I do not believe I ever mentioned talking about the Kirby franchise on this blog before, and with the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land on the Nintendo Switch, this seems a perfect time as any to talk about the pink puffball and my experiences with playing Kirby games.
I have been thinking about my reviews of Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword and I decided to go through the gauntlet of playing the classic mainline 3D Legend of Zelda games. Where better to start than the iconic Ocarina of Time. I have talked about the legacy and importance of games such as Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy VII, but Ocarina of Time is also one of the most important video games in video game history. Ocarina of Time is the book of Genesis of the open-world, action-adventure game, and the plethora of action-adventure games released since Ocarina of Time can trace its roots to this game.
When I first heard about Pokémon Legends: Arceus, I could not believe that Game Freak was going to move away from the formula that they have always used to create their mainline Pokémon games and sell millions of copies, despite their fleeting quality. I was critical of Pokémon Sword and Shield, and I thought that because Game Freak was still making huge profits off terrible Pokémon games and the overall Pokémon marketing machine, they would have no reason to innovate. Imagine my surprise when Game Freak announced this new game which is going to be a brand-new Pokémon experience, where the focus is on discovering all the Pokémon in the Hisui region, rather than win a bunch of gym badges and challenge a region's Elite Four and Champion. I still had low expectations, and the lack of marketing told me that Game Freak was not sure how the audience was going to receive this game upon its release.
I have good news! I finally have a gaming PC so I can play even more video games. I picked up Cyberpunk 2077 during a Steam sale in the holiday season so that I can experience one of the most discussed games in recent memory. I remember how much hype this game had prior to its release in late-2020. The developers, CD Projekt Red achieved great success with the release of The Witcher III, and it would be interesting to see how the developers would follow this up. The revelation that Keanu Reeves would have a significant voice-acting role furthered the already-massive hype for Cyberpunk 2077. This was going to be one of the best games of 2020, right?
I am going to write some more cheap filler content and briefly talk about my ranking of the best five games I have played in 2021. These were games that I played for the first time in 2021, not necessarily released on 2021. I expected some certain games to be on my list, but there was a surprise on the list as well. Before I go through the list, I have some honorable mentions that just missed my list.
