Rhythm Tengoku was a Japan-only Game Boy Advance game which was a semi spin-off of the WarioWare games. I say semi spin-off, because it’s connected in a somewhat unusual way: it takes the bizarre sense of humour, the mini-game based format and the exact same visual style (with some locations and other things looking identical, which presumably means it is set within Diamond City) but it’s mixed with a new rhythm-based gameplay.

You start by playing called “Karate Man” where you play as a man who has to punch objects that are thrown passed him in tune to a love song. Do well enough in this and you’ll unlock another game and it goes on like that. Other games which I found especially enjoyable included “Sneaky Spirits” where you have to shoot ghosts with a bow an arrow, “Vegta-Pull” where you have to pluck hairs from the faces of onion men and “Night Walk” where you hop across boxes in the night – all of these are done along to the beat of excellent music. Every so often you get “Remix” levels as well (which mix together a few of the games) and “Remix 4” has a song called “Wish Can’t Wait for You” which is actually a really amazing song which I now listen to all the time.

The one downside of the game is that, because it was never released outside of Japan, none of the in-game text is English and so sometimes I found it hard to know what exactly I was supposed to do in the games. I suppose I also would have liked a little more in the way of story and context (as there is essentially nothing at all) but this is a minor issue.

On the whole, this is an extremely addictive game which is almost therapeutic to play: there’s tonnes of replay value because you can always go back to improve your performance on a level, but even when you have the perfect rating, the games are all so fun that you’ll want to replay them for the pure pleasure of it. You get so into the games and the music that it’s just hypnotic. This is an amazing game and it’s a real shame it isn’t better known. Rating: 9.4/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

On Twitter recently the hashtag #7FaveGames has been trending and is essentially just a way for people to share their seven favourite video games. I’m not sure why seven is the number people are going for for this, but I suspect it might have something to do with the Twitter character limit. Anyway, for today’s blog post I wanted go over my own seven favourite games, as it seemed like a nice idea to elaborate on.

1. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
   This is a game which is fun, full of memorable characters and just plain beautiful. The graphics are really good for their time and do a really good job of creating a world which looks both fantastical and realistic. This game was also the one which gave us Dixie Kong (who I love) and it has a really incredible soundtrack as well. Amazing.
   (read my review.)
2. Minecraft
   I liked Donkey Kong Country 2 a lot and I thought that maybe my enjoyment of it was clouded by nostalgia, meaning I would never enjoy a game quite that much again – Minecraft proved that wrong. The completely open world of Minecraft coupled with its strong creative aspect and ambient soundtrack is why I love this game so much. I also love that it crosses over with things like Doctor Who and Donkey Kong via skin packs.
   (read my review.)
3. Banjo-Tooie
   What I love about Banjo-Tooie is that it manages to build a real, living world out of the 3D platforming genre. The large interconnected world is so big and mysterious and it is populated with entertaining, memorable characters. Finding out the ways that all the different things you encounter fit together is hugely satisfying and it’s all so fun to explore.
   (read my review.)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
   What I love about this game is that it takes the traditional Zelda story and combines it with an end of the world tale. In three days the moon is going to crash into the Earth and kill everybody – pairing this with the fantasy adventure that we’d come to expect of the series was simply profound. Exploring the world was so satisfying and getting to know all the characters and find out about how they had come to terms with their pending doom was incredible.
   (read my review.)
5. Mother 3
   I loved EarthBound and I wasn’t sure what to expect of Mother 3, but frankly it was even better. I never expected that a game, especially one that doesn’t have any voice actors, could be so emotional, but this is one of the saddest pieces of media I have ever consumed. The fact that such sad emotions are contrasted against a lot of humour and quirkiness helps them to stand out even more. An amazing game with a compelling story.
   (read my review.)
6. Fire Emblem: Awakening
   I already loved Fire Emblem before I played this, but this cemented it as one of my favourite Nintendo franchises. Not only does it have a deeply engaging and exciting fantasy story, but also a rewarding style of tactical gameplay. This is the only game I’ve played to really reward you for cultivating relationships between characters and it was really great to see friendships and romantic relationships grow between the characters as they went through the story.
   (read my review.)
   7. Animal Crossing: Wild World
   I have played a lot of life sims over the years, but this one is the one which captivated me the most. Whether it’s the fact that it’s hugely immersive and moves forward through time with you or just that there is so much to collect, I really loved this game. I honestly wanted to do every single thing in it.
   (read my review.)

I intentionally limited myself when writing this and kept it to one per series: this stopped me from just listing Donkey Kong and Banjo-Kazooie games! What would you pick?

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

In 2003, the Wario series was well established: Wario, the anti-hero version of Mario, would find out about new treasures and head out looking for them, often ending up fighting against some evil force on the way. But in WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania, the series took an enormously unexpected turn when Wario realised that starting a business (rather than treasure hunting) was the best way to get loads of money, especially when working within the video game industry… So Wario becomes a video game developer.

In order to get his new business venture going, Wario actually gets himself a completely new outfit and gets in touch with a bunch of his friends to help him. These friends are all completely new characters and all quite likeable too: there’s a young boy named 9-Volt who’s a huge Nintendo fan (very meta), a disco man named Jimmy T., an alien named Orbulon, a trendy woman named Mona with a gang of animal friends and lots of others too. The whole game is set within Diamond City and I really appreciate this completely new, urban setting, coupled with the all new cast.

So you may wonder “How do you play a game about starting up a video game development business?” and it’s the gameplay of this game which really makes it stand out. Each “level” has one of the characters going about their day and you are given random “microgames” to play as they do so – these microgames are small, five second mini games which is somehow related to the character and which need to be quickly completed: these are often really bizarre and I remember laughing about it a lot was I played the first time: you’ll do things like dodge food shaped cars, shake hands with friendly dogs, become tiny and eat cakes and it’s all a lot of fun. I was especially fond of 9-Volt’s microgames, as all of them are in some way connected to Nintendo’s past and include scenes from classic games, giving way to cameos from characters like Donkey Kong, Samus and Link. The microgames are, of course, supposed to be what makes up the game which they are all developing.

It’s a really fun game and something which I can come back to endlessly as replaying the microgames is really fun and I always want to beat my high scores. On top of all of that, it also has a fantastic soundtrack which really helps to cement the game’s urban atmosphere and makes it a real pleasure. Taking a step back, I also love how much of an absurd direction this was for the Wario series to take. A fantastic, fun-filled game.

Rating: 8.9/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)