Crypt of the Necrodancer: Cadence of Hyrule Review (Hey Poor Player)

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This review represents a shift of direction for my writing career: from now on, you can expect reviews of newer Nintendo games to exclusively feature on Hey Poor Player. Aside from huge games in the vein of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I wanted to evaluate new releases some time after release for two reasons:

1) To accommodate DLC updates in gameplay additions and polishing; therefore, I'd analyze the game in its final, truest vision.
2) To allow my opinion to settle and percolate after launch, letting it evolve past the honeymoon phase.

With my recent decision to scale back reviews here, however, I've recognized this is the most vital step into blossoming as a proper game journalist. For far too long I've neglected to cover newer releases as I've silently pursued ambitious goals for the sake of writing for myself. I simply work far more diligently under journalistic obligations, and with the evidence lying within my Hey Poor Player output, I'd like to think things can only go up from here.

And yes, this means the Nintendo pages in my reviews sections here will be updated accordingly. I'll be working on that over the next month, so stay tuned.

Hyrule Warriors

Koei-Tecmo’s brand of Warriors games – hack-and-slash spectacles wherein one character takes on entire armies – are, to my mind, excellent stress-relievers. They are not the most polished or ambitious on the market, but their elaborate power fantasies are instant addictions, the thrill of smashing through endless platoons and capturing bases instilling a bountiful catharsis. This isn’t to say the games are doormats – the various missions and down-to-the-wire missions engage us to the point of anxiety, but overcoming such odds is what makes them constantly satisfying to play.

I confess my experience with Warriors is limited – while I’ve played the entire One Piece: Pirate Warriors trilogy and extensively played both Nintendo-themed offerings (Hyrule Warriors, the game we’re reviewing today, and Fire Emblem Warriors), my experience with series progenitor Dynasty Warriors is limited only to the aged Dynasty Warriors 2. A mistake I aim to rectify in the future, but the point is, it is not uncommon at all for fans to claim Hyrule Warriors – a Nintendo and Koei-Tecmo collaboration based on The Legend of Zelda – is the best of them all. Even putting aside the celebrated mechanical improvements, the Wii U game is an insane labor of love and passion from developers clearly enamored with Nintendo’s famous fantasy series, with two years’ worth of DLC culminating with a boatload of content, a 3DS version with exclusive features (Hyrule Warriors Legends), and a Switch version collectively including all aforementioned content (Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition).

Kirby Fighters Deluxe

In retrospect, the absence of Kirby spin-offs following Kirby Air Ride is quite odd when considering how much of them populated the series' early life: nothing in the vein of Kirby's Dream Course, Kirby's Pinball Land or Kirby's Block Ball ever arrived in the DS era or even GBA. Perhaps HAL felt the sub-games found in Amazing Mirror and Super Star Ultra were enough, the mainline games being a priority as opposed to rebuilding a franchise empire. Whatever the reason may be, the eleven-year absence is evident, and so we must ask ourselves: what compelled HAL Laboratory to develop downloadable expansions on Kirby: Triple Deluxe's own brand of sub-games?

Thankfully, that's an easy one: because they're probably the best sub-games in series history. At the very least, Kirby Fighters Deluxe is a common-sense idea: the original Kirby Fighters was a slightly-altered tweak on Triple Deluxe's engine framed within Super Smash Bros. mechanics, complete with multiple Copy Abilities, stages, items and even its own little campaign. As opposed to the previous design rhetoric of Kirby sub-games -- little time wasters deviating our attention from the main game for just a teensy-bit -- it was the closest any mini-game had reached "game within a game" status within the series hitherto, and its addictive nature repeatedly kept fans coming back for more.