As you might (and probably should have) read from the title, Pikmin 3 is a game all about pikmin, all jokes aside, Pikmin 3 is a cute real time strategy game where you are tasked with controlling a maximum of 100 little plant soldiers called Pikmin, these cute little 2 inch carrot creatures behave in a similar way to ants, giving you the possibility of using them to retrieve fruit, ship parts and even the corpses of their enemies, which you can then use to generate more of these cute little fellas.
Not only is this gameplay loop satisfying, but also requires some actual neural activity as you are only given 10-15 minutes during each in game day (depending on the difficulty) to collect as much fruit as possible and continue with the games objectives.
In the base game, 5 different pikmin types show up, the:
Red pikmin are capable of dealing more damage than other pikmin (1.5x) and feature fire resistance, granting them a immunity towards certain enemy attacks
Yellow pikmin can be thrown farther away and can dig up buried objects at faster speeds, they can also resist shocks
Rock pikmin can be spammed at enemies to deal large amounts of non exponential damage to enemies in a short period of time, they are also blastproof and look cute:)
Winged pikmin can carry objects over rivers and bridges yet their damage output is weaker than the rest (0.5x).
Blue pikmin are the only pikmin which can carry objects, attack other creatures and navigate their enviroment underwater.
As for the plot of the game, you simaultaneously control 3 different tiny astrounauts from another planet(Koppai) as your own home planet is currently facing a food crisis, unfortunately, as you make your way down to planet earth, your ship decides it is its time to crash and you end up losing the ships cosmic drive key because of the incident, this search for the cosmic drive key leads to you discovering Olimar and Louie, two other tiny astrounauts searching for treasure to pay off their company's debt.
Against all odds, Olimar ended up finding and unknowingly keeping the cosmic drive key, finding uit to be a great present for his son. Olimar is later held hostage by a golden melmetal shaped creature named the plasm wraith, you are then tasked with saving him which leads to the final bossfight of the game and the retrieval of the cosmic drive key.
Wii Party
Wii party is a game released for the, you will never see it coming: wii. Originally released in 2010, wii party went on to receive good reviews and a sequel on the wii u, albeit not much might meet the eye at a surface level, wii party was the first video game I have EVER PLAYED, as such making it pretty important to me.
Unfortunately, I didn't actually own the game and only got to play it for one evening at someone else's home, regardless, I would later go on to get my first ever console/handheld of the same name alongside this very game.
Wii party comes with a wide selection of different minigames and formats to play in, albeit many require button inputs, some may require you to use the wiimote's gyroscope to launch yourself as far as you can or jump at just the right time before taking a massive leap! The largest (and my favorite) mode to play in is Board Island (Image Above) A section of the game dedicated to playing in a virtual game board, albie the concept sounds simple, the execution couldnt be less chaotic, the map is filled with, dice rerolls, empty gaps and even a volcano section, there are also plenty of other games to play with just 2 people, boat balance and match up are just to name a few.
Words cannot stress how important this game has been to me, without it, I wouldnt be here making this site:)
Kirby and The Forgotten Land
Originally released in 2022, Kirby and The Forgotten Land quickly became one of my favorite games of all time, not only does the game have a beautiful stylized artstyle, but the setting in the 1st and 2nd world could both be considered FA in some regards.
The game itself isnt bad too, with 12 different copy ablities available, which can be collected by scouting and collecting different blueprints scattered across each stage.
As for the story itself, a vacuum portal appears out of nowhere in dreamland, inhaling and transporting, hundreds of waddle dees, bandana waddle dee and kirby to a post-pocalyptic planet earth where kirby must save all of the captured waddle dees from fecto elfilis, a kirbyfied mewtwo grown in the lab. Albeit the game is quite easy, it still dosen't take away from the enjoyment of the game, additionally, the colosseum can offer quite a challenge, especially on the harder modes.
Pokemon Ultramoon
Originally Released in 2017-2018, Pokemon Ultramoon was the first pokemon game I have ever played on legitimate hardware, introducing me to the series as a whole, nostalgia aside, Usum are extrmely polished games with a wide variety of pokemon, good visuals, fun gameplay and hours of content.
(the post game dosent recycle previous content so thats cool). The soundtrack is also really, really good, with many of the city themes and the poni canyon theme being one of the all time greats.
As for the legendaries, Solgaleo, Lunala and Necrozma with all of its forms make for a extrmely interasting and cool set of legendaries, with Necrozma being my favourite legendary of all time because of its lore and design. Pokemon Ultramoon was also the game that made me like Ampharos so much
Undertale Yellow
Undertale Yellow is a fan project produced by the Undertale Yellow Team, with the project originally starting in 2016 and taking all the way until December 2023 to complete. Think of this as the undertale equivalent of Gta6 or Pikmin 4. Although it might have taken a long time to release, the game made up for it in its quality, with a completely new cast of characters from the original (with the exception of asgore, toriel and alphys in that one genocide cutscene), new areas such as the dark ruins, steamworks and wild east and a improved artistic direction, with many areas now being full of little details instead of endless black voids at their corners like in its predecessor. In addition, almost every single track goes incredibly hard or works really well as a ambient track, with the main composers being MyNewSoundtrack, NoteBlock and MasterSwordRemix, with other people such as GlitchedPie, DYLZAL and emBer also contributing to the 135 different tracks in the game.
The story itself can either range from being really dark to heartwarming and touching depending on which route is played, with almost every single main character being absolutely peak fiction. Seriously, go try it out, its free and can be found here. This game has managed to become my favorite game of all time, with the original not being too far off, everything is almost perfect, but I dont want to spoil it so I wont elaborate further:). Oh and btw you get a actual gun and you play as a unsupervised 9 year old.
Sonic Mania
Sonic Mania has one of, if not the best soundtrack I have ever heard, every single zone hits, there is not a single miss. Tracks such as mirage saloon act 2 and egg reverie zone are some of my favorites, with tracks like green hill act 2 and metallic madness act 1 coming in close. As for the game itself, Sonic Mania spans 13 zones, with the last one essentially being just a bossfight arena, with 4 being new, original zones, the old ones, on the other hand, have the 1st act feature the best parts of the 1st and 2nd zone from their original game, with a new, even cooler look. The 2nd act, on the other hand, introduces new ideas and completely original level design, making it essentially a new act to that zone.
The pixel art is the best I have seen in any game, each stage is full of small details which make it feel lived in, lastly, the level design is a perfect balance between fair and precise platforming and rewarded speed. The team behind the game would go on to detach themselves from their partnership with SEGA and make Penny's Big Breakaway, which I might try out someday. (The game also has DLC which adds 2 new characters and tweaks the enemy and object placement of the zones)
