Welp, I'm getting this out way later than I wanted too because the Monthly Roundup took WAY longer than it needed to. Sorry about that.

But, yes, another week has ended, which means it's time for a Play Log, and wouldn't you know it, I finished another game last week! One might say I'm on a roll at the moment.

Last week featured a greater quantity of titles than the week before, mainly coming down to Sunday, where I squeezed in a total of 5 different games throughout the day, 4 of them for at least an hour.

There's a lot to cover, so let's not waste any more time. Here's the chart for last week:

• Ordered by first play of the week.
• All Switch/Switch 2 play data on my console is sourced from the Nintendo Store mobile app.
• All Wii U play data sourced from the Wii U Daily Log application.
• Play data marked with a * is estimated.

Even after rolling the credits, Splatoon Raiders once again dominated my play time last week. It's not too surprising, though, as it's got a pretty dense post game with tons of challenging content to really put your skills to the test.

But the preamble is not the place to ramble, so let's dive into the games themselves.

Zero Racers (VB: NC on NS2)

• Played on Monday for approx. ~30 mins

One of the two previously unreleased Virtual Boy titles to hit Nintendo Classics at the start of the week, Zero Racers is pretty darn neat. It's an F-Zero spinoff that takes that franchise's high-speed racing and does something different with it that works really well with the Virtual Boy's form factor.

Unlike in traditional F-Zero games, you pilot a flying machine in Zero Racers, making the game kind of feel like a mix between F-Zero and Star Fox. You can maneuver up, down, left and right to take turns, avoid obstacles, and overtake other racers. It takes some getting used to, but once the controls clicked, it felt great to play.

You've got some of the hallmarks of F-Zero here, including an energy gauge which acts as your health. It depletes by crashing into obstacles, the walls, floor, or ceiling, or other racers, and if empties completely, you crash out and have to try the race again. To refill your gauge, you can pass through a zone at the start of each lap that will replenish your gauge. All pretty standard for the series.

One major difference, however, is how boosting works. In most F-Zero games, you consume energy to boost, creating a high risk, high reward system that forms the backbone of F-Zero's gameplay. That's not how it works in Zero Racers. Instead, to boost, you must pick up items spread throughout the course that take the form of a giant letter R, known as Rapid Marks. You can store three Rapids at one time, and can consume them to get a boost. There's only so many Rapid Marks on the course, however, so finding the most opportune times to use them is key. You have to go out of your way to get them sometimes, too, introducing some split second decision making that really spices up the gameplay.

I do have some critiques, however. Every course I've played so far is 5 laps long, and for some courses, this is fine. For others, it makes races last entirely too long, reaching upwards of 5 minutes for some. This can become especially frustrating if you rank out or crash out towards the end of a long race, making you have to play the entire race all over again.

Also, while I understand there's not too much more they could've done visually given the Virtual Boy's limitations, all the courses do kind of blend together, and the way they're named doesn't help. The context behind this game, as explained by the blurb that accompanies the game in the Nintendo Classics app, is that humanity has been forced to live underground, and the races in Zero Racers take place in 'interconnected square ducts'. Thus, the courses are titled things like 'Duct-A1', 'Duct-A2', and so on. I think it would've been cool if they had unique names to try and give each more personality, even if they all visually look the same. Also, there isn't any music during the races themselves, only the droning of your machine's engine. Kinda lame. I personally just put some F-Zero music on in the background, but having BGM in-game would've been nice.

Overall, however, while it has its faults, the fact that Zero Racers released officially at all is incredible, and should be celebrated. More than anything, it's a novelty to be able to play this game on official hardware, but there's also some fun to be had here. Once you get the controls down, it's genuinely pretty fun to play in short bursts, and it uses the stereoscopic 3D very well. Shutting off the lights and allowing myself to get immersed in the game was a really enjoyable experience, and I definitely plan to play it some more, and perhaps even give it a more in-depth mini review (as if I didn't just do that here).

If you have the Virtual Boy accessory and a NSO + Expansion Pack subscription, Zero Racers is well worth checking out, even if just for a little bit.

Splatoon Raiders (NS2)

• Played on Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Sat and Sun for an approx. total of ~12 hrs

Well, well, well, it's look who it is.

For the third straight week, Splatoon Raiders was my most played game by a wide margin, despite having finished the game's story the week before.

That's simply because Splatoon Raiders has an incredibly dense post game. I don't want to go into specifics for the sake of spoilers, but there's plenty of reasons to keep playing and keep upgrading your build after you beat the final boss, and it can genuinely get pretty challenging.

The only thing I will say is that, I feel like I'm getting to where the difficulty has hit a point of diminishing returns. Maybe I'm just GOATed at the game, I don't know, I like to think I'm pretty good at it, but at this point I do have a pretty powerful loadout that can make fairly quick work of even high level Salmonids, so every stage is kinda starting to feel the same, making the game start to feel a bit repetitive.

That's not to say I suddenly like the game less. I still think it's an excellent spinoff that's a ton of fun, offering an addictive power fantasy and feeling like a potential blueprint for what Salmon Run could look like in Splatoon 4.

As mentioned in previous play logs, a full review is planned. That will be where I go more in-depth on my thoughts and specifically discuss some end/post game content as well. That should hopefully happen sometime in the next month, no promises though.

DK Challenge (NS2)

• Played on Tuesday for an estimated total of ~10-15 mins

Oh yeah, it's that thing that was announced in the last Direct that I kept forgetting about and now have less than a month to do. Neat.

I love the idea of the DK Challenge. I think it's a really neat event that I hope gets expanded upon in the future. Plus, some of the challenges genuinely sound diabolical (hello Final Rehearsal in Bananza with no skills unlocked). I just, haven't gotten around to it much.

However, when I sat down to play Metroid Fusion, I was whipping out the NSO SNES controller for the first time in a while, and thought I might as well tackle some of the challenges before I started Metroid. I believe I completed the one with the first level of DKC, the DKC 3 one, and the Donkey Kong Jr. Math one, which was surprisingly kinda fun. I also tried the Kannon's Klaim challenge from DKC 2, but couldn't do it. Skill issue, I guess.

I gotta find some time soon to fit these challenges in, as there's only just over half a month before the event ends. I will say, though, playing these challenges has increased my desire to play through the SNES DKC trilogy, which I've been intending to do for a while. Guess I'll pile them onto the backlog, then.

Metroid Fusion (GBA: NC on NS2)

• Played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday for an approx. total of ~1 hr 15 mins

Heyyyy, check it out, I actually made good on one of the games I was gonna play last week, how about that?

After finishing and loving Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS, I've felt a newfound drive to play through the remaining Metroid games I haven't played yet, which, in the 2D saga, now only comprises Fusion and Zero Mission, the two GBA titles. Both seem like pretty quick playthroughs from what I could gather, so I had no qualms jumping right into the next one, deciding on Fusion as it's the only 2D entry I haven't experienced in any form. I've played NES Metroid, I've played both versions of Metroid II, I've played Super Metroid, and I've played Metroid Dread. Fusion is the only true gap, so it made sense to go with it first.

I haven't gotten to have any particularly lengthy sessions with it yet, but I'm having a good time! One thing I've noticed right away is that this was the first 2D Metroid to really lean harder into story telling and exploring Samus as a character. Her internal monologues while taking the elevators between sectors, reacting to recent events in the game, are a really cool way of granting further insight into who Samus is as a person underneath the mask of her power suit, and what goes through her head during these incredibly dangerous missions. It also provides some backstory that, as far as I know, set the stage for the story Metroid: Other M would tell many years down the line. I know that game isn't very well regarded, but I do have a copy and I'm very interested in playing it. I have a hunch it'll end up becoming a guilty pleasure of mine.

The game's atmosphere is excellent, too, especially for a GBA game. It's a game that I'd prefer to play at night with all the lights turned off, which I also did for Dread when it came out. Of course, this is the game that gave us the infamous SA-X, one of the most terrifying threats in the entire series. And... yeah, encountering it is terrifying. Everytime I hear its cold, echoing footsteps nearby, my skin crawls and I want to run in the opposite direction. The sound design for the SA-X is particularly impressive for the platform Fusion was released on, and encountering it reminds me of how tense the EMMI encounters in Dread were, and I loved those!

All in all, so far, Fusion is another excellent Metroid game. Based on my experiences with this series to date, I didn't expect anything less. I'm hoping to be able to put more time into it through the rest of this week, and hopefully potentially even beat it. Right now, I'm up to Sector 4, which is actually the third sector you visit in the story, contrary to its name, and have just acquired the Speed Booster.

I'll update y'all on my progress in this week's play log when I totally get it out on time next week. Haha, totally...

Tetris 99 (NS on NS2)

• Played on Friday and Saturday for an approx. total of ~30 mins

The Splatoon Raiders event. Need I say anything else?

I tried to knock this one out pretty early, starting off on Friday, the day the event opened, and finishing it off on Saturday. That way, I wouldn't be needing to scramble at the last minute to secure the theme, granting peace of mind the rest of the weekend.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

Rhythm Heaven Groove (NS on NS2)

• Played on Sunday for approx. ~2 hrs 45 mins

I dove back into a pair of Rhythm Heaven games on Sunday, starting with nearly three hours of Groove in the afternoon. Despite having spent a lot of time with it, there's actually still a lot of game left for me to experience.

Among the things I did during this session were acquire some more medals, bringing me closer to getting a Superb on all 80 stages, played through a bit more of Beatspell, and tried out some more of the multiplayer mode... but like, by myself, by dual wielding Joy-Cons with the action button mapped to the trigger.

In Beatspell, I finally finished the first 4 stages, getting into the next set, which is where it feels like the mode really gets going. It's a really fun side mode that I could honestly see expanded into a full game, and on top of that, it actually has some surprisingly interesting lore??? The reference material you unlock by beating stages reveals the story behind the mode, and, it's actually kinda interesting. Not mind-blowing by any means, but for the story of a side mode in a silly rhythm game, there's more to it than you'd think. I still need to actually finish the mode, so, I'll likely be returning to the game periodically for that purpose. I don't think it's that much longer, though.

Then there's the multiplayer, which is incredibly fleshed out in Groove, but thankfully not at the expense of the single player content, like I feel the Switch WarioWares do. There's a unique set of over 30 multiplayer exclusive minigames that are pretty fun, even as a solo player wielding two controllers. And the later levels can get stupidly difficult. Rhythm Tweezers 3 is actually insane, I'm not sure how I'm gonna beat it. At least, based on my first impression of it.

Some of the multiplayer minigames are pretty interesting, but I think the most interesting one is... I believe it's called Memo Riser? It's the memory game one on the far right side of the game selection. It's weird in that it doesn't feel like a Rhythm Heaven game, as you're not doing something to the beat. Instead, you're playing a memory matching card game where you have to match rhythms, but you don't know the rhythms until you pick up the cards. It feels like something more suited for Mario Party or something, it just kinda feels out of place in Rhythm Heaven. Sure, there's still rhythm involved, but you're not doing anything to a rhythm. You're matching rhythms. It's weird.

There's still so much I want to get out of Rhythm Heaven Groove, so I don't see myself stopping playing it anytime soon. I swear I'm gonna start working on that review, but I think I want to at the very least finish Beatspell before fully committing to that. So, uh... yeah, it could be a while.

Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii on Wii U VC)

• Played on Sunday for 2 hrs 31 mins

Here's the game I finished last week! I picked it back up again on Sunday after not playing it for a while, and was at the beginning of the 9th set of stages, leaving only 10 stages left, all of which I would get through by the end of the night.

And, wow, after finishing Fever, I can see why it seems to be the fan favorite game in the series. In my experience, it feels like Fever has always been considered THE Rhythm Heaven game, and I can't disagree. Of the three Rhythm Heaven games I've played, it might just be my favorite.

The music, for one, is incredible. I love Groove's soundtrack, too, but there's something about Fever's music that feels incredibly special. Songs like Tonight, Lonely Storm, I Love You My One and Only, Beautiful One Day, Dreams of Our Generation, Hole in One, Flockstep, Micro-Row, Air Rally, and the legendary Remix 10 haven't left me since I finished the game.

There's also the fact that Fever is undeniably a more challenging game than Groove. Its games feel like they have more going on in them, more things you have to consider and take into account, and they just feel stricter overall. In my playthrough of Groove, I never failed a single minigame. I wasn't even aware you COULD fail. But going over to Fever, there were numerous stages I had to retry over and over again just to eke out a passing grade. This is especially true for Remix 10, which took me about 5 or 6 tries to get just an OK on. And, y'know what? I love that about Fever. Its sometimes unrelenting difficulty makes it that much more satisfying to overcome its challenges... unless it's Love Rap. I hate Love Rap. The "Fo' sure" timing makes NO sense and I WILL die on this hill.

Overall, both Groove and Fever are excellent games that I think do different things well. I'd say Groove is a better entry point to the series than Fever, but if you want to really test your skills, Fever's the way to go. That's just my personal experience as a non-rhythm game player, though. At the end of the day, I love both games, though I think I might just like Fever a tiny bit more.

WarioWare Smooth Moves (Wii on Wii U VC)

• Played on Sunday for 1 hr 18 mins

After I was finished playing Fever for the night, I returned back to the Wii U menu and saw the icon for WarioWare Smooth Moves staring me down, and suddenly I was in the mood to play it. So, I did.

Smooth Moves is easily one of my favorite WarioWares. While Gold on 3DS has it and every other WarioWare beat in terms of sheer quantity of content, there's just something about using motion controls for WarioWare that elevates it so much.

The Wii Remote was an incredibly primitive motion controller, and yet, the Smooth Moves devs managed to find so many different unique and quirky ways to use the controller that, for the most part, work incredibly well and are super fun and satisfying. Having to scramble to get into the right form before a microgame and then having to figure out within seconds what to do with the Wii Remote and do it makes for a chaotic yet incredibly fun gameplay experience that really exemplifies the fast-paced nature of WarioWare. It can be a bit of a workout, too! Not that WarioWare should replace cardio, but I almost always work up a sweat playing Smooth Moves.

It's not perfect, though. There are some microgames that feel incredibly janky, and in a situation where the games are coming at you super fast and you only have seconds to react, the game not registering your motions properly even for a second can be fatal. Like, there's a bunch of microgames where you control something on screen by moving the Wii Remote (le gasp), but sometimes it won't register properly, leaving the on-screen object your controlling unresponsive and flashing, leading me to flail around with the controller to try and get it working, all while precious seconds tick away, and by the time I get control back, it's already too late and the microgame is over. For example, there's one microgame where you have to saw a log, where the hardest part is actually getting and maintaining proper control of the saw without it going unresponsive.

It's hard to explain it, but I'm sure anyone who's played Smooth Moves probably knows what I'm talking about... I hope. Unless it's just me and I need to get good.

All that said, Smooth Moves is still a great WarioWare, and an absolute blast to return to every now and then. It very much makes me want to go back to its Switch successor, Move It!, which I haven't played much since it came out in late 2023. It's also a great WarioWare, I simply haven't gotten around to playing it more.

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Whew, okay. I really know how to talk y'all's ears off, huh? What can I say, I really enjoy talking about my gaming experiences, almost as much as I apparently enjoy taking way too long to get these posts out.

Yeah, it's already Thursday at the time of publishing. So, this is usually the part where I'd go over my plans for the week, but those plans are already underway. I suppose I can give some insight into what to expect next week.

Splatoon Raiders is shifting away from being my primary focus as I've been spreading the wealth between more titles so far this week. I started playing Mario Sunshine when it dropped on Nintendo Classics last night, and my playthrough of Fusion has continued. I also did, in fact, revisit WarioWare Move It earlier in the week, as I alluded to in the Smooth Moves segment.

Other than that, I'm not sure what the remainder of the week will entail exactly. If I had to guess, I'd say more Raiders, Sunshine, and Fusion, but it'll all come down to what I feel like playing when I get the chance to sit down in front of the TV. Either way, I look forward to continuing to share my experiences, hopefully in a more timely fashion going forwards.

Until then, happy gaming!