Missy's Game Shelf

For whatever reason I wanted to look into games where Pokemon oddly worked with not only other genres, but other developers. While I won’t dedicate an entire review to any of these because for some of them I don’t have a lot of experience with that genre. Most obvious would be the Super Smash Bros series, but I wanted to look at others.

Harmoknight was a E-shop game that was primarily a rythm platformer and featured multiple tracks from the Gen 5 series of Pokemon games and multiple themed maps. I do recall playing this when it was released, but quickly learned I don’t have particularly good rythm and mostly only used it as a time waster. It wasn’t a bad game just not for me.

Pokken Tournament/ Pokken Tournament DX

This game originally failed due to the Wii U being possibly the worst console, but reappeared on switch with all the characters and most DLC unlocked. It is a 1v1 arena fighter worked on by Bandai Namco the owners of the Tekken series. unfortunately, while I do have fun with the game most of my gameplay is random button mashing. I don’t have a ton of experience with games like Tekken and Mortal Kombat. I have played some of the games, but nowhere near enough to give a proper review or analysis to.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series

Can I count this as a crossover given this is very much ingrained in Pokemon by now? It is primarily a game done by different developers this time being Spike Chunsoft. Though while good games I struggle to find games of similar genre done by these developers. Chunsoft is known for assisting and developing games like Danganrompa and AI the Somnium Files, but while a normal crossover would bring gameplay and characters from the other game Mystery Dungeon really doesn’t. While it does have type advantage and level up. These are in Pokemons main series.

Pokemon Conquest

Based on the Nobunaga’s Ambition series Pokemon Conquest primarily takes its gameplay as a tactics genre. With multiple Kingdoms to unlock and battle. ensuring loyalty and more focus on maps and terrain to cause damage to opponents. It should be noted that many wrongly believe Hyrule Warriors was the first time Koei Tecmo worked with Nintendo, but this game predates Hyrule Warriors by nearly 10 years. It does make me wonder if we are ever going to see more of the tactics genre or Warriors for Pokemon. Especially with how well recieved Nintendo’s own Fire Emblem series has been recently.

These two games greatly surpass the main series of Gen 6 games. Introducing Fairy Types, Mega Evolution, and multiple changes from updated teams, new Pokemon, and the new Delta Episode. Now I played this because of Pokemon Legends A-Z. It is a turn based RPG and customizing your team, but there are some things in this game that were advertised as new, but actually existed in spin off games. Soaring an ability exclusive to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire was introduced in Pokemon Ranger Guardian Signs as was riding Pokemon a mechanic that would later be put into Gen 7.

There are a few things this game did right that the Kalos games didn’t. The first a lot of the environments are amazing and look good. Even though it is a remake of a Gameboy Advance game it feels new with new cutscenes and characters stand out and are more fleshed out than before. This game doesn’t feel like a one to one remake like Fire red/ Leaf green and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Peral did. It feels like a new game on its own and trying to fix the mistakes from X and Y as well. Also if playing all of these Gen 6 games did anything it made me want to replay Sun, Moon and the Ultra games again so look forward to a review on those.

Score: 9/10

When it comes to video games that went viral due to ease of access and a pandemic they gave people ways to talk to others without being in person. Further, a fun game to play was also a win, but which game was better.

Gameplay

Among Us relies on teamwork crew and imposters need to work together. Either through confusion or visual tasks. Now with the multiple maps this is rather tedious. While I enjoy Skeld as it seems the game was built around that map other areas just aren’t as fun to me, Airship is a reference to the developers previous game the Henry Stickman Collection, but it is just too big with multiple sections it can take forever to find anyone, Mira has the disadvantage of having limited areas to explore and heavily favors crew with the hallway meeting, and Helix is just empty with everything spread out. Now this doesn’t mean that the game on these maps is bad as often it is the players who make the game fun and with them being able to bring more to the game often I have the most fun ignoring the game and reading what other players are saying.

Fall Guys has less teamwork and interactions with other players. Being a battle royale makes this game very different. There are a series of obstacle courses designed to eliminate various players until only a few remain. One thing is as these game continue it just becomes slower and it feels like the game more waiting for someone to lose as opposed to how hectic things could actually be. When put up to Among Us where something is always happening. It feels more empty and less fun as it is usually two or three players left. Yes you can leave a game at anytime, but it is a boring slog.

Graphics

Both these games have very simplistic design and graphics Among Us really plays into that as well as taking advantage of the cartoony atmosphere. Everything from their advertising to easy to see and identify colors is actually vital to the game. Identifying who is the Imposter or otherwise who the Imposter should leave alive or not is easy to understand.

Fall Guys uses bright colors at all times to indicate something to avoid and for players, assisting in reaction as something to avoid, but it really doesn’t do anything past that. While yes the warning is nice when there are about a hundred other players going the same way and jumps don’t always land where you think it is easy to get thrown off anyway.

I enjoyed both these games, but found that they both end similarly. Eventually a Hacker will join and ruin the fun for everyone. Afterwards, everyone just quits the game and lobby because these guys can’t win without cheating and have really no skill at all. While I haven’t tried the new map for Among Us yet and people are waiting for Fall Guys’ next update it is really impressive how far these two games have come especially considering they weren’t really well known on release.

Now this will not be the greatest post given I am only just looking at this situation. I like many others have been advertised at by others mostly influencers to use honey. If you don’t know Honey is a free browser extension that looks for coupon codes for you. On paper that sounds amazing except by using it you could hurt the people recommending it. The way Honey works is by replacing affiliate links with their own so when a purchase through a partner is made they don’t pay their partner, because when you use honey the affiliate link disappears and doesn’t show the influencer who recommended the product in the first place. If Honey can’t find a coupon for you the same thing happens it doesn’t revert back to the influencer recommending the product it goes to Honey.

PIE is an advertisement organization that claims to block ads on things like google and Youtube created by the same people behind honey. Then claims to pay people to watch the ads. Does Influencers ad revenue go somewhere else now because a lot of influencers make money off their ads? Rather than sponsorship it can be detrimental to them. It did this stuff once and that worked I would not be surprised if they did the same. Both of these companies made money off influencers then proceeded to scam them out of their own hard work.

Honey and PIE is also now experiencing the downsides of working with influencers unlike big businesses that simply do not care they will make money regardless, honey worked with independent creators many of which have rights to call them out and will talk about how they suffered or will pass the story along to other influencers. Most of which they worked with are larger and get upwards of millions of views and subscribers and these guys scammed essentially their marketing team out of their paycheck.

People have wondered where Honey and PIE got their money and now it is clear off the backbones of people who have tons more talent than them. I am planning to follow this story and cover it if Honey responds to all this though I do wonder how this is legal and what a lawyer would say. Further the literal hundreds of influencers effected may have grounds to sue.

Edit: Legal Eagle is now involved and suing on behalf of creators. So depending on how this goes is one of two ways Paypal gets away with everything only to never get sponsors again or they need to pay back the creators they “worked” with.

Sources:

“Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam.” Youtube, Uploaded By Megalag, Dec 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4yL3YTwWk

“Exposing the “PIE” Influencer Disaster – (Same Developers as HONEY).” Youtube, Uploaded By Upper Echelon, Dec 23, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxnM3J0I0k&t=886s

“I’m Suing Honey.” Youtube, Uploaded By LegalEagle, Jan 2, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H4sScCB1cY

It is good to be back Happy New Year everyone! I’m glad to start this year with a game that utterly disappointed me. While not the worst RPG I’ve played it does disappoint the fans who have been waiting for a continuation to this series. I like Mario RPGs I had nothing but praise for Legend of the Seven Stars, Bowsers Inside Story, and The Thousand Year Door. So while only one of those is part of this particular series it feels like steps back.

The Mario And Luigi RPG series is a reaction based rpg and while this game has the same roots gameplay feels off. The original company that worked on this series went out of business so it does feel the same, but oddly different. One thing these games always did was ensure that all party members were controlled through different buttons whether on the overworld or in combat, further when using one of the brothers unless it was a Bros. Attack you only needed to use the A button for Mario and the B button for Luigi. While the button layout seems simple that was intentional as gameplay often relied on timings depending on what the player does and if they react in time. A few things was traversal is more limited there are no new Bros. Moves and some that have been there forever are gone now this is extremely noticeable when everyone is locked in a jail cell in previous games you would have two options Mini Mario form or flat Bros even Paper Jam gave access to Paper Marios flat form. So while a character does reference how useful a skill like that would be likely trying to reference the Thousand Year Door Remake in this context doesn’t make sense. Writing is boring and falls flat I started skipping most dialogue because it just will end in a bad pun or takes forever to get to the point. Yes, previous games in this series had jokes and goofy writing, but this time it feels forced and the writing isn’t about really making fun of itself like it used to.

The new companion Snoutlet somehow does less than Starlow. Now functually they are the same through them you have your gear and tips, but Starlow really shined when helping understand the world as well as actually helping decipher Mario and Luigi’s gibberish or acting as a guide and their voice often adding to the humor. Snoutlet serves as a guide mostly, but unlike Starlow, Snoutlet does more complaining before doing anything I somehow found him more annoying than anything. This is in comparison to an annoying companion. Next the Sailing mechanic it is boring this isn’t Zelda the Wind Waker you can travel to any island after one visit at any time with little to no changes and it can take forever to get there. You can fish and get items, and materials, but no treasures or things to find just more islands and small challenges. Then there are charcaters like Bowser and Peach I know why they’re here, but they really don’t do anything especially Peach who even when given the choice really doesn’t matter. In fact there are several choices in this game that don’t mean anything sequences play out the same and nothing changes. Then there are side quests with the new and existing characters a lot of them are forgettable to unneeded.

Score: 6/10

Hello, first thank you all for reading and feedback. It has been a full year since I started this blog and I want to continue to improve my writing and reviews. With the year anniversary of my Blog being the 22^nd of December coming up I decided to make a list of my favorite games. In no particular order really these aren’t listed from my least favorite up rather just to make a list. Also, to prevent this list from being repetitive I decided to have one game per franchise. So while I like Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness and Shadows of Almia I can’t put them if another Pokemon game shows up. Finally, this is the last post of the year so Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year see you all in January.

10 – Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Spyro the Dragon was one of the first games I ever played along with Crash Bandicoot. So after several years of the Dragon being absent aside from a few games after the original three games that failed to capture what made them great then to just promote Skylanders and whatever the Legend series was, I was overjoyed to see both Crash and Spyro return and while I liked Crash’s series I always preferred Spyro.

9 – A Hat in Time

Another strange choice given I mostly play RPGs and Strategy with the odd Farm Simulator when I feel like it. A Hat in Time is a game that looks and plays like a Nintendo 64 platformer. This is on purpose as the entire point of the game was to call back to those older platformers like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. Honestly, I actually prefer this game to any Mario game as indie games tend to be more imaginative and you can easily see this through amazing mechanics and fun level design.

8 – Pokemon Omega Ruby/ Alpha Sapphire

My first Pokemon game was Pokemon Sapphire for the Game Boy Advance and I later played all of the Gen 3 games. So when Omega Ruby/ Alpha Sapphire were announced I was happy to pick up the games again and even though challenges and routes felt the same so much was added to these remakes to make them feel new. First, it fleshed out some of the more one note characters from older games, then fixed a lot of what X and Y were trying and failing to do, and finally, added things like the Delta episode, megas, and the new Fairy Typing to Gen 3 which didn’t have them. Due to how Nintendo has reacted to Palworld I wanted to leave Pokemon off this list, but I’d be denying what series introduced me to RPGs in the first place and a game I’m extremely nostalgic about.

7 – The Legend of Zelda the Windwaker

I wanted to put either Ocarina of Time or the Windwaker as my favorite Zelda games. I probably cleared the both of them more times than any other Zelda games. While these two are some of my favorites I also wanted to keep this list different so I went with which one I liked more or had more fun with. The Windwaker is far from a perfect or good game, but if you want an introduction into the series it is a good start what’s more I feel like the cel shaded graphics and cartoon atmosphere lets both the gameplay and locations stand out. Characters are also more expressive than in other Zelda games.

6 – Undertale

There is a chance that I felt Deltarune deserved to be on this list more, but given that game is unfinished even if what is released so far is fun, Undertale is a more complete game. I enjoy the game for it allowing the player to decide what to do whether you go pacifist or not expect tough fights, fun gameplay, and amazing music.

5 – Story of Seasons Trio of Towns

For a game by the original developers of Harvest Moon this game really shows what they can do having multiple towns with their own festivals and crops. Further while I do enjoy games like Rune Factory 4 sometimes it is nice to have a more simple farm simulator. This game also gives me hope that eventually the Story of Seasons games will be more fun outside of the remakes.

4 – Nexomon Extinction

Just because I said one per franchise does not mean one per genre. Nexomon was already a great creature capture game and the sequel not only improves a lot on the original, but also is a fun game overall. With the third game in development it will be interesting where this series goes. I enjoy their focus on plot that is a breath of fresh air compared to other games in a similar genre and with being an indie game it has less restrictions and is more imaginative and creative taking the plot in areas Pokemon will never go.

3 – Dragon Age: Origins

If there was one reason I hated Veilguard so much was my love of this series. Varied races and classes and more emphasis on story. Origins brings a lot including explaining why the main character is there with each getting their own story to play through during the tutorial. It is nice to have motivations to do something rather than just do it. Further, future games gave closure to  a lot of what happens in Origins and the game is dark with many good and bad choices.

2 – Mass Effect 2 Legendary Remaster

Mass Effect 2 was a favorite game of mine though admittedly I played Andromeda first and could not tell what made the series so good. After, I tried the series again and Mass Effect wasn’t bad, but the combat needed work. Mass Effect 2 is a fun game and the best part is it emphasizes the need to help your companions to unlock upgrades and keep everyone alive so they appear to help in Mass Effect 3. Further the characters all have distinct personalities and are fleshed out as opposed to what Veilguard tried to do with a similar format.

1 – Fantasy Life

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times. Fantasy Life is my favorite game. It has various classes and is an amazing game. Each character is charming and the ease of changing classes as well as using different equipment and skills for each is always a good time. The story was good and rather lighthearted for a RPG. The more cartoony graphics helps the different areas and dungeons stand out and even though you probably won’t run into a difficult fight the bosses more than make up for that. While I was disappointed that the sequel got delayed again I’m not mad if they need more time to make a follow up I still have the original to play.

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone sorry for the late post I was spending time with friends and family last week. I’m going to say it again NFTs are a massive scam as is most Crypto. These scams have led to the terrible Play To Earn games. Which if you’re unfamiliar with the concept players dump money in to get items and cryptocurrencies this money is often used to pay back other players investments. If you want more detailed information there are people who talk about these things everyday such as the Youtuber Jauwn. So recently Paradise was putting out trailers as an upcoming Crypto/NFT game, however people noticed something off even before the NFTs were announced. Much like The Day Before this game used similar shots to existing game trailers and in this case Grand Theft Auto and possibly Saints Row trailers. They also potentially stole assets specifically beach umbrellas that are unique to Grand Theft Auto. They are currently advertising a large open world city that would take lots of developers and a ton of time. This is to my knowledge this teams first game which probably means they both lack the talent to create such a world and that is hardly the people working on its fault. Not to mention rather than create something original they are copying trailors and stealing assets thus making a game that fails further when not stolen the assets seem paid for and honestly look poor and out of place. The NFT concept is already terrible, but the game is worse. Now it seems they’ve added a bunch of Content Creators with or without their permission it really is hard to tell if they are aware. I am certain people have tried to tell them, but these are creators with literal millions of subscribers so between things like fan art, analytics, and sponsor emails there is a chance they didn’t even see these. If they are aware than they are complicit in a soon to be or already is a scam. I don’t think they are aware though many have looked into recent posts and there was nothing about this game on any of their Twitter, Twitch, or Youtube accounts. Now while bigger Youtubers like Mutahar and others are now picking up on this scam game I first found out about this through a smaller channel named Jetro who did an excellent job breaking down and explaining several things I said here.

“Exposing PARADISE: The GTA 6 Scam That’s Fooling EVERYONE” YouTube, uploaded by Jetro, Nov 10, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9CQBMzLjCA&t=555s