Played on the NSO

Doki Doki Panic is a odd type of platformer. It takes what other platformers made at the time and say "NOPE" and adds a different twists to the formula.

Instead of killing enemies by jumping to hit, you have to jump on them, use another button to grab them and go around to throw them away or something.

This type of gameplay is really interesting and leads to some really interesting approaches to puzzles: fight birdo by grabbing their projectile an throwing it back, grab a potion to summon a door to enter the twilight realm of the level, or grab a key to open the path while being chased by masks.

The ability to play as 4 different characters is really nice (even though I feel like not all of them are as safe as Peach or Luigi, I probbly never picked toad ngl). The presentation and creativity adds a lot to the experience and I am glad this gave use classic mario icons like the SHy Guys and Bob Ombs

Actually playing the game can be a kind of unbalanced experience.
You finish the first level and it is all well and dandy... then the second level asks you to take a Pidgit (a enemy you didn't see before), understand that you can steal his carpet, and use that carpet to fly over a bottomless pit without hesitating for even a second. Another time you have to travel the sea by using Birdo's egg as an improvised platform, and while this is really cool as an implementation of the mechanic, I feel that it would not have been that much intuitive if I didn't know about that specific level in advance

Another one asks you destroy a wall with bombs... what happens if aren't precise with you throws because of ythe bounce physics of the bombs and you finish all of your ammunition? You gotta restart the level.

Or one of the dig-dug like sections had a branch path at some point, and I am pretty sure you are kinda stuck if you go on the left.

It is a weird collection of creative and kinda fine ideas, but sometimes the realization is kinda just... not well realized sometimes, unfortunately. Not to mention that I feel the formula of grabbing veggies and items and throw them away is not the most precise strategy in the world, I feel especially some of the bosses can be a bit hard to hit (again it may also just be me not being good at the game, but I dunno)

It's a cool classic that it deserves a shot, but I feel of the classic mario games, it makes sens ewhy it is not as beloved as SMB3 or World. I do really appreciate how unique it is

Sayonara Wild Hearts does not care about being a video game. It has interactive elements, but they are purely in the service of making its audio and visual experience cooler and more meaningful. Gameplay loops between an auto-runner format, a flight simulator, and various timing based quick-time events without any warning, as it's unnecessary for what Sayonara Wild Hearts is trying to accomplish. The only thing that matters is that you follow the line that makes you part of the music video that is its world and get to act out some truly breathtaking visuals in an artistic representation of finding yourself, your heart, and your muse in life again. As a creative endeavor and a passion project, it is a sublime use of video games as a medium.

It's also kind of a bad rhythm game. While SWH appears to be on tracks, all movement is done via a very slow and gentle drift, meaning that the occasional QTE is the only real 'on the beat' action a player has to perform. Enemy patterns are rendered trivial as long as you follow the trail of breadcrumbs that give you points, levels that don't end in a boss fight are pitifully short, and each of the game's gimmicks only really provides a difference to movement, with no real meaningful 'feel' changes outside of one level where the enemy you're pursuing snaps on the beat, warping between two realities with each snap. Sayonara Wild Hearts is at its best as a video game when it manages to marry its music with the thrust of its levels, and it does this... I dunno, maybe three times, and only for parts of its longer 'boss' levels that serve to be the game's showpiece moments?

If it's your favorite game ever and an unforgettable experience, I get it. The use of the visuals with the music alone and how you naturally feel like you're brought along for the ride in an incredibly intimate way is an almost wholly unique experience. But the game ranks you, it has points, it asks to be treated as a rhythm game, and as such... I just don't think it uses its gameplay in service of its music very well. Conceptually, absolutely, but the feel isn't there. When the timing of your QTE's is off, the music fades and pauses and sort of just wrecks the vibe. And yeah, messing up the QTE is your fault, but it's the first time you're hearing the song and the prompt for the proper timing has a weird visual indicator! It's consistent stumbles like that which keep Wild Hearts from being an all-time favorite and more an incredibly novelty.

For most of my life, I have not "gotten" Sonic 2 as a game. As a kid, I was just scared of the water in Chemical Plant and felt betrayed that the following level was ALSO a water level. A bit older, it was cool to hate on Sonic, so I begruged him for not having Mario or Donkey Kong or Crash's sort of physics and level design philosophies, finding stages labyrinthine. After playing Sonic Mania and enjoying it, I still didn't latch onto Sonic 2, as I felt the level structure and spectacle of Mania was much better suited for a platforming experience, while Sonic 2 felt very much like a hodgepodge of different set pieces flung together in a playground with no regard for how they work next to each other. And also those crabs in Metropolis were the worst. But never, through any of these playthroughs, did I beat Sonic 2, just sort of ditching it at different points, getting further each time, or bouncing around to different levels in the stage select to sample pieces.

I have now actually beaten Sonic 2. And after doing that... my opinion didn't change much. As a single playthrough, Sonic 2 feels like a trial and error marathon, figuring out when a cheap trap is gonna happen or how the timing of this piece of floor works so you don't fall to your death. It starts as early as Chemical Plant and the game is strewn full of little examples. As someone who likes taking in as much of a level as I can, delving into little secrets, during a first playthrough, Sonic 2 thoroughly tested my patience as eventually I would get over these little annoyances and go "that's enough". The final stretch of the game was absolutely full of this, a linear shot through various obstacles that aren't at all tricky once you know their timing, but they LOVE to get ya with little things like exploding starfish on elevators, or the spikes on Mecha Sonic's head, or the positioning of the arms on the Death Egg Robot. Even the bonus stages follow this philosophy to a ridiculous degree, miserable halfpipes of trial and error if you're going Sonic & Tails and just regular halfpipes of trial and error if you're Sonic, only they take all your rings and make you move onto the next one if you screw up.

But, mastery is always the better part of Sonic. So I played the game a second time upon beating it. I used the knowledge from my previous playthrough, remembered the various traps, avoided them deftly and felt some joy unlocking secret routes, unlocked Super Sonic and he is an absolute BLAST to play through from increased jump height alone, and first-try cleared the final boss gauntlet as it is the exact same pattern every time and it's not really that threatening. Heck, I even thought Metropolis Zone was FUN! Sonic 2 is a game where you are rewarded for loving it, where a single playthrough could never be enough to express what makes the game good, where the feeling of Sonic outrunning the screen in Chemical Plant Zone gets to spread across the whole game as you know what you're doing. It's a freeform dismantling of platformer conventions by giving you a character who's too fast for his own good at times, but refuses to be constrained by the same limits as his contemporaries. It is the philosophy of platforming mastery taken to the highest peak possible.

... I just don't think it's for me. I'm not in love with how Sonic feels, I like interplay with enemies more than Sonic is willing to offer, I like feeling the ebb and flow of different parts of a level that Sonic is happier to let you blaze past. The more structured ending section that people hate with all the 'gotchas' ends up being my favorite part of the game, and Hill Top Zone for similar reasons with its more deliberate setpieces. I am the wrong person to enjoy classic Sonic. But I'm glad I bashed my head against the wall until I got to feel what he wanted out of me.