This game was quite delightful, to say the least. I had a really fun time with it. Unlike the other Mario rpgs I've played, this one is a lot more in line with classic Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest than I would've expected but I guess I should've expected it considering that it was made by Square Soft back in the mid 90s. The remake itself is mostly faithful in style to pretty good results, the ability to switch party members in battle freely is a nice touch and the team attacks were another nice addition. I think the art style mostly works but there are some instances where it can feel kinda cheap. The timing-based battles make this one really engaging though despite the low difficulty. Also, isometric platforming is dumb, I get they wanted to implement Mario's platforming into this game but I just think it could've used some fine tuning.

Spider-Man 2 is still quite the strong game from Insomniac as it offers plenty of the old Spider-Man goodness but I also have to say that I'm slightly let down here. The biggest reason why I adored the original game was the development and relationship that Peter has with Mr.Negative and Doc Ock which I feel as though has been almost completely lost with Kraven the Hunter. I found his narrative incredibly uninteresting and I just wanted to get to the black suit and symbiote stuff which I will admit, is pretty awesome and I love how they translated the black suit into the gameplay. The plot between Miles and Mr.Negative was also an unexpectedly strong aspect of this game and it further reinforms my belief that Mr.Negative is the best Insomniac has done in adapting a villain for these games. The swinging here is also quite refined thanks to new additions such as the web wings and the expanded world really added a lot to the game. As for my negatives, I feel as though this one is slightly unpolished for my liking. I must've been soft-locked at least 5 times from objectives just not registering as completed and I saw plenty of visual bugs along the way too. A lot of the open-world objectives are still fun as they were in the other games but now they can feel pretty cluttered and undistinct which made the checklist feeling even more apparent. Spider-Man 2 is another strong entry in this Spider-Man mythos but I feel as though Insomniac slipped up in quite a few unfortunate ways such as introducing what is probably the least interesting villain in this Spider-Man universe in the form of Kraven. I'm not really all that familiar with Kraven but this really was not a good first impression for me on that character which is a shame because Insomniac managed to take an unknown like Mr.Negative and make him into one of my favourite Spider-Man villains in the previous game.