Rapid Reviews Part VIII

More quick reviews.

• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color) - Easily one of the best Zelda titles and arguably the best dungeon design of any Zelda game.
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy) - Playing this back to back with Ages was so much fun. Compared to Ages, Seasons is a bit more action oriented whereas Ages leans more heavily on puzzles.
• Firewatch (PS4) - A simplistically delivered heartfelt story.
• Carrion (Switch) - Repetitive, confusing, boring, and unnecessarily convoluted. One of the worst Metroidvanias ever produced. And to brand this as “horror” is just silly.
• Panzer Paladin (Switch) - It’s got the retro look, fun weapons, and the cool anime inspired cut scenes. Gameplay and level design is where it falls short.
• Curse of the Moon 2 (Switch) - The sequel that satisfied the itch left by the original. And yet still I crave more.
• Mario Land 2 (Game Boy) - It’s intuitive, the power-ups are simple yet fun, you have freedom to chose what order to tackle levels, there’s secret stages, the check points curb any frustration, the water levels don’t suck, and Wario is awesome.
• Castlevania Adventure (Game Boy) - You move like you are walking through mid, there’s no sub weapons, the hit collision on Belmont is unfairly large, you lose whip upgrades with damage, the gap jumps are ridiculously difficult, and the level design feels disconnected from the reality of the environments they are meant to exist in.
• Brothers (PS4) - The mechanics are unique and at first a bit of a brain teaser to get accustomed to as it requires you to multitask in the truest sense of the word. It’s how I imagine drummers feel when they first learn how to play.
• Resident Evil: Gaiden (Game Boy) - Unlike the failed, overly ambitious Game Boy version of the original Resident Evil (an unfinished demo), Gaiden smartly employs a battle mechanic that fits into the simplicity of the hardware. Where it suffers is in the dialogue that seems to have been outsourced to an elementary school student.