Like a lot of people, I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons now that I am unable to go outside. I’ve always loved the Animal Crossing series and this is something I’ve had in the back of my mind as a blog post idea for ages, so now seems the perfect time to write about my favourite Animal Crossing villagers. Here they are, in no particular order:

Wart Jr.
When you look at him, you might feel that he’s nothing more than a grumpy little frog. In some ways, that’s what he is – but also he’s the son of Wart, the final boss of Super Mario Bros. 2. Amazing. I loved having him around my old village. Appropriate that his father lives in a dream world, because having Wart Jr. as a villager is a dream come true.

Coco
Coco is an interesting bunny. Look at that blank face – no eyes, no mouth… perhaps, no soul? You imagine that she’d be some stoic, aloof creature. But she’s not. She’s just a perfectly ordinary person. I love her. Why can’t a soulless clay doll be a regular person?

Julian
When you look at this majestic unicorn, you’re probably imagining a fabulous, soulful character. If so, you’re imagining right! His presence warms my heart and soul whenever I see him. He’s the kind of friend you wish you had in real life.

Louie
Look at him! He’s a deadringer for world famous video game star Donkey Kong. He must make a lot of bells going to swanky parties as a lookalike. What an honour it is to have him in your village. And how lucky for him that he’s so gosh darned attractive.

W. Link
Louie was cool because he looked like Donkey Kong, but W. Link is cool because he actually is Link – the hero of Hyrule. I like to imagine that after the events of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, he found a way to return to his wolf form and then went to a peaceful village to retire. There are a few other Zelda characters as villagers too, but I decided to focus on W. Link since he’s the coolest.

Ribbot
What do you get if you cross a pun, a robot and a frog? Ribbot! He’s an actual robot. Also, he loves working out and is a massive jock. An unusual personality type for artificial intelligence. Needless to say, my child mind was blown when I had a robot come to town. Maybe he was constructed to house the soul of a jock kid who died in a street racing accident and doesn’t know he’s in a robot body?

Lucky
Lucky presents a Little John sort of situation, because rather than being lucky, it is evident that his life has been full of intense physical trauma. Either that, or he’s a deeply optimistic person who considers himself lucky to be alive and to have people who love him. Either way, I love this dog.

Octavian
I love octopuses. They’re such interesting, devious animals. Of course, I was therefore very pleased to have one come and live in my village. I realise now that it’s hard to say something unique about ten different villagers. Either way, Octavian is great.

Zucker
Speaking of octopuses, the only thing better than having a grumpy one living in your town is having a happy-go-lucky piece of living sushi come to your town. I don’t know what his deal is – maybe he’s doing to donate his body to a Japanese restaurant when he dies and is already preparing for that or maybe he’s just a reanimated piece of sushi which went on to lead a peaceful life. Either way, he gets me asking questions. I like that and I like him.

Alfonso
Last, but by no means least, is Alfonso. The friendly larger than life alligator who wears a Mario t-shirt. Since Donkey Kong lookalike Louie wears a Luigi t-shirt quite often, I like to think of Alfonso as the Kremling lookalike who works together with Louie to provide a more comprehensive experience when imitating the stars at the swanky parties they get invited to.

Nowadays, there seems to be a loads of Mario sports games and when a new one comes out, it usually isn’t a big deal. But when Mario Tennis was first released for the Nintendo 64, I was really excited.

I wasn’t a huge tennis fan or anything like that, but what really drew me to this game was its large cast of characters. It may not look like much compared to the rosters of later titles but back then it was really exciting. For the first time, you could control Bowser in a 3D space! You could be a Boo or a Para-Troopa. Waluigi was introduced and was a mysterious fourth ‘Mario brother’ with a slick colour scheme and devious design – I loved him then and ever since. Birdo was back for the first time in years. Good old Donkey Kong was there and he’s joined by a super cool unlockable character (whose identity I won’t spoil.) It was amazing and they’re all portrayed with such charm – especially in it’s opening cutscene.

In terms of gameplay, it’s pretty much just a solid tennis game. You work through tournaments to unlock trophies, new courts and a couple of secret characters. I think it stands up really well and will always provide a solid tennis experience.

Of course, there are also a few ‘wacky’ extras, such as a mini-game where you return tennis balls spat at you by Piranha Plants. Another has you playing on a court in Bowser’s Castle where there are items to use, much like in the Mario Kart games.

All in all, it’s among the best side games for Mario. There are a lot of hours of fun to be had, as you’re encouraged to play tournaments as every character – not just to get the trophies for all of them, but to see their unique victory celebrations when they are awarded them. There are lots of extra courts to unlock and the options to play with friends. It’s a comprehensive package and one which I still find fun to come back to every now and then.

Rating: 9.1/10

Buy it here.

I love the Super Smash Bros. series and throughout the first three installments I felt like it got better with each new game. When Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS came out, I felt that despite some nice additions, it was a step down from its predecessor. I heard people say that the reason for this step down was because it was on a handheld console and that the Wii U version fixes all the issues with it. I didn’t play it for a long time, because I wasn’t that excited, but when I finally did, I felt that it was actually a further step down…

There were still things I liked though, so let’s start by talking about the positives. The game adds some pretty cool new levels. There’s a Wrecking Crew level which imagines what the levels of the game would look like in realistic HD, which is amazing. There’s a Pilotwings level which had you riding on planes which fly between the islands of the SNES original and WuHu Island from Pilotwings Resort. I love the world building that’s gone into each of these, they’re pure fan service. Speaking of WuHu Island, it’s the focus of it’s very own level, with several unique areas (such as rocks in the ocean, a rickety bridge and the top of a volcano). I also liked new ones based on Donkey Kong Country Returns and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as well. Overall, the level selection was quite good, which I did think was a weakness in the 3DS game.

I do also like the selection of characters. Duck Hunt Duo are a fantastic addition, Pac-Man is really fun to be, Lucina and Robin was super cool, Villager is a perfect representative of the Animal Crossing series, Wii Fit Trainer is fun and hilarious, it’s nice to have Dr. Mario and Mewtwo back (even if the latter is DLC) and Bowser Jr. is a really fun and unique character, classics like Donkey Kong, Mr. Game & Watch and Link have all returned too… but it’s hard to be that excited by the characters, since they’re exactly the same as they were in the 3DS game and by the time I played this, I’d already spent lots of hours playing as them all.

And that’s the problem with the game overall. It didn’t feel new. I played the 3DS game a lot and got as much fun out of it as I could, then when I played this one, it just felt like more of the same – except, other than a nice new selection of levels, it’s actually less of the same. For some reason, the fun new Smash Run of the 3DS game is replaced with Smash Tour – a mode where Miis walk around a game board (Mario Party-style) and then get into fights with each other where everyone plays as random character under random conditions. I played it once or twice and will never play it again. It was not fun.

The single player Classic Mode also feels worse – the random assortment of characters you fought (sometimes up to eight at once – far too many, it’s just chaos) just feel like a bunch of Nintendo characters haphazardly thrown together and made to fight. In fact – that sums up the game overall: a bunch of Nintendo stuff randomly thrown together. It has some nice elements, but overall I didn’t think this game was well executed.

Rating: 6.4/10

Buy it here.