-Author Commentary-

Unsure how I feel about this one. In isolation it's quite good, I like the Yap Trap and the Klonoa Heroes review especially, and it's also the first issue to have the Console Chronicle segment type, which combined with the three-page SMT 4 review, makes it a really interesting one that marks the exact point I became more willing to play with the structure of these issues overall. However, I also feel like I fumbled that Console Chronicle a little bit. It's good enough, acting as a somewhat surface-level overview of the Wii's library, but the brief part at the end about it being "the last of the classic consoles" is honestly far more interesting to me. I think there's a definite split between "classic consoles", which operated on the mostly-offline-focused idea of "buy the game, put it in and play it, simple as", and "modern consoles", designed revolving around the internet and heavily emphasizing things like digital downloads, paid DLC and subscription services used to access the now-crucial online multiplayer.

The Wii, a console which "had" games you could download off the Wii Shop Channel but with a much more firm distinction between physical games and smaller digital "WiiWare" titles, and "had" the ability to connect to the internet for online multiplayer but barely any games that supported it, existed somewhere in the middle of these two eras, compared to the PS3 and especially Xbox 360 going all in on the more modern way of making a console, and I think it's really interesting for that. If it wasn't obvious by now, I vastly prefer the way the Wii and older consoles worked compared to the modern approach, and the Wii sticking more to that older design mentality is a big part of why I love it so much, but even putting my preferences aside, I think that distinction is really interesting, and I wish I'd given it more space.

Oh, and "greatest game I've ever played" for SMT 4 was lies, no clue how I let that one through when Solatorobo is right there.

Go Back