Den's Game Corner

2017 has been an interesting year for me, not only in terms of this Youtube channel, but also my personal life. And while I don't want to/can't necessarily go into detail about those matters, I can say with certainty that this year has challenged me in a way I never thought I'd be challenged. I've been tested morally, creatively, and academically, and I think I've tremendously grown as a person as a result. I usually notice at the end of every year that I've massively improved myself in some form or another. It's a trend that I hope continues into the new year, and I'm excited to see what the future holds. All that being said though, this is a blog surrounding a Youtube channel, not my private life. The reason I've brought these things up is to give context to what I've put out this year; or rather, what I didn't put out this year. I started off the first half of the year fairly well, I'd say; I released the FEZ review on New Year's

Metroid Fusion is different. And that’s okay. Not every game in a series has to be the same. They don’t have to all follow the same formula, theme, or… anything, really. What the designers creating the game come up with is the most important thing. The opposite is true, as well: Not every game in a series has to be unique. So often we hear people bashing Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty for just being the same game every year, but at the end of the day, there has to be a reason for that, right? These games sell because what they do works , and that’s what’s most important. So what does this all have to do with Metroid Fusion? Well, like I said, Metroid Fusion is different , and that’s okay. The Geek Critique made an excellent point in his video on Metroid Fusion in that if Nintendo wanted to make Super Metroid 2, they would have. That one point alone massively contributed to changing my perspective on this game. Two years ago, I went on a bit of a tirade on Metroid Fusion

(Author's note: Fun fact: This video was originally supposed to be the first in a series of reviews of all three Mother games. Seeing as how that didn't end up happening, the introduction to this video may seem a bit, uh, cinematic? I guess? This was because I originally wanted to frame the series as Itoi's passion project, but since I only covered the first game, the opening few minutes of this video may seem a bit out of place. I wasn't quite sure how to rework the video into a standalone project without having to make some drastic changes, so I made as many alterations as I could without taking away the video's core meaning.) In the early 1900’s, a dark shadow covered a small country town in rural America. At that time, a young married couple vanished mysteriously from their home. The man’s name was George. The woman’s name was Maria. Two years later, as suddenly as he left, George returned. He never told anyone where he had been or what he had done. But

There are few times when a series as successful as Pokemon is able to capture the spirit that its mainline games create and invoke it in a game that’s entirely different from its source material. That is Pokemon Snap, a game that, in all honesty, is something that no one really expected at all. I mean, come on, a game where you take pictures of Pokemon? Lame, right? Wrong.   This game is frigging awesome. I know I don’t really have to say it since it’s beloved by fans nowadays, but Pokemon Snap is something really special, not only because it’s just so different, but also because it just has this magical feeling that nothing other than Pokemon can really replicate. But before I get too ahead of myself, let’s talk about what there actually is to this game. Pokemon Snap is an on-rails game in which you take pictures of Pokemon to show to Professor Oak. You play as Todd Snap aboard the Zero-One, in which you travel through various different regions containing all different ty

I really don’t even know how to start this video. FEZ took everything I know about video games and refined it with such grace and elegance that it absolutely floored me. FEZ is oddly unique in that way: its influences are clearly shown throughout the game and are quite easy to notice; yet when you actually sit down and play the game, it feels entirely like its own thing. I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into the game. I’ve seen Indie Game: The Movie just like everyone else, but when it came down to it, I really didn’t know what I’d be getting myself into. What I ended up playing was one of the most enthralling, lovingly put together games I’ve played in quite some time. FEZ is quite simple in its concept: You play as Gomez, who receives a fez  that allows him to rotate the once two-dimensional world and access new areas. And… that’s about it. There’s no bosses, lives, or anything that you would find in a conventional platformer. Instead, the point of the game is to

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time shocked the world when it was released. It had everything you could want in a game in 1998: the graphics, story, the gameplay, everything was revolutionary for its time. It set the precedent that 3D action-adventure games of the future would try and try again to emulate. So when its “sequel” of sorts, Majora’s Mask, was released in 2000, it had HUGE shoes to fill, and I think it's safe to say this game delivered. Majora’s Mask essentially took everything that made Ocarina of Time the masterpiece it is and improved and expanded upon it tenfold. But make no mistake, the two are very different experiences and should be treated as such. While Ocarina of Time’s gameplay is focused around the story, Majora’s Mask goes in the opposite direction and places more emphasis on worldbuilding. That’s not to say that there’s no story in Majora’s Mask. Link goes on a journey after the events of Ocarina in search for a “friend,” as the game puts it. He’

Author's note: This review sucks. One day I might make a blog post here with my updated opinions on this game, but as of right now this is what it is. Just know before you read/watch this review that a lot of my opinions about this game have changed (and my writing has improved a bit too). Just a bit of fair warning. UPDATE 12/31/17: I revisited this game. Check it out here:  http://densgamecorner.blogspot.com/2017/12/metroid-fusion-winds-of-change.html Metroid as a series has always been known for its atmosphere and being able to make the player feel isolated on an alien world. If you've ever played games like Super Metroid or Metroid Prime, you'd be lying if you said you didn't feel completely immersed in the world around you. The series has always done an awesome job of giving the player purpose without any context. All you need to know is that you're this badass bounty hunter that gets a ton of awesome powerups to make you even more badass. Metroid Fu

So I LOVE Super Smash Bros. In fact, it's probably the franchise that's affected me the most. I've owned all four of the games, and I currently play Melee competitively (even though I'm really not that good at it). It's such an iconic series. So when I heard about Rivals of Aether, I was pretty excited to see what it had in store. Let me take a moment to go over how Rivals of Aether's gameplay works. It's nearly identical to Super Smash Brothers, which is by no means a bad thing. 2-4 players beat the crap out of each other and build up each other's percentage meters. The higher your percentage is, the farther you'll get knocked back by attacks. The objective of the game is to knock your opponents off of the screen. You have large array of attacks to use, but none of them are difficult to execute at all. At most you'll need to press, like, 2 buttons to use an attack. The concept of "easy to learn, difficult to master" applies to