In 2002, the famous galactic bounty hunter got a new installment on the then-fresh GameCube, known as Metroid Prime. Initially regarded with trepidation and skepticism for its choice of being in first-person, and also being developed by a western studio that was pretty much unknown to the world at large, it soon proved to be a smash hit on release, being a perfectly smooch transition to 3D graphics and delivering an amazing adventure for that funny purple lunchbox.

Such a famous game is well deserving of a remaster, don’t you think?

Metroid Prime: Remastered is the updated rerelease of Metroid Prime, released worldwide digitally for the Nintendo Switch on February 8th, 2023, and then getting a physical version on February 22nd, 2023. In her first journey in the third dimension, Samus Aran investigates the world of Tallon IV to deal with the remnants of the Space Pirates after she destroyed Zebes after the original Metroid. She discovers a secret research base there, but the Space Pirates aren’t the only threat she has to face on the scarred world of Tallon IV…

Featuring revolutionary switchable beam weapons, missile combos and visors, the much beloved logbook for the Scan Visor to record entries for, and a fully traversable 3D world, all given a major visual facelift, Metroid Prime Remastered is sure to be quite a fun time.

Let’s see if it lives up to the hype, shall we?

Story

The main plot is pretty typical for a Metroid game. Samus investigates something strange on an alien planet, fights the indigenous creatures and the Space Pirates, and faces off against massive bosses, while accumulating upgrades along the way. She manages to fight her way to the Impact Crater, destroy the eponymous Metroid Prime, and escape in her ship. So far, nothing special, just business as usual.

The real appeal of the narrative is all the things you can analyze with the Scan Visor and read to discover lore about the planet, or see what the Space Pirates are up to. In particular, there is the plotline where the Chozo of Tallon IV were first afflicted by what they call “the Great Poison” (which in actuality is the catastrophic mutagen known as Phazon), and how for all their efforts, their world continued to slowly die before their eyes. They kept holding out hope for a savior from the stars (ie, Samus) to arrive and save them from certain death… but she never did.

Indeed, by the time Samus makes planetfall, literally none of the Chozo are alive, with the only remnants of their existence being the Phazon-twisted Chozo Ghosts lurking in the Chozo Ruins. It’s rather heartbreaking, given that Samus is closely associated with the Chozo, due to her Power Suit and her abilities being a gift from them. If she had arrived on Tallon IV any earlier, she might have been able to save them, but instead, she can only pick through the ruins and try to stop Phazon from spreading further.

Another interesting side plot is how the Space Pirates’ operations on the planet play out. Initially, they’re scattered, but composed, having narrowly escaped certain death from both Samus and the Galactic Federation, opting to lay low on Tallon for the time being while continuing their experiments with the local Metroids. They’re revealed to be trying to replicate Samus’ gear, and while they are able to copy her Beams to create the Power Troopers, their attempts to mimic her Morph Ball take a heavy turn into dark comedy when it’s revealed that the Pirates volunteering for the tests end up horribly twisted and broken as a result… and it’s noted that Science Team decided to postpone all tests after that.

For the most part they’re treated as cold, ruthless warriors, but they do have a somewhat sillier side due to their penchant for science experiments. And that’s before they realize that Samus is planetside and approaching the Phazon Mines, where they promptly have a collective “OH CRAP SHE’S HERE!” reaction. And even with their experiments with Phazon to create the Elite Pirates and the Omega Pirate, they’re still extremely scared because of her reputation as a one-woman army. Which isn’t without merit, given how she’s capable of wiping the floor with giant monstrosities that would flatten anyone that wasn’t as powerful as her.

Phazon is an interesting addition to the story, being a cancer-like mutagen that transforms and twists anything that it doesn’t immediately kill and consume. It adds a level of nightmare fuel in the later levels, primarily the depths of the Phazon Mines, where the bright radioactive blue material carries an inherent sense of wrongness.

So far, while the main plot isn’t anything to write home about, the worldbuilding and atmosphere is top notch.

Gameplay

Prime takes the 2D gameplay of Metroid and gives it a smooth transition to the third dimension. While a fair bit slower than usual, Samus still has her trademark abilities — the tried-and-true Power Beam, Morph Ball, Missiles, and Grapple Beam. She does lose these at the end of the first level, but she regains them over time, and gets new toys to play with, too.

Being in first person makes you have to think more actively about positioning in both regards to platforming and enemy encounters. To help with this, there is an option to lock onto enemies or targetable objects, and a setting that lets you freely aim your reticule while locked on. It’s similar to how the Metroid Prime Trilogy version of the game adjusted the aiming to match the use of the Wiimote and Nunchuk, just like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. While I highly enjoyed the Trilogy version for feeling very intuitive thanks to the Wiimote, it feels less so when using the control sticks on the Switch Joy-cons, but it’s still enjoyable nonetheless.

Though it started strong, in the end it went out not with a bang, but a whimper. The third game’s critical reception was polarizing, especially with its first, last, and only campaign DLC that made everything the protagonists fought for completely pointless. Since then, the franchise has been left dormant, with the original dev team having been dissolved, much to fans’ eternal sorrow.

But all was not lost, because in 2021, it was teased, then revealed, that a new entry in the series was being developed. Led by a new team, this game promised to be not only a revival of the franchise, but also a chance to pay homage to the original game’s vision while achieving something new.

Dead Space (2023) is a sci-fi horror third-person shooter developed by Motive and published by Electronic Arts for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC on January 27th, 2023. Taking the role of CEC Engineer Isaac Clarke, players must brave the depths of the USG Ishimura in search of answers as to what happened, as well as find Isaac’s girlfriend, Nicole Brennan. On top of this, he must use scavenged and modified engineering tools to fight against horrid undead abominations known as Necromorphs plaguing the ship…  and that’s if he doesn’t crack from the mental strain first.

As a remake of a game from 2008, there’s bound to be tons of changes that make it stand out from the original. Did Motive hit the ground running or did they fail miserably? Let’s take a look.

Story

Right away, the story is already improved with one simple aspect: giving Isaac a voice. In the original game, he was almost completely mute, only letting out screams of fear and pain or panting in exertion. The cast repeatedly had to talk around him, which made the supposed emotional connection between his allies and his girlfriend fall flat. Here, however, he’s played by Gunner Wright, his voice actor from the original second game onward, and Wright’s still got it – his performance lends so much more depth to Isaac, whether it be bewilderment at what’s happened to the Ishimura, to angrily snarling at Unitologists, to chatting cordially with his allies. Now that he’s no longer forced to be a mute, Isaac displays so much more personality with how he actively engages with characters in the story, instead of just awkwardly staring at them as they talk to and around him. 

Other characters also had their personalities and identities altered to some degree in the remake, primarily Hammond and Kendra. Whereas the original had them hostile to each other from the beginning (begging the question of how they stuck together before the game started), the remake has them being substantially warmer, at worst being neutral. It becomes a lot more believable to watch them slowly but steadily grow more stressed out and prone to anger as the story progresses, especially as Kendra indicates Hammond may be hiding something. It also makes for a tearjerker near the end, as Kendra still betrays Isaac, and this time it’s clear that she’s reluctant to do it, though she expresses confidence that he’ll still find a way to get off the ship.

The nature of Isaac and Nicole’s relationship is given some exploration in a side mission, where it becomes a lot more believable that they were together and loved each other deeply. Even when it becomes clear that Nicole isn’t what she seems, Isaac still shows devotion to her that is very heartfelt.

On the Necromorph side of things, the Hunter is still here from the original, but instead of just being a hapless test subject of Mercer, here, he’s a completely willing minion who doesn’t hesitate to do his bidding.  His identity as Brant Harris gets explored through recordings and a side mission, which ends up making a one-off boss enemy into a rounded character in his own right.

A somewhat minor form of storytelling here is how they also changed how you acquire the weapons. Whereas you previously had to buy everything except the Plasma Cutter in the Ishimura’s store terminals, here, they’re all found lying around the ship, either just by themselves or still in the hands of fallen crew members. It really helps with immersion, and definitely sells the vibe that these people used these tools out of desperation, but it still wasn’t enough in the end.

Another example of this is the completely changed structure of the ship. The original game didn’t have anything connecting the various decks outside of the tram stations, giving the implication that if the trams broke down for whatever reason, well, sucks to be you until it’s fixed. Every deck felt completely disconnected from each other as a result. The remake instead has them all easily reachable on foot through numerous additional passageways between each deck, making it very possible to start at the Bridge at the front, and go all the way to the Mining Deck that’s at the very back. Now it’s more believable that all of these decks are on the same vessel. 

The remake’s story blows the original’s out of the water if you ask me!

Gameplay

The moment-to-moment gameplay of the Dead Space remake resembles the original. You play as Isaac Clarke, looking over his shoulder constantly, and using scavenged engineering tools repurposed as weapons to fight the Necromorphs. Uniquely for this game, instead of just aiming for the chest or head, the enemy only goes down for good if you aim for the limbs and cut them off. Even if you destroy the head completely, at most it will just anger that enemy and make them flail their blade arms around in a blind rage. This forces you to keep a close eye on ammo and aim with purpose, instead of just pointing a gun in their general direction and firing until they go down. You have the option of quick melee, which can get breathing room if a Necromorph gets too close, but isn’t really reliable against tough enemies or on crowds. And when an enemy dies, you can stomp on them to check if they’re really dead or force some loot out of their body.

The remake takes cues from the original trilogy’s sequels, with Isaac being much more agile and adaptable both normally and in zero gravity. Instead of having to perform Superman-esque leaps to surfaces above you (which can easily be instant death if you end up leaping towards something unsafe), you’re given full 360-degree movement without compromising your ability to aim and fight. A definite upgrade!

Similarly, Kinesis and Stasis have been given an upgrade mimicking how they were boosted from the original second game onward. Isaac can use Kinesis to lift various objects he uses his free hand on, while still being able to shoot with his gun hand. If there are any long and pointy objects around, he can grab them and fire them at targets to impale them and knock them down! This includes the bladed appendages Necromorphs might have cut off of them, which can result in the somewhat-silly-but-still-badass scenario of blasting off a Slasher’s arm, then quickly yanking it out of the air and impaling the monster in the face before it can even react! Stasis also comes out faster compared to the last game, making it much snappier to use in a pinch.

To keep things interesting while traversing the ship, Motive added something called “Intensity”. This system makes it so that Necromorphs can randomly appear in already-cleared areas when you return to them later on, and you won’t know it until the door opens and you see something like a Slasher or Pregnant standing there and getting ready to charge you. Vents may also randomly break open, without a Necromorph jumping out, making for scares on top of having to regularly acquire and expend resources as you go.

Some weapons from the original game got overhauled to be more viable to use, which I say is a great change. Chief among them is the Force Gun, a shotgun-like weapon that blasts kinetic shockwaves forward to cause knockback for its primary fire; its secondary fire launches a rolling bomb that detonates after some time, or immediately if it hits an enemy. While powerful, it was fairly awkward to use, especially with it only being really powerful up close and having to be careful about the bomb. In the remake, the secondary fire was changed to instead plant a gravity well that yanks enemies toward it, making it much easier to corral them and deal with all of them at once while it’s active. The Line Gun also got a major improvement, where its secondary fire of a timed mine was instead replaced by a deployable laser trap that cuts apart anything that gets in the way, making for some creative combat solutions when paired with Kinesis and any object that can be carried.

The upgrades for the weapons have been vastly expanded, with numerous additional parts you can pick up to modify a weapon’s behavior. As a standout example, the Plasma Cutter, the starting weapon, is decently strong on its own, but a late-game upgrade known as the Weighted Blades makes it even more powerful. The Weighted Blades now ensure that any time you melee any enemy that isn’t a Brute with the Plasma Cutter equipped, it will always get knocked backward onto the floor. This even works against multiple enemies, ensuring that you can force them away and get yourself more breathing room. It’s also very handy against the Hunter, making it easier to keep it at bay a bit longer without having to constantly sever his limbs.

The series has stayed mostly grounded in standard fantasy, though it has dabbled in more sci-fi leanings here and there. It eventually became very prominent with the release of Breath of the Wild in 2017 for both Wii U and Switch, boasting not only a massive open world, but also more explicit magitek elements, most prominently the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. Boasting an impressive visual style, limitless exploration, and memorable cast members, it was an instant hit, with some claiming it to be one of the best games of all time, if not the best.

With such a tough act to follow, how would a sequel stack up to it?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, released for the Nintendo Switch worldwide on May 12, 2023. Set several years after the first game, the land of Hyrule has started reconstruction after Calamity Ganon was finally sealed away. However, all this comes to a halt, as an ancient warlord known as Ganondorf reawakens underneath Hyrule Castle, and unleashes the Upheaval, a devastating cataclysm that spreads a horrible dark plague called “Gloom” all over Hyrule. With Link barely avoiding death, and Zelda having gone missing, it’s up to the Hero of the Wild to protect Hyrule once again, this time with new powers granted to him by a strange arm donated by the spirit of Rauru, the first king of Hyrule and one of the Zonai, a long-forgotten precursor race.

The stakes are so much higher. Is Link up to the challenge? Let’s find out. WARNING: Massive spoilers are likely to follow, so watch out.

Story

The main plot feels like a more expanded version of the first game’s, following similar plot beats like Link being grievously wounded and being healed by a then-unknown character, Zelda having gone missing, and the four corners of Hyrule now under siege by terrifying natural disasters thanks to Ganon. That said, it still manages to be quite compelling, especially with new members of the cast joining the story.

Whereas Link was more or less an unknown in Breath of the Wild, here, he’s actually well known by just about everyone, and the people of Hyrule are united by him, especially as he helps all four races with the maladies afflicting their homes. It’s a great contrast to Breath’s theme of isolation, where Tears is more focused on unity, even in a terrible crisis. While Link still has to do a lot of things himself, this time the various races don’t just stay secluded in their homes – they all unite and collaborate to prepare for the final battle against Ganondorf.

It was also very interesting to see how the peoples of Hyrule have grown, especially the new Four Sages. It’s most apparent with Tulin and Yunobo, representing the Rito and Goron respectively. Tulin was just Teba’s kid in the previous game, but now he’s a full-fledged warrior with a unique way of handling the trademark archery skills of the Rito – he holds the bow in his talons, and nocks arrows with his beak, leaving his arms free, so he can fly anywhere without needing to sacrifice combat ability. Yunobo, meanwhile, proves himself to be a lot more confident and capable, having shed much of his hesitation and nervousness, and he’s even founded his own mining company on Death Mountain. Quite a contrast!

A welcome addition was also giving far more characterization to Ganondorf, who, in the last game, was reduced to just the equivalent of a sentient natural disaster barely held in check. Here, he gets plenty of opportunity to show just how vile, cruel, and downright hateful he is. It’s best shown in the intro, where, after the seal on his body breaks, he very easily takes out Link – who, by this point, has maxed-out health and stamina, yet gets it all sapped away to the starting amounts – horribly mangles his arm and outright destroys the Master Sword. He lets Link live, deeming him unworthy of fighting him, and opts to just retreat to the Depths to steadily recover his power and wait for someone actually capable of fighting him to face him. He gets plenty more moments in the memory cutscenes as well, the best one being his effortless murder of Queen Sonia and then letting out a chilling, deranged laugh while he’s taken her Secret Stone.

I also highly enjoyed the presence of the Zonai, being the new precursor race of the setting. Though we only get two Zonai characters, Rauru and Mineru (who are just spirits at this point), their impact is still heavily felt. Especially Rauru, whose arm was keeping Ganondorf sealed for eons, and was grafted onto Link’s body both to save his life and to also let him use Rauru’s powers of time, telekinesis, fusion, and phasing through surfaces to defeat Ganondorf.

While all that is great, I will admit, Tears does feel a little stale given how it imitates key plot beats, especially the Memories being the same as the ones in Breath. And while I loved the new Four Sages’ character arcs, the spirits of the original Sages feel so much flatter in comparison. We don’t even get their names, their faces are obscured by large masks, and the cutscenes where they name their successors as the new Sage of their people are all the same, just with different viewpoints. I feel like this was necessary due to the non-linear structure of the game, but even then, they should have accounted for this in some way, to cut down on repetition.

I will say that the final boss was far more satisfying to fight compared to last time. Instead of just Link going it alone with only spirits distantly aiding him, now he has his new Four Sages friends to join him, at least until he faces Ganondorf himself. And the man is a step-up from Calamity Ganon, showing that thousands of years in the Depths have done nothing to dampen his power. The man fights almost exactly like Link, with similar aggression, dodging, and faking you out to bait you into triggering a Flurry Rush for him. And though he transforms into a mindless beast again for the true final battle, here it feels a lot more in character and explicit, as he willingly consumes his Secret Stone – an act that would make him into an immortal dragon, but forever suppress his mind, making him into little more than an animal – just to kill Link. If not for Zelda as the Light Dragon coming to save Link, Ganondorf would have won for sure!

Overall, the game’s story is fairly good, and what flaws it has don’t stop it from being enjoyable

Gameplay

Tears’ gameplay is an expanded version of what Breath established previously. Like before, Link must explore all of Hyrule, while scavenging materials and equipment to defend against monsters unleashed by the Upheaval. A key part of combat is equipment durability, as all melee weapons, shields, and bows will eventually break after being used or damaged enough times. Nintendo took a chief complaint of the last game, weapon durability forcing you to keep looking for weapons after they break, and not only justified it in-story (the Gloom corroding nearly every single weapon across Hyrule), but also expanded it with the Fuse power. Now, Link can Fuse different objects (mainly monster horns and other weapons, but other things can fuse to them too) to his gear, either giving huge attack and durability boosts, or giving different effects, like mushrooms and springs bouncing enemies away on impact.

In place of the Sheikah Slate and its Runes, Link’s arm courtesy of Rauru gives him a new set of powers. They all feel way more impressive than the last set, especially Ultrahand, which not only lets Link lift ALL objects, not just metallic ones, but even lets him stick them together to construct different things he needs, whether it’s a bridge to get across a gap or a raft with a fan attached to cross a large body of water. This allows for crazy amounts of creativity, to the point you can feasibly create humongous mecha if you have the parts and the patience!

The new Four Sages lend their powers to Link once he helps their peoples, with the side benefit of them also allowing Link to summon spectral avatars of them to his side. Now on top of their new powers, he can also have all of them physically aiding him in the world, so he’s no longer always alone. While I love the ability to have a “party in my pocket” as it were, there are some issues. The Sages’ powers can only be used if you’re physically near them and press a button, instead of having a dedicated button you can use anywhere. And as they love to run around and get in the way of each other, it makes it a lot more tedious to try and activate one’s power. And sometimes they’ll trigger when you don’t want to, since grabbing stuff and using a power is mapped to the same button. Many players have joked about trying to grab something like an apple, only for Tulin to suddenly get in the way and activate his wind gust power, blowing the apple away… just for fun apparently.

No matter what your perception of the Fastest Thing Alive is, one thing is certain — he’s a global phenomenon and a well-known name in the gaming sphere. Compared to his early rival Mario, who regularly gets critically acclaimed games under his name, Sonic’s had a far more turbulent history, with numerous highs and lows as SEGA and Sonic keep trying to figure out what works.

He’s become something of a punching bag for a long while, specifically his Modern incarnation thanks to the disastrous launches of titles like the Sonic Boom sub-franchise and the soft reboot attempt Sonic Forces. It seemed like he couldn’t escape his fate of being a laughingstock…

But what if I told you that the hope for a genuinely good Sonic game in both story and gameplay was possible? And not only that, it stuck the landing very well?

Sonic Frontiers is the latest mainline video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, released worldwide on November 8th, 2022 for all major platforms. In this adventure, Sonic must explore a mysterious region of landmasses known as the Starfall Islands to rescue his friends from an enigmatic entity, while gathering the Chaos Emeralds to stand a chance against the humongous Titans that stand in his way. The “Boost” style of gameplay codified by Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors returns once again, this time in an environment inspired by open world games like Horizon Zero Dawn. Sonic also gains new combat moves to have greater potential in fights outside of just boosting into enemies and hitting them with Homing Attacks and stomps.

How does it stack up compared to previous entries? Let’s take a look. Beware of spoilers.

Story

If you ask me, the story of Frontiers is a huge step in the right direction for the Blue Blur. The premise of Sonic traversing the Starfall Islands to collect the Chaos Emeralds, defeat the Titans, and also rescue his friends ends up working out very well, though on its surface, it feels like a typical Sonic plot. But, because the game goes out of its way to depict the characters as mature, rounded versions of their usual personas, it ends up becoming a whole lot more memorable.

I adored all the character interactions between Sonic and his friends, primarily Tails and Knuckles. The latter two ended up subject to rather intense exaggeration of their worst flaws — Tails being a coward constantly relying on Sonic for help (best seen in Sonic Forces where he panics at the sight of Chaos, where beforehand he would have geared up to fight him), and Knuckles being a dumb brute who gets easily tricked, with his status as Guardian of the Master Emerald becoming a borderline nonexistent attribute. Here, however, they get rerailed into something resembling their previous characterizations — for example, Tails admits to Sonic how much he dislikes having to constantly rely on him, and how he dislikes his cowardice, especially during moments of crisis. This shows that not only did the writers learn from previous games, but also did their best to rescue that bit of characterization with hindsight.

Sonic himself is a treat to watch. While he’s his usual snarky, playful self, he’s given a much more mature edge here. He knows when to cut the jokes and communicate to his trapped friends plainly, demonstrating how much he cares for them and is doing his best to free them while simultaneously racing to power up against the Titans. After years of him being portrayed as just a one-note smart aleck who takes nothing seriously, it’s very refreshing that we get a more serious Blue Blur. Heck, when I first heard him speak here, I didn’t recognize his usual voice actor (Roger Craig Smith), his tone making me seriously think they got someone else.

Another bit that I was particularly impressed with was the repeated Super Sonic transformations. In most of the modern games, Sega decided to relegate the form to just final bosses or as an optional unlock, which got predictable after a long time. It eventually reached the point where Sonic didn’t even need it anymore, as he was able to fight two final bosses just under his own power. Now though, they present a foe that Sonic genuinely can’t fight on his own, as the first Titan, Giganto, not only barely reacts to his attempts to attack it, it easily defeats him by grabbing him and tossing him away. Now Sonic has to transform early, and repeatedly, just to stand a chance. They redeemed what was otherwise a cliché obligation!

What took me by surprise was the way they portrayed the relationship between Eggman and his creation, Sage. Before this game, Eggman had become a one-note, tyrannical conqueror with manchild tendencies and could only be somewhat threatening. However, here, a lot of that has evaporated, in favor of him trying his best to remain patient as Sage does all she can to get him out of Cyberspace. With regard to Sage, she feels like a second attempt at Infinite from Forces — a red-black, glitch themed servant of Eggman, only this time they have a mutually loving relationship, akin to father and daughter. It’s surprisingly heartwarming.

And finally, there’s the reveals about the Chaos Emeralds’ origins, namely the alien precursors that brought them to the planet. In one fell swoop, they not only referenced very old Sonic lore (from the original Adventure), they also provided a decent origin for the series’ primary macguffins. This was something I have been begging for as of late, as I loved the more dramatic stories of the Adventure era, which they sadly started to move away from starting with Colors. I’m very pleased that it’s back.

All in all, Frontiers’ story was amazing, and it’s definitely got me craving more.

Gameplay

Frontiers contrasts the last game, Forces, by having only one player character, and that’s the eponymous hedgehog. While they’re still primarily using the boost gameplay codified by Unleashed — that is, Sonic moves decently fast by himself, but holding a button lets him spend energy to go even faster, at the expense of handling — they’ve given it a major shakeup.

Instead of just linear stages, Sonic now has multiple hub levels, coined “Open Zones,” to run around in, being a lighter take on open world areas. The classic levels of before can be accessed by portal points in the environment, allowing Sonic to traverse levels using environments and layouts akin to previous stages in the series. Sonic can complete these stages to steadily make progress towards unlocking the Chaos Emeralds that are locked up within the areas, so that he’s able to gather enough strength to get the last Emerald the Titan there has and transform into Super Sonic.

Along the way, there are numerous side objectives, like collecting Memory Tokens for his friends, rescuing little stone critters called Koco, and collecting other bits and bobs to upgrade his four stats (Ring count, top speed, defense, and attack power).

Various enemies lurk in the Open Zones, which Sonic’s new combat abilities allow him to take on. He’s no longer limited to just the trademark Homing Attack and boosting into enemies, now he can also punch, kick, form a Cyloop around them to send them airborne or disable defenses, and use other assorted techniques to fight.

Sonic can also encounter numerous minibosses in the Open Zones, engaging in frenetic battles against robots that are more than a match for him. It’s well worth fighting these things, as they drop keys to access portals alongside other materials.

As with all long-running franchises, there have been duds and mistakes made here and there. Some were utterly crippling, others were mild and deemed mostly acceptable. The more recent generations have had their faults become more visible over the years, but does that make or break the newest installment (or at least its Violet version)?

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is the latest generation of Pokémon games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch hybrid handheld/console system, released globally on November 18th, 2022. This time around, the world of Pokémon takes a dive into the wide-open sandbox genre, with the new region of Paldea being completely open and explorable.

New features include Terastelization, a temporary super form in battle to make same-type attacks hit even harder and open new strategies; three main storylines to give more to do outside the typical formula of eight gyms; and the box legendary being with you from the very beginning, albeit with most of its trademark abilities needing to be unlocked over time.

I’ve given the newest generation an in-depth look to see how it stacks up to previous games. Is it deserving of the hate and scorn it garnered on release? Or is it a truly good game that is unfortunately marred by technical difficulties?

Let’s see for ourselves, shall we?

HUGE WARNING HERE: There will be spoilers for the story in this article. If you’re more interested in everything else, there will be a link to the second half at the end.

Part 1  —  Going to School

Once again, as is tradition, you take the role of a young boy/girl having moved to Paldea with your mother (side note, anyone else find it odd how you never see your father in these games?). Before long, you’re already meeting with the director of Uva Academy, who quickly gets you enrolled with the school and also introduces you to this region’s starter trio — Sprigatito, the Grass-type cat who releases a sweet scent from its body; Fuecoco, the Fire-type crocodile with a goofy disposition; and Quaxly, a Water-type duckling with a most excellent pompadour. For my playthrough, I instantly bonded with Fuecoco, and made sure to reset repeatedly just so I could get a female one.

You also meet Nemona here, who is this generation’s rival, and she’s certainly unique — she’s utterly obsessed with battling you and wanting you as her bestie so you two can battle constantly. I’ll admit, it was fairly endearing, and made her very memorable as this generation’s rival character.

In an interesting twist, soon after, you meet the box legendary for the first time, rather than all the way near the end like in previous generations. And said box legendary is really out of it, with almost all of its abilities disabled, at least for now, leaving just its ability to assume a travel form and help you get around.

From there, you make your way to the academy and come across the evil team of this generation — Team Star. As has been established with Teams Skull and Yell of Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield, instead of an ultra powerful organization of criminals, Team Star turns out to be former students of the academy that have rebelled and now wish to strike back at their former school with their aggressive recruitment and dangerous vehicles. They seem kind of comical… but something about them made me think they’re more dangerous than they seem.

After that, you get into the school proper, where you get to meet all the school staff and students, including the academy director Clavell, Professor Turo (who isn’t physically present and talks to you via video call for some reason), and many more, all willing to teach you various lessons in class about the game’s mechanics, from type match-ups to historical events to making sandwiches and more.

So far, it’s a solid introduction to the world of Pokémon. I liked the twist that instead of the legendary being only encountered and catchable near the end, you instead have it with you from the start, albeit in a much more weakened form. I also appreciate how it serves as your way of moving fast in the open world and traversing obstacles like stretches of water and huge cliffs.

Now that that’s over with, it’s time for the three main stories of the game. This gives the game substantially more content than other Pokémon titles before it, and I’m excited to give my verdict on them all.

Let’s start with the first third of the game.

Part 2  —  Victory Road

I won’t lie, while this did do a bit to shake up the usual “8 gyms then fight the Elite Four” formula, at its core it’s the same as almost every other main series game — you battle against 8 Gym leaders, encounter your rival a few times, take on the Elite Four, and end with fighting the current Champion and taking their place. It’s definitely formulaic, and at this point, it’s painfully stale.

That’s not to say it’s all bad, however. They did spice it up a little with Gym Challenges, which are short minigames you have to complete before you can face the Gym Leaders proper. Plus, Nemona regularly bumps into you during this route, and it’s rather adorable that she tries to play off her obsession with battling as just coincidentally meeting with you repeatedly.

My favorites among the Gym Leaders are Larry, the Normal Leader who’s just a regular guy in a soul-sucking office job, which makes him surprisingly endearing, alongside the battle taking place inside a restaurant; and Grusha, the Ice Leader whose prominent snowboarding career ended when he took a serious injury making it impossible for him to continue, which makes for prime tearjerking fuel and has major reality subtext. I was also a fan of Ryme, the Ghost Leader, who provides a neat spin on her chosen type by combining it with being a cool old lady who also raps for a living.

Then, once all the Gyms are complete, it’s off to challenge the Elite Four, as is tradition. I was pleasantly impressed by the interview that Rika gives before you get to battle her and the other members proper, and though my Skeledirge faltered under the Ground-types a fair bit, the rest of my team (consisting of Tinkaton, Corviknight, Garganacl, and two others) managed to persevere against the onslaught. It was also a treat to see not only Larry return — using Flying-types to catch you off-guard — but one of the school teachers, Hassel, returns and also provides a good challenge with his Dragon team.

And finally comes a face-off with the Champion herself, Geeta. While I like her character well enough, the actual fight… left a lot to be desired. Her team includes a Kingambit (whose Ability makes it gradually more powerful as its teammates get fainted) being sent out very early, instead of the very end, and her ace, a Glimmora (who would be great to lay out Toxic Spikes to hamper her opponent throughout the battle), gets sent out as her final choice once everyone else has fallen. It was unfortunate to have someone called the Champion turn out to be only mildly challenging, especially with how powerful Skeledirge can be when spamming Torch Song.

And then after, you are crowned the Champion of Paldea. There is one last moment of hilarity here — Nemona comes by and asks if you’re the champion, and you can say yes or no. Choosing no ends up making her ask again, more insistently, and you can KEEP saying no, revealing she has entire dialogues for multiple times you say no. If, eventually, you say yes, then she’ll ask you to be “rivals for life” with you… and you can say no repeatedly, making her very irritated again. It’s surprisingly comical.

Overall, while I was disappointed by the end of this route, it did have some highlights, like Nemona, Larry, and Grusha standing out. Nemona in particular was a major step up from Hop of Sword/Shield, with her insistence on being your battling bestie making her have much more impact.

Now that that’s done, let’s get on with the second main story path — the Path of Legends!

Part 3 —  Path of Legends

I found myself liking this route far more than the other two, in all honesty. Primarily for the interactions with the spotlight character and his signature Pokémon. In this route, you pair up with Arven, son of Professor Turo who’s standoffish and abrasive at first, mainly in regards to Miraidon. However, he ends up showing some major depth under that first impression when it comes to his ace.

The goal here is to seek out Titan Pokémon — Pokémon who are incredibly bigger and stronger than their normal-sized brethren — defeat them, then retrieve the Herba Mystica they’re guarding. The Herba Mystica don’t have a clear purpose at first, but after defeating the first Titan, it’s revealed what Arven really wants to use them for — his Mabosstiff had been critically injured during a scuffle with a feral creature in Area Zero, to the point he can’t even speak when out of his ball! Arven wants to use the Herba Mystica to hopefully heal his beloved canine companion, desperate to avoid losing something near and dear to his heart.

This route felt a lot more emotional than Victory Road. The goal felt far more heartfelt, and I was genuinely sad to see Mabosstiff all weak and clinging to life. That sadness turned to happiness as he slowly grew more and more healthy again with every Herba Mystica sandwich given to him. There was also hilarity with Miraidon regularly requesting a sandwich from me, which I happily gave, and it ended up restoring more of its disabled abilities to get around.

And finally, this route concludes with Mabosstiff restored to full health, and then Arven challenging you to a final face off. His team consists of Pokémon that can be surprisingly challenging to deal with, with movesets that can cover multiple Types and his team’s AI makes you really work to take him down. It’s basically a final exam boss on the level of the Elite Four, but much more difficult and contained to just one match.

This was a route that I enjoyed heavily, and it made me think of the Dynamax phenomenon from Sword/Shield. Fighting giant-sized enemies is always fun, especially when paired with a story that tugs at the heartstrings.

Now, onto the third main story — Starfall Street!

Part 4 —  Starfall Street

This path focuses on this generation’s Team Rocket analogue, as discussed previously. Team Star are a group of rebellious students who are causing problems for the academy, and a mysterious caller tasks you with infiltrating their bases around Paldea, and demolishing their ranks to persuade them to stand down. Along the way, you regularly bump into a guy named “Clive” who looks very familiar… and constantly denies it if you repeatedly say he looks like someone else.

This was also a very enjoyable route, because it shook things up with Team Star, similar to Team Skull of Sun/Moon being a bunch of hooligan kids and Team Yell of Sword/Shield being a rowdy fanclub of Marnie’s. In this case, Team Star, as previously mentioned, are a team of rambunctious, rebellious students with a reputation for bullying and pressuring other students into joining them. For this route, you are tasked by a mysterious caller known only as “Cassiopeia” by dismantling Team Star’s operations, by fighting all five of their squads around Paldea and convincing them to stand down.

Don’t go thinking it’s just a standard “fighting all the grunts” routine like before, though, because Team Star have different tactics. You have to find their bases around Paldea, then get the squad bosses’ attention by quick-battling all the grunts’ Pokémon in under a few minutes. It’s definitely intense and fast-paced, really selling the feeling of blitzing the enemy’s strongholds and forcing their boss to show themselves after their forces are decimated. However, there’s still some strategy involved here, as certain types of Pokémon can get wrecked depending on which squad you’re going after, so bear that in mind.

Once you finally convince the squad leaders to reveal themselves, they come out to fight you themselves… and boy do they impress. Instead of just a plain one-on-one battle, they face you while riding a massive monster of a truck, pulled by a supercharged Revavroom. Fittingly, the Revavroom that lugs the vehicle around is single-typed matching the squad leader. For example, instead of being Poison/Steel, the one Mela has is pure Fire. They also get a unique “Torque” move based on said typing to try and smash you with (e.g., Combat Torque for Fighting), and this Revavroom is always sent out last as the final Pokémon of that squad leader’s team.

This story route was surprisingly heartfelt, as it touched on a very relatable subject — namely, rampant bullying and abuse between students that the faculty either turned a blind eye to or punished the victims of. Team Star were formed to combat the bullies, and ended up dropping out when a scandal broke out. Team Star still stuck together in the year and a half since then, purely out of the friendship that was strong between them…

And then there’s the big reveal at the end. Two of them, actually. “Clive” turns out to be Director Clavell, having put on a (very paper-thin) disguise to try and learn more about Team Star and try to help them without giving himself away. He ends up battling you, while claiming to be Cassiopeia in the flesh.

Of course that’s a lie, because the REAL identity of Cassiopeia is… Penny. You know, that demure, unassuming girl with the Eevee backpack you bump into a few times? That’s the one. She ends up battling you as well, so she can announce that Team Star can be officially disbanded now that their forces have laid down their arms so to speak.

Penny is unique for having her team consist of nothing but “Eeveelutions”, that is, six of the various types of evolved forms Eevee can evolve into. It certainly had some charm to see her team be full of those kinds of Pokémon, especially her Sylveon.

With Penny eventually defeated, Clavell cuts in and says that instead of disbanding Team Star, they should be made to make up for what they have done… by repurposing their bases as training centers for students to learn Team Star’s tactics. It’s surprisingly lenient, and it definitely felt nice that Clavell manages to make a “punishment” sound more like a reward.

This route felt high octane from start to finish, and it was an enjoyable ride. Now comes the final part of the story — entering the Great Crater of Paldea and venturing into Area Zero.

Part 5  —  Area Zero (Massive Spoiler Warning)

It should come as no surprise that this part of the story is the most spoilerrific, so you’ll want to skip past this part if you want to stay unspoiled.

After going on three journeys with Nemona, Arven, and Penny, there’s one final story path to complete. Naturally, it’s centered on the giant crater that nobody’s officially allowed to enter, and where Professor Turo, Arven’s father, was last seen. It is here that you will uncover the true nature of Area Zero, and hopefully uncover the fate of Arven’s missing parent.

This part of Paldea stood out from the rest. The topmost level being brightly lit, and the bottom being dark and illuminated by crystals, made it all the more unearthly. The music helps sell the feeling that you’ve entered a place that is far removed from what you’ve grown used to in Paldea, sounding incredibly otherworldly.

Oh, did I forget to mention the Paradox Pokémon? That’s right — what happened in Area Zero somehow dragged Pokémon from a completely different time period and into the present. In this case, they’re all robotic facsimiles of Pokémon hailing from the future. Interestingly, only one of them, Iron Treads (the future counterpart of Donphan) is part Steel-type, the rest don’t have that type despite all being robotic. They’re also fairly smaller than their predecessors, following the trend of technology becoming more powerful and compact over time. These are my favorite Pokémon, as I’m an avid robot lover, and it’s nice to see more mechanical and futuristic creatures to catch.

Some startling revelations also ensue in this route — namely, Professor Turo is actually dead, and has been for quite some time. In his place is an AI with a synthetic body using his likeness, and acutely aware that its creator is long gone, yet desiring to fix the problems that the real Turo left behind. Arven is understandably shocked when he discovers this, and it only gets worse when it comes to light that in the depths of Area Zero is a time machine that’s responsible for all the Paradox Pokémon running rampant. Even moreso when it’s also revealed that if you try to shut down the time machine, the Turo AI will be overridden by its defensive protocols and be forced to fight you… a fact that is scary and heartbreaking all at once, especially for poor, poor Arven. I wanted to give the poor guy a hug during it.

And of course, you HAVE to battle AI Turo to do what must be done. It gets much scarier as the AI’s body jerks and glitches from being overridden and starts battling you, while sporting a grin full of malice. I was certainly spooked, even though I knew it was coming. What made it far worse was the dialogue box for AI Turo gets overridden to read as Professor Turo, as if the long-dead professor has risen to possess his synthetic duplicate to stop you.

AI Turo’s fight ends up having two phases, with the first consisting of a team full of future Paradox Pokémon. And then, in the second phase… that’s when the nightmare fuel goes to eleven. All Pokéballs that aren’t the Professor’s are suddenly locked, preventing you from using any of your team members. And during this, AI Turo’s body is partially consumed by Terastel crystals, and its dialogue box is replaced with a new identity — the Paradise Protection Protocol. How does it fight you, you ask? By sending out its own Miraidon — revealed to be the same creature that crippled the one you have and traumatized it into fleeing.

It looks like the end, doesn’t it? I know my heart was pounding, as it felt like the savage Miraidon was set to flat out murder innocent kids now that nothing stands in its way. But a ray of hope comes forth — you can still bring out your own Miraidon. Who, after having bonded with you for so long, manages to muster up enough courage and strength to assume its battle mode!

I know I was starting to sweat as I scrambled to have my Miraidon (who I named Dynamo later) withstand the onslaught of its tormentor. The risk of failure was high, especially since both combatants had the same typing (Electric/Dragon) so they couldn’t exploit weaknesses. And yet, in the end, my effort was rewarded, as Dynamo managed to prevail.

But the time machine is still active. And the only way to disable it is to have AI Turo go to the future, so it will shut down once it no longer detects the AI’s presence. Once again, even more sadness, especially for Arven, as he’s already lost his dad once… now he has to lose him again, but this time, right before his eyes. And he can’t do anything about it.

With the time machine in Area Zero brought offline, the threat to Paldea is eliminated. Yet, despite that, it feels somewhat hollow. Now Arven officially has lost his parent forever, and unless AI Turo somehow manages to return, Arven will remain an orphan. Feel free to get some tissues.

And that is the end of Pokémon Violet. I will say, this was quite climactic, and the visuals, especially in the depths of Area Zero and the second phase against AI Turo, were phenomenal. It was also quite a shocker to be forced to bring out my Miraidon, who, at this point, had absolutely no combat capability, but managed to unlock its strength and save the day. This comes with the bonus of Miraidon now being able to switch into battle mode and join your team like a regular Pokémon.

It’s a satisfying conclusion for sure, and I eagerly await what the DLC expansions will bring.

This is the end of the first part of my review. To see the second half, where I cover the gameplay, graphics, pros, cons, and give my final verdict, CLICK HERE.