s probably the game series I’ve replayed the most across my life, and pretty much all entries to boot. Speaking of which, I went back and forth on where to start from, since I’ve already reviewed the first Solid game, but since Snake Eater is getting a full on remake in the near future I thought I’d give as much time between them as I could, plus it’s the earliest game in the franchise timeline-wise, so it made sense in that way too. Sadly it’s often considered to be the peak of the series, especially story-wise, but is it really all downhill from here? Does it still even stand up? Let’s take a look!

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Live A Live (Switch) Review

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It’s time to play “finally play one of those games that’s been on your backlog for ages”! Yes, Live A Live’s HD2D remake has been on my list for a while, though I only actually finally brought it at the end of last year. The game is essentially a short story collection but instead of prose its short JRPGs spread across different eras of time, from prehistory to the far future, all culminating in a final chapter involving all the protagonists joining forces. Due to this I thought it would be a fun thing to dip in and out of and I was right, though it might be too easy for its own good…

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Final Fantasy VII: Remake – Intergrade: INTERmission (PS5) Review

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Now I don’t normally review DLC add-ons separately but given this was released a while after the original and exclusively on the PS5 (well, and PC) instead of the console I reviewed the original game on (that review can be found HERE) it didn’t really fit discussing it there, so here we are! INTERmission (I guess because it’s an extra mission in Intergrade? Maybe?) is set during the latter half of Remake and focuses on Yuffie, a character who didn’t get much story in the original due to being an optional party member. Given Rebirth is just a few weeks away I thought I’d better finally get round to playing through it, so let’s get to it!

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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Manga) Review

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Once again with this series it feels very odd to be reviewing the Manga before the game given its rightful position as a bona-fide classic, but there you go. Obviously for a SNES game that isn’t an epic JRPG the original game was quite light on story so the manga is similarly light, even at only four chapters and having added an entirely original character. It’s not bad though! Let’s take a look…

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Assassin’s Creed: Mirage Review

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“What’s old is new again” is the motto for Assassin’s Creed Mirage as it’s far closer to the original 7th Generation XBOX360/PS3 Assassin’s Creed games in structure, scope and a lot of the gameplay mechanics too. The only problem is the story itself isn’t very interesting, especially as our lead’s final fate was revealed in the previous game, which is especially frustrating because this is the first AC game to not have any modern day story content at all, something I’ve wanted since day 1 of the franchise… Oh well, let’s take a look!

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Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (PS4) Review

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Over the past couple of years I reviewed one series I’d played many times (the PS2 GTA games) and one I’d always wanted to play (Mass Effect Trilogy) so I thought I’d do the same again, and in this case Kingdom Hearts is the series I’ve never played before but it’s always been on my “I’d like to try that some day” list, especially as more and more people started ragging on its apparently convoluted storyline (I do love a good convoluted storyline…) So I saw a “Story So Far” collection of most of the games on PS4 for under a tenner and thought, why not? Sora in Smash only pushed the series back into the forefront of my mind anyway. So what did I think of the original game? I really enjoyed it, actually! Let’s take a deeper look from someone playing the 2002 RPG for the first time in 2023…

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My Top 10 Games of 2023

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There have been a lot of years with the “Top 10 Games of 2023” where I’ve had to put one or two on that barely count just to make up the ten but this year I made a full ten quite easily, and had a rough time picking what should be Number 1. Also like prior years there is a major game missing, this time Baldur’s Gate III as it’s just not the kind of genre / game I like to play, so you’ll just have to excuse its absence here. As I always say, this is my top 10 of the games I’ve played, so there are bound to be games I just don’t have the time to play (especially as I like playing plenty of older games too!) So with that said, let’s take a look!

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