Category: Reviews
Reviews of games.
In a surprise to me, Donkey Kong Country Returns is one of the most stellar, well-designed platforming experiences of the past decade. Nintendo decided, after the success of New Super Mario Bros., to revive their 2D platformers right from their graves. They would represent a combination of modern refinements (read: making the game really easy), and bring that same nostalgic combo of difficulty, trial, and error to a new generation of kids and adults alike.
I love Super Mario 64 rather dearly. For once, I agree with the common consensus, and Nintendo did not improve on the three dimensional Mario formula since. There’s a host of reasons why, but I believe we can pinpoint many of those errors on Super Mario Sunshine in particular. Arriving six years after its genre-defining predecessor, Sunshine managed to present a stiffer challenge while changing the physics engine irrevocably with strange, stifling additions and gimmicks.
Punch-Out! is…well, Punch-Out! The story of the plucky underdog against the overly qualified (and humongous) champion continues to delight us all in popular culture. I dare say Punch-Out as a series came directly from the influence of Academy Award-winning film Rocky, who turned this simple tale into a part of our public consciousness. Video games do much the same, throwing overwhelming odds at the player only for them to rise above their circumstance and emerge triumphant.
So yes, it’s basically the book of Esther in video game form.