Eliwood8

I spent a lot of time yesterday playing Overcooked 2 with my sister. We made it through world 4, replaying levels to get 3 stars on each. We'll have to finish it the next time we hang out. Otherwise I'm just about wrapping up Octopath Traveler. At the very least I want to be completely finished with it before Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate comes out.

I was neglecting Octopath while I had so many indie eShop games to review but over the past week I've finished all chapter 3s as well as my main character H'aanit's full story. Now comes the question though of whether I should keep her in my party or mix things up. I'm so used to keeping her around but maybe I ought to try to even out everyone else's levels instead.

It wouldn't be a Nintendo system with a Mario sports title, now would it? Mario Tennis Aces leads the sports spin-offs on the Switch with all of our Mushroom Kingdom favorites taking to the court for a friendly match or two. Aces comes with the standard bells and whistles of local and online multiplayer, as well as a variety of new features to liven up the game and a return to single-player story mode. This game has a lot to prove after the rather disappointingly bare-boned Ultra Smash on the Wii U, but thankfully Nintendo and Camelot managed to avoid a double fault of Mario tennis games. Aces brings an adventure mode back to a Mario sports game, something we haven't seen for quite a few games now. The story involves an ancient powerful tennis racket taking over Luigi's body, so Mario has to collect the five infinity stones power stones before the possessed Luigi gets them and regains the full power of the legendary racket. It's not a super original story and even by Mario game standards feels pretty flat, but adventure mode does offer a nice single-player option that is perfect for training. In addition to normal matches adventure mode has several optional challenges that are essentially tutorials for practicing aim and the new zone mechanics in Aces. Plus there are boss battles which, while a little tedious at times with some of their hazards, offer plenty of practice for blocking powerful zone shots. Even if the story is super short, these challenges offer a nice bit of practice before you dive into a tournament or an online match. Obviously Aces is, at its core, a classic tennis game, with a decent variety of characters (each with their own styles) and courts (each with their own hazards). The big additions to Aces revolve around the new energy meter, which charges as you play. When a star appears on the court you can spend some of your energy to activate a powerful zone shot to aim at a specific spot on the court. These extra-fast shots are particularly difficult to return, but the defending player can use their own energy to activate zone speed to slow down time, making it easier to reach the ball. It might take a few matches to really get a handle on how to use these abilities effectively but they're a wonderfully balanced way of adding challenge without overwhelming one player since, even if your opponent uses a lot of zone shots, you can always rely on your own zone speed to keep up. And it's nice to have these new abilities that aren't wildly out of character for tennis—essentially they just power up your offensive and defensive abilities. With a fully charged meter you can also execute an even more powerful special shot, the main advantage of which is breaking your opponent's racket. Rackets have a limited durability in Aces; if a player fails to block a zone shot the racket takes partial damage while a special shot will fully break the racket—if all of a player's rackets break it's an instant loss. Although it's neat to have another way to win and another aspect to consider as you play, the concept of breaking rackets feels a little out of place, especially when practiced players can learn to block damage from these powerful shots anyway. In a way it just feels like it's punishing new players rather than adding a deep or rewarding twist to the gameplay. Another new feature that is tricky to master—and may be a little discouraging for new players—is trick shots, which allow you to quickly dash toward the ball to return it. The catch here is that you really have to be precise with your timing to use trick shots effectively, often to the point of reading your opponent before the ball is even over the net, so it can be a risky maneuver. However, the reward for using trick shots is significant. Not only can it help you reach out-of-the-way shots, you'll gain energy for well-timed trick shots, making them feel like a more unbalanced feature than zone shots or speed—it's just not fun at all to play against someone that constantly uses trick shots. As a side mode Aces also includes a motion-controlled option called Swing mode. Anyone that played Wii Sports Tennis should remember the basic mechanics here, and although swinging the Joy-Con around like a racket is a fun novelty, Swing mode might be best used as a party mode with friends that don't play as much rather than a mode with much real depth. Naturally the multiplayer options are a big part of Aces, and you can play locally or online to face off with tennis players near and far. In addition to simple quick matches against random opponents, Aces offers a tournament mode that lets you compete for points and the glory of earning high marks each month. The concept is great, and perhaps this is more of a problem with the size or variety of the online community but you'll most likely find some wildly inconsistent match-ups as you play, swinging back and forth between opponents that you easily crush and others that you can't seem to score a single point on. On the bright side I never waited long for an opponent, but the balancing of skill levels left me rather disinterested in taking tournaments seriously. The visuals and audio have all of the colorful, familiar Mario and friends design you'd expect out of a Mario sports game. There's little that will surprise you if you've played virtually any other Mario sports title but even so, Aces looks great on the Switch, both on the TV and handheld. And even if the music rarely has a chance to shine through during intense rallies, there are some fun compositions here as well. Mario Tennis Aces adds some fun new features to the familiar tennis rally, as well as some more advanced techniques that are a bit obnoxious unless you put in the time to fully master their effects, which is only made more difficult by the inconsistent matchmaking while playing online. Still, Aces offers all the standard tennis gameplay for fans to enjoy, and if you do put in the effort to learn all of the more advanced aspects of the game there's a decent amount of depth to enjoy here. Rating: 7 out of 10 Rackets

Not having read anything about the new styles in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate I did not expect alchemy to be quite so complicated. Between that and getting my bearings with the controls again my first hunt was a bit of a mess, but I got back into the swing of things after that.

There are a lot of different reasons people want specific fighters in Smash, and outside of blatant troll requests I'd hesitate to call any of them wrong, especially with Ultimate which has become so huge that it can inspire people in so many different ways. It's not surprising that people default to requesting their favorite characters, but with so many characters and assist trophies I think there's still plenty of room to surprise players with characters they hadn't seen before. Personally I'd love to see more franchise revivals through Smash, the way Pit appeared in Brawl before Kid Icarus: Uprising came out. Swapping Blades in a way that's somewhere between Pokémon Trainer swapping monsters and Shulk using different Monado powers would probably make the most sense for Rex. And my first thought for a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 stage would be a stage with the Cloud Sea rising and falling, like Samus's Brinstar stage. Personally I'm not really expecting Rex to make it in but he'd make the most sense for a second Xenoblade rep, and swapping Blades could be an interesting gimmick.

It's not per play, it's only the first time you play. After that you should be able to retry for free. DK64 doesn't have an infinite number of coins but there should be way more available than you actually need to spend.

One part Marble Madness, one part rhythm game, and just a pinch of silly humor, Road to Ballhalla from developer Torched Hill and publisher tinyBuild Games manages to combine several disparate elements into one cohesive game, one that is simple enough to be easily accessible but with enough depth to keep more hardcore players engaged. Even if you're looking to play through the campaign once though and not master all of the game's challenges, Road to Ballhalla offers a fun little experience with arcade-style challenges backed up by a killer soundtrack. Road to Ballhalla isn't a story driven game but I have to give special mention to the game's sense of humor. Scattered throughout each level is cheeky commentary, including pointed barbs at the player when you fail and some silly puns/references, and the jokes land far more often than not. It's like having a friend watching you play and giving you a good-natured ribbing, and it's nice to see a developer just having fun with their game. The best part might be the meta humor—be sure to check out the easy mode option in the game's settings. In Road to Ballhalla you control a ball (surprise surprise) and ultimately your goal is to simply reach the end of the stage by rolling past all variety of hazards. The catch here that makes the game a bit more unique is that it's essentially a rhythm game—hazards appear on a rhythmic beat so you want to get into the groove to roll through a level smoothly. Like a lot of rhythmic games it's incredibly satisfying to find that perfect flow. In Ballhalla, every time you reach a new checkpoint feels like a nice accomplishment. It helps that the game isn't incredibly difficult. There are challenges to be sure, and you're sure to die a few times on each level, but maybe it's the focus on rhythmic gameplay that makes the game engaging from one attempt to the next rather than stressful and tense. And Road to Ballhalla definitely takes it easy on the player in a couple of respects. One, not all hazards are instant death, so even if you're a little off the beat and take some damage it's not the end of the world. Granted, not all hazards are so kind, but it's still nice to have that wiggle room. Two, there are generous checkpoints throughout each level, and checkpoints restore your health. Even if you do die you'll never lose too much progress. And finally, rather than featuring a time limit or high score, each level has two requirements for full marks: collect all of the yellow orbs and die five times or fewer. For completionists these add a nice extra challenge but aren't overwhelming—the yellow orbs are generally laid out across the most efficient path anyway and dying isn't so common that five or fewer is an insurmountable challenge. It feels like the game isn't out to punish you needlessly, which is a nice change of pace for an arcade-style action game. The one downside is that there are only 24 levels, short enough that you could conceivably finish the entire game in just one sitting. On the other hand, with a relatively modest number of levels each one can offer unique challenges, so there aren't any pointlessly repeated concepts or hazards. Each level feels new and engaging, and the game's rhythm makes it easy to keep playing one level after another. Plus, if you are a completionist, there are actually quite a few more challenges to tackle. The main levels may not have a time limit but you can also play Rush versions which are time trials: beat the level under a specific amount of time. This is definitely a lot more challenging but given the rhythm-driven gameplay it still feels fairly natural, and even casual players might want to give it a try. Once you've had your fill of that too you can try to tackle the game's special scavenger hunt, which gives you cryptic clues for one hidden exit after another. The downside is you'll need to replay levels to get to them but it's a nice extra touch for players who've mastered everything else. Given the rhythm focus of the gameplay it should be no surprise that the music in Road to Ballhalla is excellent. More than just getting you into the groove, the soundtrack has an almost hypnotic beat to it, one that is almost relaxing if you weren't focused on dodging lasers and pitfalls. It's truly a mark of care and quality that each song feels so well tailored to the level it appears in. The visual side of the presentation is decidedly more minimalist, but even if the game is mostly just a bunch of colored grids with your ball rolling along it's still rather charming. And again there's something ironically relaxing about the game's simple graphics and groovy soundtrack—maybe that's what makes it so easy to keep playing even when you've died a dozen times in the same spot. At a glance Road to Ballhalla may look like the kind of game you've played plenty of times, but the game distinguishes itself with some important differences that keep it engaging and entertaining from the first note to the last. The rhythmic gameplay makes it easy to dive right into the game and keep playing level after level as the music keeps you entranced and the challenging yet fair level design leaves you eager to tackle each new stage. It's a shame that the main game is relatively short, but if you're willing to take on the more difficult time trials Road to Ballhalla will keep you rolling and grooving for hours. Rating: 8 out of 10 Balls Review copy provided by the publisher Road to Ballhalla is available now on the Switch eShop for $14.99.

I got a 200GB micro SD card for Christmas last year; I had already filled the internal storage by that point. I've got a lot of games though, and even though all of my digital games are eShop titles (i.e. not retail games) a few of them are pretty big, like 4 or 5 gigs, which adds up pretty quickly. I don't get why we still can't move games between internal storage and the SD card though. I'm sure such a feature is low priority for Nintendo but it's about time they released an update for it.

Originally released in 2017, four years after the first game, The Inner World - The Last Wind Monk from developer Studio Fizbin and publisher Headup Games brings players back to the land of Asposia where, despite Robert's heroic feats in the first game, a new danger threatens to unravel Asposian society. With new elaborate puzzles, detailed environments, and of course plenty of humor, The Last Wind Monk provides a satisfying follow-up for the point-and-click adventure fans of the first game. The Last Wind Monk picks up three years after the first game, and even after Robert's heroic efforts, all is not well in Asposia. Although Robert successfully overthrew the former tyrannical ruler, the despot's supporters insist on reinstating him and paint Robert as an enemy of the state. Now Robert and Laura need the help of the last wind monk to save Asposia once again. The Last Wind Monk benefits from a stronger overarching plot—the first game had plenty of charming scenes but the first half of the game didn't have a very urgent mission. This game, however, starts off with a more serious goal right off the bat, and with established characters too. The game's political message is also rather timely for today's society. But that's not to say The Last Wind Monk is all serious business. The writing has the same blend of humor and charm as the first game, bringing the strange world of Asposia to life. This game retains all of the adventure game point-and-click mechanics of the first: in each area of the game you're going to explore, examine everything on screen, pick up items, and use them to solve puzzles. But while the first game was a bit more forgiving with its puzzle design, The Last Wind Monk ratchets up the difficulty with more elaborate puzzles. On the one hand, elaborate puzzles can be a lot of fun—they're more engaging and more rewarding once you figure out the solution, and there is also a character swapping mechanic in this game which gives even more variety to how you approach puzzles. On the other hand though, this game slips into that frustrating territory so many adventure games do: ridiculous puzzle solutions. There are far more puzzles in The Last Wind Monk that seem to necessitate just trial and error gameplay because there's little logic behind the solution, or at the very least only obscure hints. The environments in general are just bigger in this game as well, which makes experimentation a little more difficult. It's great that The Last Wind Monk ups the ante for players already familiar with the first game's brand of puzzle solving, but it might have been a step too far. Thankfully though the game still has the step-by-step hint system, so at least when you get stuck, the game can nudge you in the right direction. One of the bigger annoyances of the first game has been addressed—at least somewhat. The controls remain a bit clunky when you're playing with a controller since it's awkward to select objects to examine and scroll through them. However, if you play in handheld mode you can use the Switch's touch screen which is so much more convenient for quickly looking around and using/combining items. It's still possible to miss noticing what you can interact with but at least it's easier to select items and points of interest. The visuals and audio in the game are much the same as its predecessor—quirky character design in a fantastical world full of bizarre creatures and environments. It does feel like The Last Wind Monk is bigger and more refined than the first game though. As mentioned the environments are a bit bigger and more elaborate, meaning the puzzles are more challenging but also that there are more fun details to spot as you play. And the choppy animation of the first game, while distinctive in its own way, has been smoothed out here so the visuals seem to flow a bit better. On the downside loading times seem noticeably longer, which is especially unfortunate given how every region of the game is made up of several screens, necessitating a lot of load time as you frequently move between screens. The music, meanwhile, is largely the same in variety and quality as the first game: a decent soundtrack, but overshadowed by the variety of charming voice acting, from Robert and Laura to the various weird characters you meet along the journey. The Last Wind Monk is a bit longer than the first game, and as mentioned the puzzles are distinctly more elaborate and challenging, so you'll probably spend more time trying to figure things out. And once again there isn't much replay incentive since it's an adventure/puzzle game, but fans of the genre will still feel like they've gotten their money's worth here. The Inner World - The Last Wind Monk offers only a few new frills on top of the classic point-and-click adventure gameplay of the first game, but for fans of the quirky characters and humor of Asposia it should still offer a satisfying sequel. Although some of the new, more complex puzzles drift into frustrating territory, the built-in hint system means you're never completely without a lifeline should you find yourself completely stuck, and the touch screen controls while playing undocked is a welcome addition. If you haven't had your fill of Robert and the flute noses after the first game, The Last Wind Monk offers another charming dip into the strange but endearing universe of The Inner World. Rating: 8 out of 10 Monks Review copy provided by the publisher The Inner World - The Last Wind Monk is available now on the Switch eShop for $14.99.

If there's a Final Fantasy assist trophy I imagine they'd pull from FF7, but I'd like to see Mog from FF6—he could do a dance that has a random effect.

It's been a long time since I last played Okami and it'd be awfully convenient to have it on the Switch, but it'll have to wait for a good time when I'm not busy with long RPGs or the upcoming Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.

What about Lucina and Robin? All three are from the same game.

Joggernauts combines the endless runner mechanics of Bit.Trip Runner with the color switching of Runbow for a co-operative platformer challenge. This looks like a lot of fun, and they've just announced that the game will also include a single-player mode so it's not multiplayer-only anymore. Press release:

No, you guys, it was a different image at E3; there wasn't a huge gap where K. Rool appears. Nintendo likes to tease us but I don't think they'd be that cheeky about it.

It doesn't seem like custom moves are returning, but if they do a generic hunter would be perfect for them. Maybe you could select a weapon to have a slightly different moveset, or choose between sonic bombs vs. flash bombs, pitfall traps vs. shock traps, etc.