PixlBit

Happy New Year!  Let’s start it off right with game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com!  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe please post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it!  OK let’s begin!

Kirby at Kura Sushi

Did you know that in Japan, they have café restaurants with a Kirby theme?  You can get Kirby themed food, get Kirby souvenirs at the gift shop, and even the music in the background is remixed music from the game!  I would totally go to one of those if I ever went to Japan, but I don’t think I could afford to go there in the foreseeable future.  So it’s lucky that Kura Sushi is doing a promotion as of this writing with Kirby!  Kura Sushi is a chain of conveyor belt sushi restaurants.  When you go there, if you eat enough sushi plates, you can get little prizes!  Most of the time, the prizes are anime related, so I’m usually not interested in that.  But a few years ago, they had Pac-Man prizes so you know I had to go to that and I even wrote an article about it here.  A little while later they had Tetris prizes, but I didn’t like any of those so I didn’t go then.  But a couple of years later they did have Pikmin prizes so I wrote an article about that, too.  So now let’s take a look at the Kirby stuff they have this time.  The promotion lasts until the end of January, so depending on when you read this, you might be able to check it out yourself, too!

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond amiibo

After almost a decade, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond was finally recently released.  And of course they have amiibo figures and I got them so let’s take a look!

Milano’s Odd Job Collection (PS4)

My two favorite video game consoles are the Super Nintendo and PlayStation.  I played so many great games on those systems, and there were so many more that never came out overseas!  That’s why I like when a company snags a Japan only classic and brings it over here.  Such is the case with Milano’s Odd Job Collection.  Big thanks to XSEED for bringing it to the US and translating it, as well as just being supportive of me pretty much their entire existence.  Anyway, this game was originally a Japan only PlayStation title.  Interestingly enough, Westone made it, and they’re best known for the Wonder Boy series.   In this game, you play as young girl Milano.  It’s summer vacation, but Milano’s mom will be in the hospital for 40 days, and her dad has to work.  So they send Milano to live with her uncle during that time.  But when she gets there, a note on the door says that her uncle has gone away and to watch the house for him.  Man what kind of parents are they?  Anyway, Milano decides to do odd jobs around town for the summer to earn a lot of money and make her parents proud.  This game is a mini-game collection where you perform job themed activities.  Now before you say, “Oh great, another mini-game collection,” keep in mind this game came out in 1999 or so, nearly half a decade before WarioWare and the glut of mini-game collections on the Wii.  So it was probably pretty innovative back then.

Bob the Brick Breaker (Switch)

Help Bob the Brick Breaker (as opposed to Bob the Builder), break bricks by bouncing a wrecking ball with a girder.  Yup, it’s a BreakOut or Arkanoid clone.  But is it as good as those classics?  You’ll just have to read on to find out!

Running Fable: Petite Party (PS4)

The original Running Fable was a game that came out a few years ago.  You would pick either a rabbit or a turtle (like the fable) and place traps along race tracks as you ran for the goal.  It looked a little bit like a mix of Fall Guys and Mario Kart.  I had never heard of it, but apparently now there is a second game in the series with Petite Party.  Play as the characters from the first excursion as you race along a board game while playing mini-games just like Mario Party. 

Go Kart Island (Switch)

Explore a giant open world island from the seat of your go kart in Go Kart Island.  In the game’s story mode, you play as a young steer (ha) who wants to win the Big Race, but the mayor charges you 1000 coins to enter.  So now you must enter smaller races and challenges to earn the money you need.  Hmmm, an open world kart racer where you can play as a cow?  Where have I seen that before?  You may think this is just a run of the mill kart racer, but it does have one thing that sets it apart.  You view the action from a more top down perspective.

Direction Quad (PS4)

Help a frog swim across obstacle filled ponds and save the day in Direction Quad.  The unique thing about this game is that it only uses one button.  You press it to switch from swimming from one 45 degree angle to another.  Bounce off of springs to change direction, and don’t touch the sides of the pond or other obstacles and make it to the goal to finish each level. 

Gridz Keeper (PS4)

Zombies are invading, and you must turn on the generators to fend them off in Gridz Keeper.  You know those puzzles, usually found in mini-games, where you must turn on all the lights, but when you turn one on, the others turn off?  Yeah that’s basically what this is. 

And that’s all for now!  Thanks for reading my reviews and posting ‘likes’ and comments on them.  I do appreciate it!  Hope everyone has a great 2026!  Later!  --Cary