its the start to the flatout series in both a good and a bad way, good because bc of this there's flatout 2 but bad because wow this game pisses me off
the nitro feels like "oh now the driving controls are decent" rather than the nitro boost feels great to use, it also does that weird thing where if you spend longer than 5 seconds off road you can totally get penalized for it by the dumbass arrow pointing going "eh eh ehhhh, no styling on bitches hereee Press R idiot"
like thats so lame dude why is tht part of the game
Also i dont rlly like the map variety in this game, im cutting it some slack though because taking a step back
it is just a Fine to mediocre derby game
and i do like ragdolls in games

I love king of fighters i think the roster is really cool and fun and I rlly enjoy picking three characters for my ass kicking entrouge. I think this one is kinda weird with its reasoning for some of the characters being back but otherwise its the best looking a 3d kof has ever looked in my opinion
i wish street fighter 4 looked like this lol
ALSO B JENET IS BACK!! cant wait for snk to vault her again for another decade but.. atleast shes here! my favorite character purely bc i think her kit is so fun and something abt a pirate lady is intriguing to me.

Id probably either like or dislike this game a lot more if i was aware of more than like 12% of the overarching plot in king of fighters

final thoughts: beating motherfuckers with your high heels will never not be gnarly

Dope as hell 3d platformer that brings pretty much every plot point set in the previous installments full circle B U U UU U T i also think that this game's story and rlly this franchise in general could benefit from a chill area to walk around in that isnt a level or some way to have the story feel like its more organically progressing Outside of frequent exposition dumps really
I still like the stakes and the crazy shit that happens in this game ESPECIALLY the finale jesus christ its fun
But I also feel like id feel a lot more of the weight if I had more time to soak it in... id like it a lot more!
Though whats there is already pretty cool.. ok story stuff out of the way
this is spark at its best rlly, it kinda feels like the gameplay along with the characters has been evolving overtime
Now the jester powers are almost completely overhauled to the point where only Reaper is there as an alternate form and I think thats Fine because this is the first time ever tht spark the "electric" jester actually feels like an electric jester. I actually feel like the kit you can assemble makes a lot of sense here and isnt just a bunch of cool powers that kinda dwarf the subtitle of what spark is.

Now for (Admittedly) the main thing that everyone Really cares about with this franchise, the GAMEPLAY

I think the only thing that I miss from 2 is the fact that the parry was reworked to where you cant keep your speed and parry hazards and enemy attacks with your momentum.. It's still a fun parry! but.. augh something so magical abt seeing how far you can get without taking a single fuckin hit is so awesome

But even still the wall jumping, the free-fall cancelling(which i found an actually tense and refreshign way to try to work around having fall damage in a platformer but i still think its kind of stupid that htere is fall damage to begin with given the circumstances), the vehicles the grind railing oh my fucking GOD the grind railling
i wish grind railing in spark 2 and 3 was the standard for every platformer and not just that automated bullshit
like Yes you can get fucked up with your speed on it, YES that can fuck you up around a turn or a jump but Thats The FUCKING POINT!!!!!!!! It's SUPPOSED to feel rewarding and like more than just flicking the control stick one way or another
on top of all of that it lets you feel like you master these levels and find new ways to shave off your time even if its not needed, just finding ways to go quicker is exactly what speedster 3d platforming is all about babe
I think the mission medal thing is also Kinda cool and encouraged me to check out the side shit and see some levels that actually kicked major ass
The main levels are the stars of the show but the devs werent really slackin on the side shit either :>

That being said I also really appreciate that when you get the opportunity to play as other characters its easy to swap. but i also feel like this is something that shouldnt be down to the same four D-pad hotkeys and there shouldve atleast been a separate page layered onto it in some way that lets you keep doing it on the fly or something???
Like... thats just an idea though ofc because im sure it was already kind of a head scratcher making it possible to swap between characters in ways that dont break the maps but let you Feel like youre breaking it just enough to feel like NOTHING can stop you

I can confidently say this is one of my favorite 3d platformers though and i think this has been a heartwarming series to ride through, i really hope that whatever the devs have planned going forward that they MAYBE give themselves a little more breathing room with what theyre working with considering that now is the best time of all to take the franchise a step further but also to kind of learn what works from here
because the gameplay is already super solid, jester dashing is ultra satisfying and the combat is cool! level design is always so vibrant in color and the themes are gnarly, though i DOOO think they lean into factories and hangars a lot here and there
I think that what id want from them now is just giving these characters more time to organically interact with one another and using that to their advantage !! Because really the gameplay for spark games is practically perfect as is, its just the pacing and things surrounding the gameplay that you feel like you know could be better but instead of resigning to just "Thats just how it is" you can tell with this game that no no they actually did try their best to bring this whole saga to a climax in a really big way and in most fronts its AWESOME

final thoughts:
its a rad as hell 3d platformer thats got some really fucking cool cutscenes, level design, powers and combat and though the plot can be shaky at times because of the scale of all that its trying to convey and how much exposition gets thrown inbetween bursts of levels, it rounds out to a fantastic finale that i think anyone thats atleast played 1 and 2 owes to themself to experience <3

This game is an utter work of art in my eyes. I knew that i'd fall head over heels for it from the "Anti-RPG" tagline toted around alone but I didnt think id be so into it that id 100% the damn thing (which may not matter to whoever's reading but Ive never done this before especially with an RPG)

But to the actual points of the game,
This game has aged incredibly fucking well and still holds up all these years later because its way of "meta" and messages about love, morality, and video games as a whole are still so potent to this day. Every character in Moon feels less like youre trying to "Save" them and more like youre crafting your own story about making connections with other people and understanding the different passions felt by the characters, though youre also reminded semi-often that these Are still video game characters.
I think everything about this game is satisfying from its art direction of putting together clay figures,sprites, pre-rendered environments its all so fucking good and mouthwatering its genuinely three favorites of mine all rolled into one. This is was simultaneously such a tender as fuck game but also one that still has that separated degree of wanting you to Not stay super attached

Even if getting everything with no ingame checklist(i used notes app to keep tabs on shit) would probably be next to impossible (for me anyways), I had so much fun seeing each and every little thing the game had to offer and seeing each event play out. I think if i were to pick out any negatives with the game itd be how the action meter Does kinda just stop mattering after a bit but that in it of itself kind of removes the tension from The Hero wandering around and you shift into this state of thinking where you realize this and thats Okay because you arent stressing over grinding before everything ends because youre on the inverse of his progression path.

Also i think the fishing in Moon is actually really cool, except for when im being timed, when im being timed it makes me wish the guy that designed the fishing had their nutsack hair cheesegrated off their body.. but that aside most of the minigames are cute and funny

Final thoughts: kind of all over the place on this because I dont want to talk spoilers and want people to just maybe see this and take a chance on one of the best games ive ever played and will ever play in my life, thank you love-de-lic for giving me a similar feeling that rekindled my love for series such as the MOTHER franchise yet also giving me a completely different kind of warmth that permeates the 4th wall so hard that it hits you like a bullet. Even when I needed help from a guide the payoff felt so good, hell most of the game I discovered by simply bumbling around and doing random shit & it was still a great time

so yeah

that unused ending gets a similar message across from the regular one but wow is it dark as hell

the clis song is kind of cute after you hear it 9 times

i spent like 53 hours playing this game and i checked on avg how long it takes ppl to beat it after and tht shit said "23-25" hours for 100% completion
so that means i spent atleast 10 extra hours on that stupid ass fishing tournament which is... hillarious

the best interactive dont be a shut-in + go touch grass PSA ever

poppas is a cunt

thts all i got, cya

oh Fuck yeah, bitch.
Okay to prevent this review from seeming like a complete dicksuck im gonna start with the negatives
So many little changes like Sonic stopping on a dime when you release from the control stick and the drop dash doesnt bounce you very high and cant be upgraded to be higherrrr and really in the latter hour of the game you can kind of feel sega execs starting to tighten their grip on the dev team's throat while they try to squeeze in that last titan boss bc even though i had fun with it im surprised there wasnt anything crazy with its signature means of attacking..... hm

Also what the hell is up with the cyberspace level physics, i know theyre intended to be different so you cant just fly off the edge constantly or totally trivialize them but sometimes its like sonic's default speed feels too slow to me or the boost is TOO energetic ahh and sometimes the gimmicks they throw in are really cool like ||the last minute skateboard|| or theyre shit like ||the DRIFTING??||

You can totally tell that they were thrown in there, but unliike a lot of peoples criticisms of how Sonic Frontiers is... i actually like the cyberspace levels and the structures that you platform on in this game. I think that unlocking different structures while you unearth more and more memory tokens and collectibles to support the Kocos and more thats going on with the ancients couldnt be more appropriate for the kind of game this is. It's almost like youre an archaelogist in the most loose sense of the word lmao

Plus when youve unlocked most of the map and done most of the puzzles(which are piss simple in majority but as someone that sucks at puzzles i care more about them being "oh neat" rather than always brain racking) you can take a step back and rlly appreciate that the level design is just bones... but damn if its got some nice anatomy

You go underground occasionally, there's rails, springs, fans, the works! It's a treat and even though I think that you get your full kit in this game relatively fast if you just hop on a standalone blue particley spring for maybe 15 minutes DAMN its satisfying
Barring the fact that a couple of them get utterly outclassed by shit you get later down the line, there's almost never just one answer to a combat situation like the homing attack in previous games and youd think thatd slow things down but the cyloop? HOOH
the spin slash? HOOH
and when u mix in other ingredients of your choosing no matter what youre cookin its gonna look cool as hell

And the bosses exemplify this too I mean you end up doing insane shit to them that really shows more of the concrete feats that super sonic hasnt really... SPECIFICALLY had in repitition like in other games. I kinda wish there was a way to re-fight them or something in a training mode bracket or whatever so you could check and see how quickly youd dice something like Giganto from the start of your journey. It's FUN particularly because its got my brain racing in all these directions thinking about these sorts of things while in my previous sonic outing "Lost World" I could give respect to the multi-tooled kit that Sonic has in that game but I couldnt actually get with it because I wasnt fond of how the game flowed at all barring very small moments during its run.

The story for this game is really nice as well, now Im starting to shift my eyes from 'wide and impressed' to healthy skepticism with Ian Flynn because even though I really like what hes done for this franchise I think that his "everything is canon" position almost feels... offhanded
Like of course we can make references and thats AWESOME i fucking LOVE hearing about black arms and sticks and the babylonians and everything actually mattering in this so much that it fixed the characterization and wipes the flanderization out of tails, knuckles and amy...... BUT LIKE.. I REALLY WANNA SEE TANGLE PLAYABLE.. I R E A L L Y wanna see that if they do something with Shadow it wont be a laughing-stock, I REALLY wanna see that..
But i guess all we can do is hope but I dont know how I feel about just prayin to Flynn on that when technically you dont really see characters in this that you havent seen before that arent frontiers original, now dont get me wrong that doesnt hurt this game i just wanted to express that while this is a great step for the franchise, it's not like this dude reinvented the wheel or is the only one responsible for any of this happening.



FINAL THOUGHTS:
So, yeah, like i expected sonic frontiers is one of the best games in the series and one of the best games in the sonic franchise of the ones ive played thus far

It's got a really nice story and action platforming gameplay that uplifts what came before it while also feeling like it's carrying the torch instead of holding a wet match somewhere in a Target parking lot chanting a similar tune

It's not perfect, but as far as modern sonic been seming to go
I think this is exactly what happens when a new era for the franchise occurs
There is always some fart-huffer that will be mad its not like what they grew up with, because Sonic will always keep changing and being experimental bc thats just how things are
The fact that MORE content is coming.. FREE content
ill be able to finally play as some characters that havent been playable in ages, and thats extremely exciting to me. Worst case scenario is theyre only playable in their own selective cyberspace trial levels, best case would be them getting their own movesets and bosses and even their own version of--[REDACTED] heh....ehehe

so yea

its practically sonic adventure 3 too, if you dont count sonic 06, then i guess youre counting this one

it has fishing
it has a parry
why tf wouldnt i love it

this game is seriously great, it adds base to what came before it while also telling an insanely elaborate story about revenge and it's shattering repercussions of how they shaped the two most important characters in this story. The gameplay is smooth while only rly having the typical annoying shit i dreaded in it's predecessor(stupid knife turret assholes and immovable dipshits swinging furniture in place, and bosses that use guns on you being such a pain in the ass to fight Omg) but also making it feel like the side content is more well implemented. Most of the pacing in this story also feels a lot better too, emphasis on most because there's still that strange quirk where you have to wait for some ungodly amount of time for someone to call you so you can get on with the plot even if you already knock out like three side stories in one swoop.. which is WEIRD.. does anyone else think thats weird? no? oh well!

I think the cutscenes are also more grand than before, going to several different locations than just Kamurucho rocks and I think the new characters all serve their purposes pretty well, Sayame and Ryuji are ofc new favorites of mine in the series and I really liked how they didnt just make her get kidnapped a million times or something (I know there'd be no reason for it but I dislike seeing girl characters constantly get assigned to that role and wasnt sure if this game was headed in that direction, was ultra pleased that she stood on her own as much as she could phew) I think this game also shows a nice other side to Kiryu that you kinda feel gets touched on in the first one but this one really digs in there and gets some more raw emotions out of him its great shit
even that table thumping scene is in this and in context it has even more weight than i thought

No idea when ill hop on Yakuza 3 but i mean cmonn, with stories like this and gameplay that never gets old and not being too terribly long games??? I definitely will be back for more omg

Despite totally right out the gate giving the sort of vibe that it's a game that doesnt even want Itself to exist, in the same vein as the creator didnt want to make Katamari a Franchise franchise with sequels.... this is REALLY good

The game is a bit longer than the first but not by too much, and it doubles down with everything the first was going for. Cousins are easier to find and pick up, some reallll funny ones in the mix like Beyond (god i love beyond, up there with Miso)
MORE level objectives to be had and settings to explore than just what you were coming across in Damacy
And the "Fans of Katamari" youre trying to help solve the problems of always have something new to encourage you to do, at first i thought it was along the lines of
Oh, i guess there's a new objective with that specific person but thats not always the case, sometimes they just want you to come back and do more even though youve already done your shit

This game totallly goes more in with the King Of Cosmos as a character too, even though most of what he says is off-handed hillariously rude or thickheaded lines about what The Prince(or any of the cousins) should do and getting interrupted by a fan and then being like gasp
and decides to have u do something for the fan

It's so funny, especially when one of them calls the king sexy for some reason.. the king is also teaching Kind Of a lesson by the end of the game about living in the moment with life which could also be seen as meta but also KINDA leaks into the backstory cutscenes you see with the King overtime in his life leading up to a specific event that I wont spoil

but its actually pretty cute

So yeah, the game has so many good levels in it and katamari gameplay fucking rules. Ive only played Damacy, Forever and now WLK to completion but I'll be very surprised if Me & My Katamari or Beautiful Katamari drops the ball

katamari damacy is already a perfect game in my opinion to the point where i only have small nitpicks about it... soo what does that make WLK?? well, i think it just reaffirms everything I love about the formula, the creator, the sound design, the music, the levels, the silly characters... all of it?
"We Love Katamari" ur damn right i do bitch

i just realized i nEVER LOGGED THIS GAAAAAAME shame on me,
this is a pretty servicable and fun power-stone clone game, it has really fun locations from the show and everybody in general is a blast to play but I personally like maining Irwin because his win quotes get my funny bone

I saw someone else write a review on this page with a similar sentiment to mine sayin how like, I miss this era of licensed games. Every licensed game nowadays thats related to a show or a movie or something is doomed to being a mobile game or just a game with no support going forward because they base the success on ongoing post-launch online playerbase

But back then (god i hate getting older), oh my god you could make any crappy little brawler or wrestler or racing game or ANYTHING
people just had ideas to blow and even if there's a lotta stupid and borderline barely function to dysfunctional shit that you can rummage through when looking back at it all

There's some actual moments where you can really tell the devs Tried, they werent just slapped to a project for a paycheck but they genuinely did care about trying to make a fun game before the deadline. This type of shit with cartoons (and especially superhero content) has become so fucking homogenized that most of the time we're lucky if we even see a Garfield Kart to mildly chuckle at or a Multiversus/Nick All Star Brawl to shoot the shit with for an hour or two with friends on a boring night.

Oh right this was about a ps2 power-stone clone of billy and mandy uhhhhhhh YEA its aight

Solid enough as is for what it wants to be, see ya

What a great time!! >:]
The art style is charming, the cutscenes, the voice acting, it all ties it together for something that feels awesome as a 3d platformer. I suck triceratops testicles at metal gear solid gameplay but I think Sly Cooper taught me that I dont suck at ALL forms of stealth based gameplay. Its also such a unique occasion to see a "Stealth 3d platformer" on full display. Really fucked with the theming for a lot of the locations and that final act had me game over-ing a handful of times but in a game where game-overs dont really mean much due to the checkpoints around you... i couldnt get THAT upset lmao.

Okay now for the critical details, I think Sly himself feels fun to play around with and the new moves you can obtain through getting clue bottles and plot is really nice
though none of these additional moves like the roll or the pull or the dive are necessarily essential for beating the game, im sure somebody more skilled at the game could make way better use out of them than me but still something nice to chew on :) my favorite was the Roll because it reminded me of another blue clad anthropomorphic smartass...wink wink nudge nudge
loud throat clearing sound
But anyways yeah Sly feels fine apart from how I think things like his double jump kind of sucks, it feels like its more for getting a LIIIITTLE bit of an inch more airtime and distance rather than feeling like.. well, a second jump.
I also think that the one-hit kill system is something im really 50/50 on, if there was a health bar in this game itd kind of negate what little chance the enemies even stand against you in the first place in physical prowess

But you could also argue that the point of the enemies should be impeding you in how smooth and stealthy you can be while making your way to the next Progression Key or getting those juicy clusters of Clue Bottles to unlock that Safe. And even though as ive stated before the clue bottles are inconsequential to you being really good or really shit at the game, the devs sure did do a good ass job of making it satisfying smashing shit up in this game oh my god
smash the furniture, smash the pots, smash the goons up, smash smash wack wack, shits great.
And the climax is one of my favorite kinds of climaxes where it gives you a run-through of everything youve been taught thus far and wow does it have you hit the ground running. Not gonna spoil it even though there's a spoil warning thing because there's not really a Need to
But if youve skipped over this and youre more on the Ratchet and Clank or Spyro side of the Playstation hemisphere, i think u should check this shit out ASAP by whatever means

I mean it's not like it's going anywhere after all and the game itself is REALLY short.. like im not exaggerating its like 5 hub areas with maybe at most 7 levels a pop
It's great stuff, i dont even really mind the minigame shit
I dont know why people hate doing sniper-duty for Murray
I get not rlly caring that much abt him as a character but idk, was pretty fine for me. The real motherfucker was the first Mesa Race bc the AI kept cutting me off from getting the Nitro Boosts so I kept not being able to catch up effectively during the first couple attempts LMAO



last notes: someone needs to take that damn pen out that journalist's hand tht writes the newspapers about carmelita fox bruh, that dude is HORNY horny.. every single one of those headlines where she throws one of the fiendish five in jail is like a porn headline

Also Mz. Ruby rocks i love um jammer lammy(hates) ((loves))

But yeahhhh.. im done im done
VERY high expectations for the 2nd game,