#(so then i'd have to do free replay on top of story replay. hell no. i'll spend my APs on mcl alt instead to reunite w my beloved armin)

[catboy-jupiter]

finished mcl ng ep 4 and. what a strange experience. while i ofc love that we get a photo w/ thomas on his bike, it's very strange to me to see the experience be described the way it was when i've been riding motorcycles since i was like, what, 7? much, much possibly earlier?

like, i get it, romance and all (kinda. i AM arospec and ace, but i am also a writer so i do get the point), but it's just a bit of a tonal whiplash when i, the player, consider tightly holding onto the person actually "driving" it to be very normal and non-romantic (my period of being weird about it was when i was 10 and super duper anxious about any way i could be perceived), and the character, who has never ridden a bike and at first even refuses to hold properly onto thomas and then. on the special scene, starts to wax poetic about his scent and wanting to talk to him and wishing they could do this with their helmets off lol

anyway overall. cool chapter i guess.

[owlixx]

Kirby Spinoff/Demo Wrap Up

So, I am done with all the mainline pre-switch Kirby games! But after Robobot, I poked my head into some of the later spinoff games and played the demos of the switch games and wanted to share my thoughts on those.

Rainbow Curse

Great art style hampered by playing on gamepad

weird multiplayer that trivializes the core gameplay

I just popped in and bopped Wispy Woods

It's not...bad, but I don't have the itch to play more

Blowout Blast

I tried a level each from the sub-game and the standalone release

Pretty cute and fun, if a bit plain

Standalone game is definitely worth the upgrade with its actual levels and much longer length

The combo system and grading does stress me out a little

I wouldn't mind beating each of these sometime

Battle Royale

Booting this up with no prior knowledge is a baffling experience

I thought this game was 9 different genres before figuring it out

Seems like Blowout Blast with combat at first

Then it seems like top down Smash Bros

Only for it to end up being...a poor man's Mario Party?

Seems like this game should have either leaned into being more of a fighting game with light MOBA elements (like the tutorial also kind of made it seem with highlighted friends/enemies, revives, a mix of small and big enemies)

...or it should have leaned into being a party game and focused on variety and having game boards

I could see myself doing the story mode out of morbid curiosity but I don't think I would immensely enjoy it based on my reaction to the stupid apple collecting minigame

Star Allies

I had played this demo before multiple times, both single player and multi player

This time, what occurred to me was the absurdity of porting Return to Dream Land to Switch FIVE YEARS after releasing a near-identical game on Switch, where the biggest issue is how similar the two games are.

And both games are still 60 dollars! They are literally both games right now as part of Nintendo's special "voucher deal" where you can get two full priced games at a marginally reduced price. FIVE YEARS LATER

For context, 2018 also had such beloved games as Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Spider-Man, and God of War, all of which drop to 10-20 dollars regularly now. Hell, God of War got ported to PC starting at 50 dollars since it was SO OLD and that was over a year ago

30 fps :( Triple Deluxe really spoiled me (I am the first person to ever say that, from what I've seen)

Anyways, its just Return to Dream Land but with the friend system of Super Star (roughly) and ability mixing inspired by Squeak Squad's upgraded sword (rouhgly)

Having 4 helpers makes things too easy, maybe I'd try the story solo if I ever got this

Everyone dunks on Star Allies online so I was expecting to see what they see, and I do, but the game is still a fun Kirby game

After some research however, I am extremely tempted to purchase the game for all the extra modes

Especially Guest Star: the idea of letting you replay an entire Kirby game locked into one power, allowing for 20 something unique playthroughs each with their own best-time is so tempting and I wish every game had it

Plus, it is so cool to see DLC friends from every mainline Kirby now that I get all those references!

This game goes on sale a bit sometimes, so it is now an actual contender to purchase

Super Kirby Clash

I mean, it's not great, but it is cute enough and a decent splitscreen timekiller

I kind of wish that now they'd just patch the game to be a bit less money-grubbing

More free to play games should have flawless splitscreen

Fighters 2

Let me just say: WOW

The gameplay is not super sophisticated, but the polish and sheen are off the charts

Literally Star Allies engine but in 60 fps!

Two player roguelike story mode????

Exclusive copy abilitity?

Unique helper characters???

This game is clearly so much more than a sequel to the sub-game

Hilariously blows Fighters Deluxe out of the water in terms of...everything

Might get this if it ends up being fun splitscreen in the demo

Forgotten Land

Pretty fun demo

Only did the first level on "wild style", waiting to do the whole demo coop

30 fps :(((

Mario Odyssey was 60 fps SIX YEARS AGO

And speaking of, this game I think was expected to be "Kirby Odyssey" or "Kirby Breath of the Wild"

But it doesn't even feel like "Kirby's Mario 64" or "Kirby Ocarina of Time"

It feels more like "Kirby 3D Land"

It seems almost offensive that Kirby is a series with its identity rooted in novelty and unique gimmicks, yet the only 3D games before were a racing game, a minigame (with no copy abliities!), and a minigame collection kind of

Seems like a promising start, but I am not sure I want to drop 60 bucks just for a few more hours of this

Don't get me wrong, its cute and fun and wonderful, but it seems like "A fun Kirby game" and not "the Kirby game to end all Kirby games"

Might be tempted though if the local coop is really good

Dream Buffet

No demo for this one but I've got my eye on it