I've had my eye on Wargroove since last year. Billed as a sort of spiritual successor to the Advance Wars series, I was pumped. In fact, I was even more excited about this one than Fire Emblem: Three Houses. And I'm a FE fan! But something about Wargroove just looked awesome. Maybe it's the throwback art style? Maybe it's the campaign editor? Maybe it's the fact that Wargroove is considerably cheaper than Three Houses? Haha. I don't know.

But I was also determined to wait on a physical release of Wargroove. I KNEW it would happen. I mean take a look at what Limited Run Games, Super Rare Games, and like a dozen other boutique publishers have released this year on Switch. It HAD to happen. And I was right. It's here.

And was it worth the wait? Oh dear goodness... YES.

I've only played a couple of hours so far, but man, it's so good. It has that solid Advance Wars throwback vibe. But the setting is a lot closer to Fire Emblem. So it's almost a mash-up (minus that RPG leveling of FE). The visuals and music are great. I'll be honest, I don't care much about story in a strategy game like this, but the gameplay? Wowza.

It's got everything. There's the usual classes who have different strengths and weaknesses. There's capturing areas on the map to raise resources. There's the risk/reward of putting your commander on the line. There's deciding which new units to call in each round. There's... a lot to think about. And I love it.

The controls and menus are super intuitive. Everything you need to know is a click away, and what you need to know depends on how deep you want to get. There's also lots of customization in presentation and gameplay. Everything has been so well thought out here.

Before I even started the campaign, I also spend a while browsing the user generated content. It's so awesome to see these fan projects remaking OTHER games within this engine. The Advance Wars and Fire Emblem series are obvious, but still exciting as it means there's going to still be lots of reasons for me to continue playing this outside of the main campaign.

Overwatch on Switch is kind of a big deal for me. I'll cut right to the bottom line and say that I'd consider Overwatch to be my favorite game of the DECADE. It was such a big deal for me that I literally sold my Xbox One the week that the Switch port was announced. In fact, I was relieved that I didn't have to pay for another year of Xbox Live. Or Gold. Or whatever it was called.

Back when Overwatch launched in 2016, I actually preordered it based solely on how much I had enjoyed Hearthstone and Heroes Of The Storm. Two totally different games from a competitive 'hero shooter,' but I figured why not? And initially Overwatch felt like a Team Fortress kind of deal and I bounced off it. But a few months later I gave it another try, and started reading about it more and it just clicked with me.

In the years since, it's remained in my rotation. And I've actually kept up with it like no other game. Like I mentioned, I bought it again on Xbox One when I got out of PC gaming and had some friends willing to play it with me on console. Even weirder, I even got into Overwatch League, and have been watching it for the first two seasons.

I should maybe NOT admit how into the game I can be. But whatever. There's literally Luci-O's cereal in my kitchen right now. I still wear my Boston Uprising 'inaugural season' t-shirt probably weekly. I've received all kinds of Overwatch merch as gifts. Heck, there's even a Pachimari plush toy in my daughter's nursery. I'm just not like this about other games.

But please don't think I'm saying I'm good or anything. I'm not. I'm fine. I'm competent. I try hard. I care about not dragging my team down. But I'm perfectly happy staying in a casual lane. And when I'm practicing a new character, I'm also fine with playing against bots. I have no delusions of being great. But that's not what OW is about for me. It's just a great way to relax.

Anyway, I'm approaching this Switch port as someone who has played hundreds of hours over the past several years - both on PC and on Xbox One. Is the framerate lower? Yup. Are textures going to be simplified? Sure. Is it the absolute best version of OW available? Of course not. But here's the thing - and this is true of many Switch ports nowadays for me - it doesn't matter. What matters is that the EXPERIENCE is here. The past few nights I've played OW in a way I was never able to before: sitting on the couch, next to my wife while she read a book; or while listening to the TV in the background. It's an absolute game changer for me to have the ability to play OW without shutting myself away in the game room. And that is worth whatever sacrifices the port makes.

My personally, I don't find the handheld great for FPS games. I think my hands are too big, and I don't like position of the analog sticks. But I've been standing the Switch up and playing with a Pro Controller and it's perfect for me. People are going to hate that progression isn't cross platform. And that's a legit downer. But I can deal. I had to start over on console once before. It is what it is.

All I can tell you is this: since the Switch came out, my number one dream port was Overwatch. That's the one game I wanted, and now it's here. I'm beyond happy that this exists. And that it's playable! And for now, I'm having fun grabbing Halloween loot boxes as I slowly level up once again.

I had taken a break from Overwatch for the past few months because I felt like the rumors of it coming to Switch HAD to be true and I didn't want to re-up my Xbox subscription. Coming back to the game now is soooo comforting. Who says you can't go home again, folks?

Quick Play now has a queuing system where you choose the roles you're willing to play: Tank, Healer, or Damage. It's a nice touch. And now there are mandatory slots for two of each of those roles on a team. I can see the pros and cons of this, though I think the pros win ultimately.

The downside is that this may prevent some truly insane and interesting team compositions. I mean, if a team was really badass using six healers, I'd want to see that. Y'know? But really what this does is cut down on some tension on picks. There's no more situations where you go into a match annoyed that nobody wanted to play healer.

Of course a mandatory composition does mean that things could get sort of stale (such as with the so called GOATS meta that invaded Overwatch League for a while there... I remember the most exciting matches were ones where teams got creative with their picks and bucked the trend). But then on the flip, each class does have some picks that could still think outside the box. It's been shown that Zenyatta can be a legit pick for damage. And D.Va is a tank, sure, but she feels more like a damage-tank combo. Even Soldier 76 can be seen as a quasi-healer if played right.

The bigger thing for me is that it's helping me branch out a bit more outside of my chosen favorites. If I get called in to tank and someone else picks D.Va (my absolute favorite in the game) then I need to get better with someone else. And though it seems like I get picked to damage less than the other roles (not surprising), it's fun to see what the team looks like and pick accordingly, bouncing around between whoever - Solider 76 or Widowmaker or anyone really.

Anyway, I'm still having a blast YEARS into playing this game. The Halloween event is always fun, and starting from scratch (YET AGAIN) means unlocking new skins and stuff feels sort of more exciting than it had for me in a while.

I tend to make it a habit to download any new free game on Switch. Because why not? It's free! Well, Asphalt 9 is a fairly mixed bag. The game itself is fine. Actually, it's pretty good. It's an arcade style racer and it looks great and the sense of speed is excellent.

But... it's a FREE game in the -To-Play mold. Meaning, the fun is probably going to run out soon enough as I hit a pay-wall that I'm not looking forward to. I'm already seeing the edges of it. The car "blueprint" rewards I'm getting from races feel like only fractions of the actual cars I'll want to unlock to stay leveled up enough to keep racing.

It sucks because I'm getting tinges of some other pretty great F2P games I've played in the past. Pokemon Shuffle comes to mind. My goodness, I don't want to go down the road again. I actually spent "money" in Shuffle (okay, it was Google Play Store credit, but still... I felt gross). So yeah, I don't know. I'd probably be better off just BUYING an actual retail racing game should I get the itch to drive fast.

When I was a kid, I remember being very aware of The Legend Of Zelda thanks to those commercials. Remember? "Zelda!? Zelda!?" I bet it's on Youtube. But I didn't have a NES yet. I had an Atari 2600. And while the commercial showed me NOTHING, I feel like I created this insane vision of what Zelda was. And I had to have it.

I got a NES a year or so later, and by that time Zelda II was out. I remember getting a copy of Zelda II and the Official Nintendo Player's Guide for my birthday. It was a huge deal. And I've written about how much nostalgia and fondness I have for Zelda II. But soon enough I knew I needed the original game. I brokered a trade with my cousin, Matt. I don't remember what game(s) he got in the exchange, but I can promise that I came out ahead.

The first Zelda quickly became an obsession. And it was and remains one of my absolute favorite NES games of all time. Shocking? No.

But I've replayed it many times over the years. It's straight comfort food. In the past year, I played through NES Remix which featured a sort of micro-version of the game where you just plow through boss battles and key moments. It was a fun and quick way to revisit the game. It was like getting a little Zelda fix.

Nintendo has done an interesting job in presenting new experiences for old games in the Wii U and Switch eras. I think most people probably overlook these SP versions of games on Switch Online. But some of them are pretty interesting.

The Legend Of Zelda SP is basically easy mode. You start off with better armor, better sword, a few items, some extra hearts and lots of rupees. Oh, and all the bushes with hidden entrances are already revealed. You might say this takes away from the experience. And it does - for a first playthrough. But for me - someone who's been through this game multiple times over the decades - it's like a nice relaxing visit home.

Now I can march right from one dungeon to the next and play a sort of mellow version of this game. It's not about the CHALLENGE, it's about reminding myself of the EXPERIENCE. Scoff at these SP versions as being cheap ROM-hacks if you like. But some of them are not without their merit.

I ran through the first four dungeons last night in about an hour. A nice way to do it for a dude who's got a four month old in the house that's still figuring out how to sleep through the night. To be honest, with such inconsistent downtime for gaming, having this sort of easy mode to revisit is actually quite the blessing. I don't need to spend time grinding for rupees or exploring the overworld map - it's all just the dungeons. Nice.

I don't know what happened. I actually played this a bunch over the weekend.  I did some of the dungeons out of order because I forgot where they were. Anyway, I got up to Gannon's dungeon and died a couple of times and then just kind of quit. I don't know. I feel less compelled to finish this up now. I've beaten the game in the past, so I'm not super motivated to see it through. And I feel like I've played the bulk of the game - or at least had fun revisiting it for now. Still an awesome game. Top 10 Zelda for sure.

Miami Law is a 2009 DS game published by Gaijinworks - the first game for Vic Ireland's new company after Working Designs. What makes this interesting is that WD never published on any Nintendo systems. And I'm pretty sure Gaijinworks avoided Nintendo after this one. Huh. At any rate, Miami Law is a sort of point-n-click adventure game, and a sort of visual novel, and it has various puzzle and shooting segments. Think of it as a kind of budget meshing of Vice City and Snatcher. Although that might be overselling it. The gameplay changes from moment to moment, as does the quality of the gameplay and writing; as does the level of fun.

The adventure/GN side of the game feels akin to something like Hotel Dusk, though not really as deep. There is some impressive depth to the size of the fictional Miami and the cast of characters. But the problem is that at times any illusion of choice is shattered by how utterly linear it really is. While investigating a case, you might want to go to one location you feel interested in, only to be told "I shouldn't go there right now." The times where you ARE genuinely given a true choice can sometimes result in a swift game over, forcing you to go back and make the right decision instead. This wouldn't be so bad, but sometimes you're forced to go back a big chunk of time which is tedious.

The game also wastes your time in how you move through the world. For instance, let's say I need to go talk to the chief at the Miami PD. I'll need to click "Move To," then select "Miami PD." Then I'll be outside the building and I need to click "Move To," and "Enter," and remember which floor so "Main Floor." Then I'm on the main floor. "Move To," "Chief's Office," "Enter," and finally "Talk to," and "Chief." WORSE is when this results in him just telling me to meet him down in the investigations room instead, and more clicking multiple times to get there. It just seems like it's there to pad things out. I suppose that's necessary in a linear game like this. There's only five missions, and I've done the first three and each clock in at about an hour. That includes the extraneous clicking.

PUZZLES are a big mixed bag as well. There are some that feel like actual puzzles, but others are definitely just there to kill some brief time. Hacking computers literally involve typing a code you're given into a keypad. It's nothing. Another involved using the stylus to "cut" some rope. There's a lot of stuff that's just tapping on the screen - I guess to remind you that you're DS has a touchscreen. There's some shoot/duck/reload parts that are mildly fun, I guess in lieu of Snatcher's legit lightgun sections.

In light of all this, I think there's actually a somewhat interesting and fun game buried under these complaints. The story and dialogue are super pulpy. Like an edgier version of Miami Vice. And it is weird to be playing a VN with these anime looking line drawings talking about drugs in suitcases and everything. To some degree, this game is almost in the realm of so-bad-it's-good. Or at least it's odd enough that I am compelled to see the story through to the end, which I'm pretty sure is only two hours away if HLTB is to be believed.

I've never been into the whole Kickstarter craze. This important to know, because Friday The 13th is the only game I've ever Kickstarted. I mean, it wasn't even a question. The only question was to what level do I back it? And how many copies do I want? I settled on one copy (for the time being) along with the soundtrack, because OMG Harry Manfredini!

My wife and I are HUGE fans of Friday The 13th. I don't know how to properly convey that. Many of our first dates involved rewatching those movies (in order) together. I can't even fathom how many times we've seen them all over the years. Heck, I can't even count how many times we've watched documentaries ABOUT the series. It's just a huge deal for us.

I played that original Kickstarter release back when it launched on PC and had a great time with it. It was one of my favorite games of that year. However, since then I've moved away from PC gaming and had been really hoping for a Switch port, which I thought unlikely due to licensing issues that Gun Media eventually ran into.

Well, my wish came true and I re-bought the game happily!

Though you could view Friday The 13th as just another asymmetrical game a la Evolve or Dead By Daylight - and that would be fair - it's a total love letter to the series. I had been following the game long before it even had the license. It used to just be called Slasher Volume 1: Summer Camp, and I was all for it as an homage. But being able to play a game where you actually get to explore locales from the movie is mind blowing for a fan like me. They totally nailed the feeling of the movies big time.

My wife generally hates any game where she has to play with other people online. She won't touch stuff like that as it makes her really nervous. But when I said "hey, play this Friday The 13th game," she was happy to give it a shot. What makes the game so incredible is that each 20-minute or so match feels like it's a mini-movie where you can relay the plot of what just happened. It's actually exciting.

For instance, I remember playing one where I teamed up with another player and we spent a good deal of time together finding weapons, setting traps, and making our way through the map. When Jason found us we were on a bridge so we jumped into the lake and tried to swim off. He followed us. Just as he got to us another camper showed up on a boat and I hopped in. The camper sped off in the boat leaving my original partner in the water as bait. I felt horrible, but it was memorable.

This is the sort of game that's as fun to watch as it is to play. As such, I'm having a lot of fun just watching my wife give it a try. She entered Camp Crystal lake an immediately was like "wait, I'm Shelly? He's the worst character in the whole series!" Haha. I never told her what to do - just watched. It was great. She made her way through some cabins, and found a weapon. She decided to go solo - like maybe Jason would go after the big group of teens and leave her alone. Well, no. He detected a straggler away from the group and acted as a true predator. But damn, this game is fun. The funny thing is that even after dying it's fun to watch the survivors and see what they do.

Seriously, I'm underselling it here. This game rules.

I tried BOTW in VR over the weekend. Really only had time for a quick demo of it, but I like what I saw.

I want to start by reiterating that I've played lots of things in Oculus Rift in the past, as well as in Samsung Gear VR. So with that in mind, I feel like I knew what to expect (something closer to Gear VR, really) as far as experience/visual quality goes. As such, I wasn't disappointed. But I feel like my expectations were in check, so there's that.

Yes, the resolution is going to make the game look a bit blurrier and all. But that's to be expected going in. It is an absolute MUST that you turn on the aim-with-motion option. This is what will make your head become the camera, and actually give it a proper VR immersion feel, rather than just sort of floating around behind Link all the time. (I'd wager that NOT using the look option would also result in motion sickness as your head tries to understand why the visuals aren't matching the head-turns).

At any rate, diminished resolution fidelity aside, I find this a really interesting game to use in VR. I mean, it makes the rather cheap point of entry of the basic Labo kit worth it to me.

I started my demo just standing on the side of a mountain. So yeah... I jumped. Soaring down and looking around as I made way down felt great. When I got to the bottom a thunder storm started up. Those lightening strikes feel intense when you're like "inside" the game world. As did my attempt to steal a sword off of a sleeping giant.

As you might imagine, using the Joycons connected to your head isn't the most comfortable way to game. It's not actually as bad as I figured, but not ideal. I have to imagine that someone is working right now to make some 3rd party plastic headset that could replace the cardboard Labo kit. Though, I also saw someone selling straps for the Labo headset on Etsy for like $18 which isn't too bad an option for now. I think having the ability to truly wear the headset and play with a Pro Controller would make a world of difference.

If Overwatch is my self-proclaimed Game Of The Decade, then BOTW must be #2 on that list. (Maybe I'll make such a list once the decade is done...).

Not since Link To The Past has a Zelda game kept me continually coming back to it. Most Zelda games are just like an adventure that I want to beat. BOTW is one where I just want to keep going back and exploring the world in tiny little increments. I almost don't care if I ever beat it.

I've been watching this IGN stream called Linked Together and it's been giving me the itch to fire BOTW back up. So I did so this weekend. As usual, I've got nothing planned. I just pick a direction to start walking and see what happens. I NEVER use fast travel. I'm like this about favorite open worlds. I beat Skyrim without fast travel, dudes. The world was too awesome to miss anything.

Anyway, I knocked out a couple of shrines and then found this awesome fire sword that I'm really excited about. One of these days I should get back to the main quest. I have like 20 hours into this playthrough and I've barely started the actual quest which is kind of funny. But then again, it's also how I tend to tackle open world games that I adore. It's nice to know the main quest is there waiting for me should I ever feel like working on it. For now, I'll just relax with the game.

There's no understating how huge TMNT was for me back in 1987. I mean, even to this day TMNT is pretty huge. But by the time this NES game rolled around in 1989, the Ninja Turtles were the biggest thing on the planet for me. So having a a Nintendo game to play was kind of a big deal.

This was one of those games that "everybody" I knew had a copy. Heck, I had it on NES and somehow we also had a DOS copy on our PC back then as well. It was one of those classic games where you'd tell your friends on the playground all the tips and tricks you figured out. I guess all I'm trying to say with all this is that the NES TMNT game was  a bit hit with my circle of friends. And as a fan of the franchise to this day, the game still means a lot to me.

And yet I recognize it's not perfect. It's actually far from perfect. I could sit here and nitpick it all day. It's that far from perfect. I could talk about the weak range of Raphael and Michelangelo's weapons. Or the crazy slowdown that results from Ultra throwing a million enemies at you at once. Or the poor hit detection. Or certain jumps that require such precision that you'll have to retry them over and over. But alas, nostalgia blinds me on this one. And I'm willing to let that happen. 

I've been using a SNES controller to play games on my Retron 5 lately, and this feels really good on old NES games like this. I love that overhead map music in this game by the way. Sorry, random. Anyway, I pretty much coasted right on over to the dam level and then of course I hit a wall. Ugh. That level's always been brutal for me. There's one part where I can't seem to make it through without touching the electric grass stuff over and over.  It's bad. I had just the last bomb left to defuse - I could SEE IT - and zap. Ugh.

That's my biggest takeaway from the original NES game. The game is damn difficult. Like probably unfairly so at times. But I really do still enjoy it and appreciate it. Don't get me wrong, there are far better Ninja Turtles games out there. But also, there's way worse ones. Or at least less interesting ones.

The original Luigi's Mansion was definitely fun for me. But it was also very much a part of a place and time. Meaning, it was a great game to show off the launch of the Gamecube. It was different, and had great lighting and use of transparencies. In many ways, it sort of felt like a longish tech demo. And most, it was a fun but shortish game. 

Nintendo has always been smart about this kind of stuff. The idea is so simple: Take a successful game and totally Nintendofy it. IE: Make it fun and family friendly and not overly challenging. So back when the Gamecube launched we got what was effectively the Nintendo Resident Evil game. And oh yeah, it also aped Ghostbusters pretty hard. But it was fine. It worked. It was a goofy and unique game that didn't overstay its welcome. I enjoyed it then, and I enjoyed it years later when my wife and I revisited it. 

Now they've gone ahead and announced Luigi's Mansion 3, but I realize I skipped 2. Or what would have been 2. Instead it's called Dark Moon. And I found  a fairly cheap copy so here we go. 

Having played a couple of hours now, I'll say that I'm not really hooked. I don't know if Luigi's Mansion needed to be a series. It worked great as a one-off experiment. But this sequel feels like they just took the original game and made it way WAY bigger. Depending on your take, this is good or bad. For me it's like... eh, did they need to? Do I NEED to play another Luigi's Mansion game? I don't know.

The first two hours have been slow. There's very little challenge. Very little in the way of puzzle solving. And worse - it's so guided. I feel like every few steps I'm getting a call from the professor to tell me SOMETHING else about how to proceed. Given what I've seen in the first couple of hours, I'm nervous that this game will be nothing but a very long tutorial. Oh, and yeah it's super long apparently. Like six times longer than the original game. The original game was known for being very short, but y'know what? That's okay. I often like a nice compact experience.

So here we are. Dark Moon seems fine and all, but also kind of unnecessary to me. I'm not sure how much more I'll play. It's not BAD by any means, but it just has a very rehash feeling about it, at least so far. Maybe it's a slow burner? But even if it is, I have a lot of other games I'd probably want to get back to sooner. I still haven't finished Resident Evil Revelations that I started earlier this month.