PixlBit

Games Beaten

-Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)

I hadn't realized that Kirby had never had a fully 3D adventure but Hal Laboratories sure nailed it! Forgotten Land is delightful in its A/V presentation, of course, but it controls well too and has enough variety to keep the game fresh. Plus it walks the line well between making the game accessible to young players but challenging for more seasoned gamers (if they pursue the challenge). And there's some good post-game content too! This is a great Kirby game.

-Mario Super Picross (Super Famicom - Switch Online)

This game lacks some of the niceties of more recent games (not to mention the additional modes) and I found the design of a lot of the puzzles a little disappointing—there are a lot of symmetrical designs—but at the end of the day this is still picross and there's a lot of content here, so it's hard to complain too much.

-Bubble Bobble 4 Friends - The Baron is Back! (Switch)

This game is obviously a budget title. The graphics are pretty simple, there isn't much music, and the content can be blown through pretty quickly. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the Bubble Bobble gameplay is still really fun and the four-player option throws a whole new wrinkle in the works. And while there aren't a ton of levels a la the NES game, these ones offer plenty of variety and challenge (and there are multiple difficulties). Plus the bosses are a lot of fun to fight.

Games Bought

December brings my birthday and Christmas—on a yearly basis!—and there are always games to add afterward. This year I walked away from my birthday with Bayonetta 3 (Switch), which I am very excited to play, and the excellent remake of Live A Live (Switch). That alone would be a solid haul but then for Christmas I got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (Switch)—so excited to replay Turtles in Time—and Death Mark (Switch), the first game in the Spirit Hunter series (more on that below). That's a great bunch of games! But then my kids got games too, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4), LEGO Brawls (PS4), Bubble Bobble 4 Friends - The Baron is Back! (Switch), and Disney Dreamlight Valley (Switch), the Animal Crossing-ish Disney that game that has captured the attention of much of my family.

Aside from holiday acquisitions I also got my Switch copies of River City Girls Zero (the formerly Japan-only Super Famicom brawler that inspired River City Girls; it's been translated and spruced up with cut scenes and whatnot) and River City Girls 2. There are going to be a lot of beatdowns! I also downloaded Picross S Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch) because I've gotten in the habit of playing Picross when falling asleep and I neeeeeed another one! One of my complaints with the Picross S series is that the actually pictures aren't very interesting but this one doesn't have that problem since it's all based on Sega games.

Games Being Played

-Death Mark (Switch)

This is a Japanese horror visual novel with light adventure elements. Your character and others you meet get death marks from hostile spirits. You have to investigate the haunting, find out what the spirit's grudge is, and then confront the spirit before your death mark kills you. It can be intense! The second chapter, for instance, involved a spirit that killed people in the forest with a power drill and, after drilling them full of holes, turned the corpses into beehives O_O. I'm in the fourth chapter right now.

-Picross S Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch)

After finishing up the very hard puzzles at the end of Mario Super Picross, it's weird doing the easy ones at the beginning of this game lol.

-Destiny 2 (PS4)

In the last season before the next big expansion.

-Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch)

Had to take a break from this for the last few weeks because everyone's schedules were not lining up, but we'll be hunting more monsters in the new year!