Unlike the typical online matches in Splatoon 3, the new Side Order DLC ventures into a whole new realm of rogue-like gameplay. You start off this story as Agent 8, an Octoling trying to survive in a world of chaos. The player will make their way through a mysterious building called Deca Tower and try to survive for 30 levels. If you don’t make it, that’s ok. You can try again!

At every floor/level, you are presented with a selection of challenges based on difficulty. You can play it safe and reap less rewards or go for the harder challenges and get some much needed Membux. You can use Membux for upgrades, as well as the color chips you will collect along the way. Color chips are the coolest thing about this DLC, in my opinion. The way you can customize your Octolings abilities and weapons is pretty awesome. For example, you can use a variety of combinations and come out with a Roller that has a sniper scope. You can add new abilities, and increase shooting range and damage. There are a lot of color chips to collect and a lot of combinations to try. After each run, your upgrades will convert to Prlz that you can spend on permanent upgrades.

As you can probably tell from my previous paragraph, you will need to play through Deca Tower more than once. This will allow you to create strategies and plans to progress further next time. Some of the challenges you might have to complete are guarding splat zones from enemies, guiding a tower to a goal, mass enemy pursuits (similar to Salmon run), and obstacle courses. Boss encounters are every nine floors. Some of them can be pretty challenging, but once you figure out their weakness you’ll start to get through them quickly. Defeating the boss will give the player keys that unlock valuables, including additional weapon palettes. There is a store you can visit that provides helpful hacks to aid you with challenges if you are having trouble with one.

While not as difficult as the Octo Expansion DLC, Side Order presents a nice variety of challenges. However, as a seasoned Splatoon player (lol) I found most of these levels/challenges moderately easy. There were a few I found particularly frustrating, but that was usually due to the weapon I was assigned. Speaking of which, depending on what weapon you are used to, what weapon you get when you start Deca Tower will help your chances of winning. I did much better when I was given the weapons with which I was familiar.

Overall, Side Order has a lot of replay value and different ways to approach the gameplay. If you’re looking for something “fresh,” I definitely recommend checking out this new mode. However, If rogue-likes aren’t your thing, then you may want to stick to online matches. But for those seeking a departure from multiplayer chaos, it provides a nice alternative with a good amount of replay value.

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If you’re unfamiliar with how Picross games work, each puzzle begins with an empty grid of squares, with a set of numbers running along the top and left-side. Once you fill in the correct squares in the grid, the finished product will reveal a picture.

In this case, the pictures are all things from the Story of Seasons games, like tools, items, characters, animals, and buildings. As you complete puzzles, you will notice your farm begin to grow. You can see your farm in the background of the main screens, with the two main characters constantly working. It’s just a basic view that you can’t really do anything with. If you complete a puzzle that ends up being a chicken, for example, then chickens will appear on your farm. Same with cows, dogs—you get it. It would have been neat to be able to interact with it a little more though.

Songs from the games play in the background, and the sound effects are from the Story of Seasons games, as well. It’s a little nostalgic if you’ve played any of the Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons games and you hear a familiar tune playing. If you press pause during a puzzle it will tell you the song title and the game it’s from. You can adjust the sound effects and music , thank goodness. As nostalgic as some of those songs are, they can get a little repetitive.

The puzzle screen is basic, like most Picross games. You don’t want a bunch of distractions while you’re counting. The colors and songs in the puzzles will change with each season. Winter is the most boring time of year… as usual.

As far as the number of puzzles go in Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, there are a whopping 350 levels to complete and 5 collage puzzles.

Collage puzzles are much bigger and are broken down into multiple, smaller puzzles. When all of them are completed they will form one big picture. You definitely get your money’s worth as far as content goes. There are also little achievement badges you get for completing certain groups of puzzles. Once you’ve finished them all, you can start all over again.

I enjoy Picross puzzles, but for some reason they’re more fun when they’re themed—as with the Legend of Zelda Picross game that was on the 3DS, or Mario’s Picross on the Gameboy. Here, you’re getting a normal Picross game with a Story of Seasons theme, kind of like the monopoly board game and how there are 1,000 different themes you can choose from.

So, if you’re a Picross fan, you’ll enjoy this game. And if you’re a Story of Seasons / Picross fan, you’ll really enjoy this game. If you’re unfamiliar with Picross, I highly recommend trying it out, especially if you like puzzles or pixel art. It can seem intimidating, but, once you get the hang of it, it’s quite addictive.

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Harvest Moon has evolved so much over the years; sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse. How will the newest installment fare compared to other more recent farming sims? Let’s take a look.

I stumbled upon this series by accident. A friend’s mom bought it for her on the Nintendo 64, and we assumed it was going to be the most boring game ever. Cut to three weeks later, when we are absolutely obsessed with a video game about farming and starting a family. It sounds boring, but it was so relaxing, and so chill. One of the best parts for me were the random interactions you could trigger with the various characters and bachelorettes. They make every playthrough a little bit different, and they make you want to form relationships with all of the villagers.

Over time, Harvest Moon started to become a little less exciting and a lot more complicated. I’m still interested in what the series has to offer, but nothing beats the first few games.

The Winds of Anthos definitely feels new in a lot of ways. First and foremost, the best part of this game is the exploration aspect. This is the first open-world Harvest Moon game, which was very interesting.

In order to explore, though, you must first complete the prologue. This is probably the worst part of the game. You’re just starting out, so you don’t have much and you have to complete some main quests in order to unlock everything the game has to offer. Something you will really appreciate are the warp statues. These are placed throughout the map, and usually in every town. They come in really handy when you need to get somewhere fast. You will end up using them a lot later in the game. It felt like there was a lot of wasted space in the field areas, and you won’t want to waste energy hiking around all day for no reason.

Speaking of energy. You start out with five hearts (you eventually gain more, but this takes some time). As you work and move around the map, your hearts will deplete. In my opinion, they dwindle away pretty quickly. You can replenish your energy by eating meals you cook or buy from the local restaurant. Or, you can forage for food/ingredients around the map to snack on. I always tended to run out of energy kind of early on in the day. Days last around 15 minutes, so it’s hard to make your energy last the entire duration. Literally everything takes energy, besides talking. You can talk all day, but be careful when walking, running, chopping down trees, smashing rocks, tending to crops and everything in between. Thank goodness you can warp and get a horse later in the game, or I don’t think I could have taken it much longer.

Everything else is pretty much the same as far as the farming and forming relationships go. The one difference is that this is the first Harvest Moon game where you can marry a same sex partner (how futuristic of them). You can talk to people or give them gifts to increase their relationship with you. Once you get them to a certain point of affection, you can marry them and even start a family. The good ol’ American dream!

There are five different towns to discover, each with their own themes and terrain to explore. There are also a lot of different animals you can befriend or use as an alternative mount to your horse. For example, you can ride a zebra or even a unicorn if your heart desires.

As far as your farm goes, you will need to water your crops daily, feed your animals—you know, the usual stuff. You can eventually upgrade your farm and add new buildings or move things around. There’s a little bit of customization, but not much, especially when it comes to creating your character. You can edit skin color, gender, hair color, and eye color. That’s it. No facial features or clothing (until later in the game when you can purchase a few outfits).

When it comes to aesthetics and performance, Winds of Anthos is lacking. The game froze twice on me in the beginning of my playthrough; everything I did that day had to be done all over again. It was pretty annoying, and I didn’t know when or if, it was going to happen again.

I also noticed some frame rate stutters. This didn’t happen often, but it happened enough to notice and be irritated by. I also am just not a fan of these graphics. They feel cheap and overused by so many games. It feels a little generic, in my opinion. And as I mentioned before, there are many open areas in this game that I don’t feel are being utilized properly.

What I did like was seeing the seasons change, interacting with wild animals, watching the pretty night sky, and experiencing the different variety of terrain and weather.

Overall, Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos is very similar to recent Harvest Moon titles. I honestly prefer the “old skool” gameplay and graphics; they were straight to the point, and everything didn’t seem like such a chore. However, I have to give Winds of Anthos props for trying out an open world farming game. I feel like it adds a lot to the story and gives the player many more options when planning out their day.

Once you get through the prologue, the game is a lot more tolerable and fun. If you have some patience and you’re a fan of Harvest Moon, I definitely recommend checking out this latest installment. But for players looking for something fast-paced, like Stardew Valley, you may want to skip The Winds of Anthos for now.

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30XX takes place 1,000 years later than it’s predecessor, 20XX (2018), and plays pretty much the same. You can play co-op with a friend, which was really fun and helpful at times. The two characters you play as are pretty much MegaMan and Zero from MegaMan X (but totally not them, shh). These characters are known as Ace and Nina. If you don’t have a friend to play with, you can join online multiplayer or play alone, which is just as fun.

In order to beat each level, you will need to blast through all of the enemies in your way and defeat the final boss. There are two modes to choose from when you start the game. You can choose standard mode, which I would call hard mode. You lose all of your progress when you die in standard mode, and the levels are chosen randomly for you. If you choose mega mode it’s a little easier, and you can go at your own pace. You won’t lose your upgrades in mega mode. Instead, you will be teleported back to the hub where you can purchase more upgrades. You can also choose which level you want to play in this mode.

The cool thing about 30XX is that each time you play a level they are randomly generated. The bosses stay the same, but everything in between will change slightly each time you play it. This keeps the gameplay fresh and makes the levels a little more challenging to master. If that’s not enough for you, you can also check out the community mode from the main menu and play all kinds of different levels created by the 30XX community. There is a ton of variety when it comes to levels and gameplay, so it’s hard to get bored.

30XX also lets you customize the difficulty settings and controls for each player. You can lower enemy health, lower how much damage you take, and adjust the game’s clock speed. These will come in handy if you are having trouble getting through specific areas or a tough boss.

Gameplay wise, 30XX is just like MegaMan X. You can jump off walls, slide through narrow passageways, shoot, and charge your weapon to kill enemies. I pretty much ran through each area as quickly as I could, then took my time with the bosses. I’ve always loved MegaMan X, but I was never super great at it when it came to the bosses. The chameleon guy was always my favorite though.

30XX isn’t just fun to play, it also has awesome music and updated retro graphics. It’s a very smooth game over all, besides the general difficulty. I didn’t notice any lagging or freezing, even when there were numerous enemies on the screen. Each area has its own theme and music, which is nice if you’re stuck on a difficult level and need a change of scenery.

Overall, 30XX is a fun game with a lot of variety to offer when it comes to level design, enemies, and power-ups. You can choose the best mode for you, or join in on the community fun and play random levels to your heart’s content. If you’re a fan of action platformers, or you’re a fan of MegaMan X, 30XX is great game for people of all skill levels and ages. 

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In short, yes. It is a good game. But after playing for a while, it feels like Everdream Valley had the opportunity to be a really great game. Let’s start with the story. You’re a kid whose parents wanted the house to themselves for the Summer, so they drop you off at Grandma and Grandpa’s farm and call it a vacation. However, this is the farthest thing from a vacation, especially for a kid. Your grandparents are old, and due to them being pretty decrepit they’re unable to take care of the farm any more. But now, thanks to your parents, you get to spend a whole Summer here helping them restore it to its former glory.

The first thing you’ll do is create your character. Personally, I hated the way these characters looked. The facial features felt kind of generic, and I couldn’t find a look or hairstyle I liked. I am really picky when it comes to character creation, though. It’s one of my favorite parts of some games. After creating your creepy child avatar, you’ll be dropped off at the farm, and the game begins. Over the course of the first few days, you’ll learn how to do general farm work, like planting and harvesting crops, animal care, yard care, cooking, crafting, etc. There’s actually quite a lot to keep you busy. With all the chores, animal training (and herding), story-driven missions, side quests, minigames, and more, it can feel like you’re trying to cram a lot into one day.

For example, herding animals is the only way to get new livestock for your farm. You first have to find the animals and then herd them back to the farm, which is a very slow process. It made me not even want new animals, to be honest. But that’s the worst of the “chores” you’ll complete. The rest of them, like training the animals and restoring old buildings, give you a kind of rewarding feeling and make you want to invest more time. You’ll have to collect lots of materials in order to complete all of these tasks.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with how these games work. Get various, specific materials, use one of your trusty tools or crafting stations, and voila! A new building appears, a fence is rebuilt, a new dish prepared… you get the idea. Restoring the farm will take time, but it’s nice to have all of these things to do in a farming game. The day-to-day tasks can become mundane (like real life), and sometimes you just need to run around the farm with your cat and train it to jump through hula hoops or take on one of the many side quests Everdream Valley offers.

One of the strangest things you must do is play through a dream minigame every night when going to sleep. You’ll spin a wheel in the dream lottery, and it will choose what kind of dream you have. You’ll take the form of some type of animal, like a goat or chicken, and complete a quick minigame like collecting items or racing around an area, hitting all of the checkpoints. These would be kind of fun if they were optional or not so frequent. But they become even more repetitive than watering crops every day.

The main quests are there to kind of guide you in the right direction when it comes to restoring the farm. However, completing these too fast will result in you completing the game without even knowing it. I did the last quest and slept, assuming there would be more the next day. But nope, nothing. No credits roll, no congrats or thank you from the grandparents; just an endless summer and endless work. There’s a section in the pause menu that says DLC, and some of the map is left unexplored, so I’m assuming the developer plans on adding new seasons or something? Not sure how that would work, though, since the kid has to go to school.

As for graphics and music, Everdream Valley seemed to go in the right direction here, as the game looks great. And there’s a lot you can do with your farm as far as customization goes, which is always satisfying. Though I feel it was lacking in the quality control department due to the number of bugs and glitches, The game even shut off a couple of times when I first started playing. Farm work is too repetitive, as it is, to be dealing with stuff like that. I think a patch was released at some point to fix some of these issues. But I still experience bugs when trying to run consistently or getting stuck during the dream minigames and timing out because I’m literally not able to complete the mission. It is still playable, but it can be frustrating at times.

Overall, it seems like I did have a lot of criticism for Everdream Valley, but it wasn’t all bad. If the gameplay bugs weren’t there, herding animals was easier, minigames were optional, and there was a longer story or proper ending, I would really like this game. I read that the developers are working on the bugs and updates to make gameplay smoother, so there is still hope if you’d like to try it, especially those of you looking for a new relaxing farming game.

Everdream Valley is available now on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $24.99.

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In the game, players move around the pit area and use the various tools provided to perform maintenance on the vehicles that need assistance. For example, you may need to change a bad tire. This involves grabbing the jack, jacking the car up, removing the tire, grabbing a new tire, attaching it, then removing the jack. You will also do things like replace bumpers, fix dents, replace parts under the car, put out fires, etc. This sounds like a lot, and it is if you’re playing solo, but Speed Crew really shines when you have two or more players in the Pit. When a car pulls up, you will diagnose its issues which will be highlighted in yellow so you know what you need to work on. Splitting up and focusing on different tasks is your best bet.

It seems more frantic, but a lot easier when you have multiple teammates. This will allow you to get through more cars faster, and complete each level with a higher score. It’s also just more fun in general when you’re not playing alone. I thought it was funny that players can get hit by the cars if they’re not careful and out of the way when they pull in to the garage. This made for some funny moments, seeing my teammates fly across the screen. No need to worry though, as they will respawn after 3 seconds. You can also slap your teammates for some reason. This is just something silly the developers added for a little extra fun.

The controls felt a bit sluggish for such a fast-paced game. Having to grab all of the tools and put them back where they go before I could move on also felt frustrating; it kind of slowed things down when all I wanted to do was move faster and get to the next car. This is also a gameplay mechanic that is less frustrating with more players, as you can assign tasks to your teammates, like putting the tools up or getting rid of the scrap/garbage. Don’t worry if you are lacking local friends to play with; Speed Crew has an online multiplayer mode that will allow you to join three other players for the various levels. So, there’s really no need to play alone unless you want some practice or you like a solitary challenge.

As far as graphics go, I feel Speed Crew could have looked a little better. The way it looks kind of reminds me of a smart phone game. It’s nothing horrible, but I wouldn’t call it appealing in terms of character design or environments. It has moments where it looks good, but other times it just looks a bit generic. The music isn’t much better, but it works for the theme of the game. Overall, I think the main appeal with Speed Crew is the fun you will be having while playing with friends.

If this looks interesting to you, in I highly recommend checking out the demo on the eShop before you buy it. That way you can get a good feel for the controls and multiplayer mode. Speed Crew is a fun game to play with the family, a group of friends, or online with three strangers. However, I don’t think it’s very fun when you play it alone. If you’re looking for a fun, co-op game, definitely add this one to your list.

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In Panic Porcupine, players must pull off very specific maneuvers, with the right amount of momentum and speed to survive the various spikes, saws, projectiles, flames, and random pits (generously) scattered throughout each level. Each area has 10 courses, and the 10th course usually contains a boss of some sort. The overworld for each area reminded me of Super Mario 3. The player moves along a linear path to the next level. You have to complete a certain amount of levels before you can proceed to the next area.

Your goal is to defeat the Dr. Robotnik clone and save all the Chickabirds in each level. There are also eggs that you can collect if you’re the completionist type. The eggs are sometimes difficult to obtain, and I didn’t have the patience for it. But if you love a good challenge, this will definitely add to the difficulty. I personally just tried to fly through each level as quickly as I could without becoming ground porcupine meat.

Unless you have really good timing, this is a tough one. You will repeatedly die; that part is inevitable. However, it’s extremely rewarding getting past a difficult area. Though after the first few levels, it starts to feel like a never-ending cycle of frustration and brief elation. Sometimes I just wanna go fast and not worry about dying, you know? The levels are short, but when you die, you have to start all over. So I recommend getting the harder Chickabirds first.

The one thing I really didn’t like was having to get a good amount of momentum to get out of certain nooks and crannies. Panic Porcupine does not have a charge ability like Sonic the Hedgehog. So when you’re stuck in a U shaped tube, and the only way out is getting enough speed to come out of the other end, it gets annoying. I found myself stuck a few times. This didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was time consuming to say the least. When the rest of the game feels so fast paced, it feels odd to get “stuck” in these types of situations. And I also found it odd that so much was copied from Sonic, yet there was no charge ability. Not sure if that some sort of liability/trademark issue maybe?

You don’t get much time to take in the scenery in Panic Porcupine. Pretty backgrounds and graphics don’t mean much when death is around every corner. There’s a fun retro feel to this game, though. Something about the way the characters look and move reminds me of an old Looney Tunes game that was on the SNES. There’s also a strong late 80s, early 90s vibe going on in this game. It’s very colorful, and the music is fun and upbeat. You even get to save your progress onto a floppy disk… If you’re even cool enough to know what those are. The sparse cutscenes and dialogue are entertaining. The game is very aware of how much it was influenced by other popular titles, and it pokes fun at the similarities quite a bit.

Overall, Panic Porcupine is fun when you’re winning. But when you get stuck on a level and must do the same thing repeatedly to get one bird, the game can be very frustrating and repetitive. But stick with it. For better or worse, games like this are meant to be beaten through trial and error—probably accompanied by a little panic. If you’d like something more relaxing, you might want to skip Panic Porcupine. But it’s a good game for players looking for a retro, challenging experience.

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Flame Keeper is easy to get the hang of. The left joystick is used to move Ignis around and the right joystick is used to aim and shoot. Ignis is equipped with a variety of abilities that players can use to annihilate enemies, as well as a general dash ability and a shield ability. Attacking enemies with your special abilities will lower your stamina, but it restores over time. You also have a health bar. Normally you wouldn’t have to worry too much about this, due to enemies dropping plenty of health upon defeating them. However, your health bar is also used to restore fire to the various lanterns and fire pits around Orbis.

To ignite the fire pits in each area, you will need to collect coals/embers that are scattered throughout the land. You can find these when you shake trees, move objects, or defeat enemies. Once you have collected a good amount you will add them to the fire, and once it is fully restored you can move on to the next area. There were only a few times I had to go looking for embers to complete a level, but it was never much of an issue finding them. Enemies respawn, so the game kind of gives you what you need.

The fast-paced combat system is really fun. Running through levels and blowing through bad guys, feels great. But there are challenges and obstacles that will test your skills and patience. Enemies do respawn as mentioned above, and sometimes combat can feel repetitive. The beginning levels are pretty easy. But once you get far enough, the difficulty rises a bit. There are also bosses that you will need to defeat. These present some welcomed variety when it comes to gameplay and combat.

Between levels you can visit the hub area, a small village where you can get new abilities and upgrades. Here you will be able to access your skill tree. You can use any resources you have collected during your travels to upgrade Ignis however you see fit. Abilities range from stronger physical attacks, to elemental spells. Resources are acorns, mushrooms, seeds, etc. These are gained when defeating enemies or found while exploring a level. 

The world has a darker color palette. However, a lot of the enemies are bright and contrasting to the dark backgrounds. There are a lot of eye catching creatures, lurking about. The aesthetics and short cutscenes were nice. If you’re in the mood for Halloweentown 24/7, Orbis is the place to be. I would have liked a more in-depth story ,though. I’m glad for the lack of dialogue and being able to get straight to the point, but I always feel distant from a game when I can’t really get to know the characters or their backstories. 

Overall, Flame Keeper is a fun, action-packed game. It’s just a matter of how much action you can take before you feel “burnt out” (I’m doing pretty well with these fire puns). Gameplay is repetitive, and there isn’t much to keep you visually stimulated, but running around kicking butt is satisfying. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, combat-based game, you will definitely want to check out Flame Keeper.

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Rytmos is a puzzle game at its core, but the underlying music theme is what makes this game so interesting.

Basically, the universe that Rytmos takes place in has been destroyed and the player must restore it to its natural state. In order to do this, you must complete various puzzles in different solar systems. There are seven solar systems that have their own musical theme, and three planets that contain a layer of a track that will eventually merge into a full song. When you scroll through the solar systems, it will tell you what their themes are. For example, one planet is inspired by German electronic music, and another is inspired by Indonesian gamelan music. Honestly, it’s filled with music I had never heard of or known about until playing this game.

Each planet is shaped like a cube. After you choose which planet you want to work on, it will zoom in and you can rotate the planet. This allows you to see all of the fractured sides/areas that you will need to complete in order to finish the song. Once selected, it will zoom in once more so you can start working on the different layers of each track. Think of each planet as its own little song.

To complete one of these puzzles you must move the red disc through all of the electronic nodes, then loop it back around to the starting point. Hitting the nodes is important because they are the notes used to create each song. Once you complete a section, those notes will play on a loop until the song is complete and the planet is restored. On the more difficult levels, the game starts adding obstacles and other pieces of the puzzle that you will have to use, like ice cubes, moving platforms and rolling blocks, which will prevent you from moving at times.

The game never gets too frustratingly difficult, which makes it a pretty relaxing title, and there are multiple solutions to the puzzles. It’s easy to pick up and the controls are simple. While the music was unfamiliar to me, it was catchy and interesting. I found myself tapping my feet quite a bit during some of these tracks. And once you start working on a planet, it’s hard to stop. It’s satisfying to hear the completed songs once all the different notes are combined. And once a planet is complete, the instruments used in the songs are unlocked for free play from the man menu. So you can mess around with the sounds/beats and make your own original tunes if you want.

Rytmos is a pretty cool puzzle game. Regenerating the planets and making songs is fun, and satisfying. A little more of a challenge would have been fine by me, or maybe some different game modes. But overall, Rytmos is a great addition to any puzzle fan’s library, and a great game for the Nintendo Switch if you’re looking for something quick and easy to play. 

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I don’t know about you, but this is my first time hearing about this series. That could be due to the fact that it was never released where I live, but these two titles seem kind of niche to say the least. That doesn’t mean they’re not good. If you’re a fan of retro RPGs and you want to play something you’ve never played before, then Ninja JajaMaru will be right up your alley.

The first game, Ninja Skill Book, reminds me of the old skool Dragon Quest games. The player will guide the protagonist around the map from a top down point of view. You will travel from point A to point B on an overworld map. You can visit different villages and interact with the characters, random enemy encounters included. You gain XP and grow stronger as you progress. You can also purchase and upgrade weapons and equipment with the money you collect from defeating enemies. It’s a very retro-feeling RPG. I mean that in a good way…and a bad way. It hits all of the right spots if you want a good nostalgia trip, but it also feels like I’m going the pace of a snail when trying to progress—especially with the constant enemies stopping me for battles that felt way longer than they should have.

Ninja JajaMaru: Ninja Skill Book, was probably pretty cool when it was first released, but it does come off a bit outdated now. Anytime you want to talk to a character or check something out, you have to open up the menu and choose the action you want to perform. This just feels repetitive and unnecessary. Thank goodness you’re able to tweak the game settings or else I don’t know if I would have made it as far as I did.

Like most re-released, retro games there is a rewind feature to fix any mistakes you make. This kind of feels like cheating if you grew up in the actual era of these games, but I’m also the person who couldn’t beat Jungle Book without rewinding 20 years later on the Nintendo Switch, so who am I to judge?

Now the second game in this bundle, The Legend of the Golden Castle, is much better in terms of, well, everything. This felt more like a top down legend of Zelda game. Instead of random enemy encounters you can just run around and hit enemies with your equipped weapon. The graphics are also better and the controls are simpler and more fluid. Instead of going through your options and choosing “talk” to interact with an NPC you can just walk up to them and press A. There are a lot of differences between the two games. If you don’t like one, you can try the other.

The best thing about Ninja JaJaMaru: The Lost RPGs is being able to customize your experience—quite a lot, actually. You can change the controls and adjust the rewind speed. You can also change the display, which is really cool. You can adjust the sharpness, CRT gamma, screen size and more. There is also an enhancements section in the options that allows you to do things like reduce the random encounter rate (a life saver), or double XP and Gold. Then there is the Cheats section. Here, you can turn on cheats like unlimited HP, no random encounters, unlimited gold and even max out your stats at the very beginning of the game. It’s definitely a cool feature if you want a more “chill,” laid-back experience. You can also save or access and change the settings anytime by pressing the select button.

While I did enjoy parts of Ninja Skill Book, I have to say this bundle is mostly worth checking out for the Legend of the Golden Castle. I feel like JRPG fans will really enjoy the feel of this one. It’s much easier to pick up and play and much easier to get through without using the cheats or enhancements.

If you like retro JRPGs you might want to check out Ninja JajaMaru: The Lost RPGs. Even if you’re not a fan of older games, being able to customize everything makes this bundle accessible to everyone from beginners to pros. The games are a little outdated, especially Ninja Skill Book, but so are a lot of the recently re-released “retro” games. I personally think it’s fun to go back and play through the games that influenced what we have today, and it definitely makes me appreciate how far games and RPGs in general have come.

Check out Ninja JajaMaru: The Lost RPGs, now available on the Nintendo Switch eShop!

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