Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a non-traditional traditional Zelda game.  What I mean by this is that it is a top down adventure with you clearing out dungeons in a kind of linear fashion.  It does throw in some open world aspects of it with quest givers being all over the place with random tasks for you to do with fabulous prizes.  What’s non-traditional about it is you are in control of Princess Zelda who must find out how to rescue Link from the clutches of an evil enemy.  You do find powerups to help you along the way and special abilities.  OH!  The main mechanic of the game is calling up “echoes” of enemies you’ve defeated or objects you’ve found to help you solve puzzles or fight for you.  Zelda is a pacifist and doesn’t fight but she will call hordes of enemies to fight for her and it is super satisfying seeing a bunch of Moblins take out a Darknut while you’re sleeping to regain hearts.  The puzzles throughout the game can be solved in a multitude of ways depending on the complexity but most of the time a simple bed or water blocks were enough to solve anything.  Zelda can also transform into Link mode where she channels Link and wields a sword, bombs, and arrows to also fight enemies.  I wasn’t too keen of this mode and only used it when it was necessary.

Visuals:

The same aesthetic of Link’s Awakening for the Switch on grand display here as it takes everything that made that style so loveable and turns it up to 11.  The characters are so emotive and adorable, especially when they freak out.  The enemies, although dangerous, are never terrifying and become quite funny when they’re fighting for you.  The world is gorgeous.  The biomes are your typical ones but the effects used make them stand out.  I just love the way it looks and over my playthrough of this game and Link’s Awakening I never got tired of it.  I could go for another adventure from this perspective as well as a traditional Zelda seems not what people want anymore.  Either way, I love the way it looks.  

Audio:

You ever want the soundtrack of something so bad only to find out it doesn’t exist in the format you want.  Like the visuals, the audio in Echoes is top notch.  All of the music is so simple and relaxing that you just want to wander around the world listening to it.  Even the boss fights or dungeons are nice to listen to.  The voices are also amazing.  There isn’t voice acting or anything but you’ll get the common “OOOOOY” or “OOH!” often and, each time, it’s funny to hear.  The game is just one word: CHARMING.

Completion:

I FINISHED THIS GAME!  I have to admit, initially, I was really put off by the game.  I didn’t like the way combat was and how Zelda was so defenseless.  I picked it up again, a year and a half later, because I wanted to get use out of the Switch 2 and became instantly hooked.  Everything just clicked and I wanted nothing more than to complete the game, find all the secrets, do all the quests, and just live in the world.  I hadn’t felt this way since Breath of the Wild but, if I’m being honest, I would have to say this is probably one of the top three best Legend of Zelda games I’ve played.  I really loved it and I was sad to see it end. 

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Welcome to your life…with a mortgage and errands you have to run…for everybody.  Thankfully, you’ll get paid so you can deck out your world but, in the end, it’s just you alone on your island full of robots.  Over the course of the game you get additional tools to help you make your island better.  You can do this by searching for fossils to donate to the museum [as well as flora and fauna].  You can build bridges and roads and litter them with junk everywhere.  You can basically do whatever you want to your island but, as I said, it’s all just for you.  Other players can visit you through a convoluted process and they can’t do anything while on your island.  It’s very depressing.  But cute!

Visuals:

Animal Crossing kind of hit its stride from the very beginning when it was supposed to release on the N64.  Improvements have been made to the world by making the people more round but everything looks the same as it did since then.  That’s not to say it’s ugly because it’s not.  It’s just…an Animal Crossing game.

Audio:

This is where I feel Animal Crossing has changed.  Before you had the characters reading the letters super quickly and at times it seemed like they talked.  Now, maybe it’s just me, they seem to just mumble the words and it still gets the point across.  The rest of the sounds and music are all cheerful and relaxing with no real moments to make you feel stressed.  That’s the point of the game so it does it extremely well.

Completion:

Can you really complete an Animal Crossing game?  I played this iteration for 35+ hours and did I do anything to improve my island?  Only if the game made me.  My main goal was to be a horrible capitalist pig and just hoard money.  That’s all I did!  Make money, pay off my loan, then hoard it.  I never upgraded.  I never added any quality of life for my residents.  I just made money.  I ended with a few million bells once I was done.  Pen Island is complete.  I’m finished!

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Link (or whatever your name is) wakes up on a mysterious island and is tasked to solve the mystery of the Wind Fish…who is in an egg.  It’s a top down Zelda game which feels amazing in this day and age.  Also, this is a faithful remake of the Game Boy game of the same name.  Everything you want is there with just a little quality of life improvements by allowing you to use more than just two items thanks to having MORE THAN TWO BUTTONS! 

Visuals:

BEAUTIFUL.  That’s what this game is.  It’s striking how beautiful a tilt-shift puppet look to a 30+ year old game can look.  Everything in the world just looks so fucking charming and cute it makes me want little physical dolls of everything.  The tilt-shift adds to the effect because it really does make it look like a diorama come to life.  The opening also has been redone to include a little animation of Link’s misfortune but that’s about the only cinematic you’ll get.  It don’t matter, doe, since every nook and cranny of this game is BEAUTIFUL.

Audio:

AMAZING.  I love the redone soundtrack and what they’ve done to all the sounds.  The music is just reimagined how I would want it to be while not losing any of the feel the original score had.  Link has been voiced as much as he can so you’ll get the usual “HYAH!” when he swings a sword.  It just makes it even more charming.

Completion:

I FINISHED THIS GAME!  How could I not?  I’ve played this game countless times as it was the first game I got for my Game Boy Pocket (Ice Blue).  I love the visuals.  I love the music.  I love what they’ve to my boy.

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The game long rumored back in the GameCube days, Samus returns in a side scrolling game to destroy the X parasite.  Along the way she has to battle tough as nails robots, brains, tough aliens, super tough bosses, and everything in between.  To help her, she will get an arsenal of weapons throughout the adventure only for the enemies to become even nastier.  She will also get more items to help her traverse to new areas in the map…again for the monsters to become even MORE nastier.  It’s a vicious cycle.

Visuals:

Dread is kind of simple looking but really not so much.  Yeah it’s not as great looking as modern, for 2021, games but that mood of the game is just dire.  The robots throughout the world make areas terrifying and the weather effects throughout the world make you believe you’re trapped in a massive thunderstorm.  As I said, the visuals are kind of simple but it really works!

Audio:

God, I love the sound of this game.  All the traditional Metroid sounds are there as well as the soundtrack.  Where it really shines are when you’re fighting the aforementioned robots.  You hear them skittering around and, when they find you, all hell breaks loose and all you want to do is run away.  Like the visuals, the audio of this game makes the mood of this game feel bleak but you have to finish the mission!

Completion:

Nope.  I didn’t finish it nor will I probably ever finish it.  I got to the last boss, died to him a dozen times, saw a playthrough of it and just put the controller down and accepted my fate.  I would say I’m 99% done with the game and I’m happy with that.  I really loved this game. 

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