Chrispai
The levels are about the same quality as the base game, which is impressive, but also means they have the same flaws as the main game. Don't really get the constant return of the cat either, but harmless I guess, just not really as cute as they seem to think it is. If you loved the base game, you'll love this. As somebody who found the base game just alright, this was just alright.
2020
It starts with the camera clipping through the ground and the way the dialogue is written physically hurt me in mere seconds. It doesn’t seem particularly well polished either so, not gonna waste my time on it. The designs available felt like they were exclusively female-centered too, and though that’s fine, that does mean I immediately felt that, as a guy, this game is made for a specific audience. So altogether just didn’t feel like giving it a chance because of all that stuff already piling up right at the start. The animations were funny at least.
2019
It’s indeed just a puzzle game about boxes, but not that satisfying to play and incredibly basic.
2023
This was my first time truly finishing all the classic sonic games. I’d gotten to the final boss on sonic 2 once on the classic collection on DS but given up, and had started but not even gotten to the halfway point in all the other games. It was quite a ride, and I’m very glad I finally found the time to finish all of them!
First, the collection as a whole. I know it released in a sorry state and I do think SEGA and Sonic Team need to take a chill pill on rushing developers, because it makes Sonic continually a laughing stock/disappointment even with stellar games like Mania happening. But I played it now, after plenty of patches and the plus content already added, and I had a great time. It’s clear that if you’re playing these games for the first time, this collection does the job just fine. It does it even more than fine, because the addition of the drop dash and the ability to retry special stages were truly game changers. Knowing I can simply retry with the coins that I got from completing missions and finding them across the stages feels like a fair system where I don’t just get to retry for free, but the cost also isn’t ludicrous and makes failing a special stage much less stressful while removing none of the challenge. The drop dash is a move I loved in mania so seeing it brought into all these games now, it fits in perfectly and keeps the pace going, especially in Sonic 1. The animated cutscenes are a joy to see, but I wished there were more, even just a few unlockable ones. All the supplementary material and the missions aren’t exactly my cup of tea, but nice for those who are interested and adds a lot of value besides just the games.
Sonic 1 benefits a lot from the spin dash and drop dash to keep things going, and I’d probably never want to go back to a version where those aren’t available. Especially the drop dash works quite well since the speed boost isn’t too much that you shoot into hazards but just enough that it keeps the pace going in a satisfying way. It’s clear that this was the sonic concept going through growing pains, still not used to its full potential, and thus I didn’t enjoy the design that much besides obviously green hill zone. I didn’t go for all the chaos emeralds because you don’t get anything for it, and the special stages aren’t really my thing. 6/10
Sonic CD is probably my least favourite classic sonic game to play, unless my opinion changes in the future. There’s a clear focus on exploration, in a game that also seems to want you to move at the same blistering speeds that sonic is known for. The time travel mechanic is cool in concept but isn’t that fun to use even when I know a good spot to make it work. The stages aren’t that fun to explore in the sense that I feel like I bounce all over the place with no clear indication where I should go, and it’s not really clear when I’m supposed to travel through time or where I’d even find a sign to do said time travel with. In the end, I just played it like a standard sonic game and it was clear that the exploration-based level design and the sonic speed just didn’t match. Maybe if you could time travel on the fly, even at the press of a button, I’d have experimented around with it a lot more, but as it is, I just went for the time stones and got the best ending that way. The special stages aren’t particularly fun, but also not very hard, so I’m fine with them. That japanese soundtracks has some bops though, and I love the animated opening and ending so, so much that I nearly teared up at the end. The game itself would probably get a 5/10, but for those feels and those amazing tunes, I feel it deserves a 6/10.
Sonic 2 is my favourite classic sonic game, for sure! It’s clear to me why this is the only sonic game I played all the way through years ago. It’s so satisfying to play, and the level design seems hell bent on making you go fast and keeping the pace up at all times, even when it slows down for some platforming or level gimmicks. It all just works harmoniously together for non-stop fun and I really enjoyed almost every single second. (until metropolis zone which is probably one of my most hated zones due to the enemies) The special stages, the halfpipe, are also my favourites (without tails), they feel satisfying to master, with a decent difficulty curve. It looks much, much better being in actual 3D now compared to what it was originally, and I really like that you access them through checkpoints, gives checkpoints some more value besides just saving progress. Super Sonic also works excellently with the level design, where the super speed was just exhilarating! Final zone and final boss were a bit ‘eh’ but I didn’t end up minding them too much because of how much fun I had before that point. 8/10!
Sonic 3 and knuckles is quite good, but after Sonic 2, I felt like some design elements didn’t mix as well anymore as they did in Sonic 2, while some new ones were added that brought their own charm. For example, the special stages aren’t really my thing, but passable, and finding the big rings is fun enough. Super Sonic and Hyper Sonic are as cool as ever, but the stages feel designed around normal sonic more than anything. I often ran out of rings because during the cutscenes, sonic still loses rings, which for example meant that when I fought Big Arm, I lost my super form purely by how slow that cutscene transition to the fight is. In that sense, it wasn’t that satisfying to rack up rings and then transform, because it often felt like the speed was too high for the more complex platforming where I often would go so fast I’d get crushed out of nowhere. Now, that problem aside, this game’s way of handling story-telling and level gimmicks are so interesting and still quite unique even today in my eyes. Jumping down walls hanging from a rope, outrunning rising sand, even the very first level where it gets set on fire. This game does a lot more interesting things with its levels than Sonic 2 did, but that takes away from the snappiness and the exhilarating speed to make for a different kind of quality. I enjoyed this one, but it just didn’t give me the same sense of fun as Sonic 2. The fact it’s two games in one in a sense also shows in how lengthy it is, and that does impact replayability a bit for me. I’d give it a fair, satisfying 7/10.
So, in conclusion: 2>3&K>CD>1
2 is my favourite, 3&K is good with qualities of its own but less ‘simply fun’ than 2, CD is the worst one to play but adds a lot of charm with its cutscenes and music, and 1 is just fine for what it is but past games improved on it in every way and it shows.
… the game gear games? Oh, yeah, not really what I got the game for, I imagine they’re all varying levels of middling and less good than their console counterparts.
First, the collection as a whole. I know it released in a sorry state and I do think SEGA and Sonic Team need to take a chill pill on rushing developers, because it makes Sonic continually a laughing stock/disappointment even with stellar games like Mania happening. But I played it now, after plenty of patches and the plus content already added, and I had a great time. It’s clear that if you’re playing these games for the first time, this collection does the job just fine. It does it even more than fine, because the addition of the drop dash and the ability to retry special stages were truly game changers. Knowing I can simply retry with the coins that I got from completing missions and finding them across the stages feels like a fair system where I don’t just get to retry for free, but the cost also isn’t ludicrous and makes failing a special stage much less stressful while removing none of the challenge. The drop dash is a move I loved in mania so seeing it brought into all these games now, it fits in perfectly and keeps the pace going, especially in Sonic 1. The animated cutscenes are a joy to see, but I wished there were more, even just a few unlockable ones. All the supplementary material and the missions aren’t exactly my cup of tea, but nice for those who are interested and adds a lot of value besides just the games.
Sonic 1 benefits a lot from the spin dash and drop dash to keep things going, and I’d probably never want to go back to a version where those aren’t available. Especially the drop dash works quite well since the speed boost isn’t too much that you shoot into hazards but just enough that it keeps the pace going in a satisfying way. It’s clear that this was the sonic concept going through growing pains, still not used to its full potential, and thus I didn’t enjoy the design that much besides obviously green hill zone. I didn’t go for all the chaos emeralds because you don’t get anything for it, and the special stages aren’t really my thing. 6/10
Sonic CD is probably my least favourite classic sonic game to play, unless my opinion changes in the future. There’s a clear focus on exploration, in a game that also seems to want you to move at the same blistering speeds that sonic is known for. The time travel mechanic is cool in concept but isn’t that fun to use even when I know a good spot to make it work. The stages aren’t that fun to explore in the sense that I feel like I bounce all over the place with no clear indication where I should go, and it’s not really clear when I’m supposed to travel through time or where I’d even find a sign to do said time travel with. In the end, I just played it like a standard sonic game and it was clear that the exploration-based level design and the sonic speed just didn’t match. Maybe if you could time travel on the fly, even at the press of a button, I’d have experimented around with it a lot more, but as it is, I just went for the time stones and got the best ending that way. The special stages aren’t particularly fun, but also not very hard, so I’m fine with them. That japanese soundtracks has some bops though, and I love the animated opening and ending so, so much that I nearly teared up at the end. The game itself would probably get a 5/10, but for those feels and those amazing tunes, I feel it deserves a 6/10.
Sonic 2 is my favourite classic sonic game, for sure! It’s clear to me why this is the only sonic game I played all the way through years ago. It’s so satisfying to play, and the level design seems hell bent on making you go fast and keeping the pace up at all times, even when it slows down for some platforming or level gimmicks. It all just works harmoniously together for non-stop fun and I really enjoyed almost every single second. (until metropolis zone which is probably one of my most hated zones due to the enemies) The special stages, the halfpipe, are also my favourites (without tails), they feel satisfying to master, with a decent difficulty curve. It looks much, much better being in actual 3D now compared to what it was originally, and I really like that you access them through checkpoints, gives checkpoints some more value besides just saving progress. Super Sonic also works excellently with the level design, where the super speed was just exhilarating! Final zone and final boss were a bit ‘eh’ but I didn’t end up minding them too much because of how much fun I had before that point. 8/10!
Sonic 3 and knuckles is quite good, but after Sonic 2, I felt like some design elements didn’t mix as well anymore as they did in Sonic 2, while some new ones were added that brought their own charm. For example, the special stages aren’t really my thing, but passable, and finding the big rings is fun enough. Super Sonic and Hyper Sonic are as cool as ever, but the stages feel designed around normal sonic more than anything. I often ran out of rings because during the cutscenes, sonic still loses rings, which for example meant that when I fought Big Arm, I lost my super form purely by how slow that cutscene transition to the fight is. In that sense, it wasn’t that satisfying to rack up rings and then transform, because it often felt like the speed was too high for the more complex platforming where I often would go so fast I’d get crushed out of nowhere. Now, that problem aside, this game’s way of handling story-telling and level gimmicks are so interesting and still quite unique even today in my eyes. Jumping down walls hanging from a rope, outrunning rising sand, even the very first level where it gets set on fire. This game does a lot more interesting things with its levels than Sonic 2 did, but that takes away from the snappiness and the exhilarating speed to make for a different kind of quality. I enjoyed this one, but it just didn’t give me the same sense of fun as Sonic 2. The fact it’s two games in one in a sense also shows in how lengthy it is, and that does impact replayability a bit for me. I’d give it a fair, satisfying 7/10.
So, in conclusion: 2>3&K>CD>1
2 is my favourite, 3&K is good with qualities of its own but less ‘simply fun’ than 2, CD is the worst one to play but adds a lot of charm with its cutscenes and music, and 1 is just fine for what it is but past games improved on it in every way and it shows.
… the game gear games? Oh, yeah, not really what I got the game for, I imagine they’re all varying levels of middling and less good than their console counterparts.
Starts off amazing with a Link-Zelda dynamic that I was immediately on board with… and then for most of the adventure you’re kind of just going around the world with not much interesting stuff happening. Sure, Zelda is great, but you get to see her for maybe like 10% of the adventure so that strong point kind of fades for most of the game. Besides her, Groose is well done, but his development kind of happens in a flash. He goes from bully to decent guy kind of off screen almost, but some of his lines were good enough that I ended up not minding. The rest of the cast doesn’t really stick out, but I really enjoyed Girahim as an antagonist, he shines in what few scenes he gets.
Now, gameplay-wise, I don’t mind the motion controls that much, but they make this game much more tiring to play than a traditional control scheme. Constantly having to recalibrate isn’t exactly fun, but when they work, they make for some of the most satisfying sword slashes in Zelda. When they didn’t work, they made for some of the most frustrating slashes in Zelda, but I realised that if I take my time with my swings, it worked a lot better. Other flaws are less easy to overlook and make it even more tiring to play. The story not really going anywhere, the companion character is literally the worst since Fi never adds anything interesting to the narrative nor the gameplay, constantly returning to the same locations which are rather bland to begin with (even if the desert with the timeshifting was a mechanic I was always glad to see return), the sky being quite barren and uninteresting… this adventure just takes up so much time where it feels like nothing is really pulling me along or exciting me, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is solid throughout. I especially loved the sandship, but it’s a bummer that the game essentially peaks at that point and you still have quite a bit to go.
Special mention to the music, which is absolute amazing and made some scenes so much more powerful just by the quality of it alone, and the final boss, was fittingly epic! I really like that as your sword upgrades, it feels fittingly OP by the end, worthy of the moniker of Master Sword!
I think it’s definitely a good game, but one with many flaws. It’s an odd case of the good parts never outclassed the flaws, it’s more so that the good and the bad balance each other out constantly so that I managed to get to the end while feeling fulfilled, as well as glad it was finally over in a way. It’s an odd one, but for the music alone, totally worth giving a spin (attack)!
Now, gameplay-wise, I don’t mind the motion controls that much, but they make this game much more tiring to play than a traditional control scheme. Constantly having to recalibrate isn’t exactly fun, but when they work, they make for some of the most satisfying sword slashes in Zelda. When they didn’t work, they made for some of the most frustrating slashes in Zelda, but I realised that if I take my time with my swings, it worked a lot better. Other flaws are less easy to overlook and make it even more tiring to play. The story not really going anywhere, the companion character is literally the worst since Fi never adds anything interesting to the narrative nor the gameplay, constantly returning to the same locations which are rather bland to begin with (even if the desert with the timeshifting was a mechanic I was always glad to see return), the sky being quite barren and uninteresting… this adventure just takes up so much time where it feels like nothing is really pulling me along or exciting me, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is solid throughout. I especially loved the sandship, but it’s a bummer that the game essentially peaks at that point and you still have quite a bit to go.
Special mention to the music, which is absolute amazing and made some scenes so much more powerful just by the quality of it alone, and the final boss, was fittingly epic! I really like that as your sword upgrades, it feels fittingly OP by the end, worthy of the moniker of Master Sword!
I think it’s definitely a good game, but one with many flaws. It’s an odd case of the good parts never outclassed the flaws, it’s more so that the good and the bad balance each other out constantly so that I managed to get to the end while feeling fulfilled, as well as glad it was finally over in a way. It’s an odd one, but for the music alone, totally worth giving a spin (attack)!
Tis decent. Space Pinball is better.
2024
This game is brimming with atmosphere, looks quite beautiful and the puzzles are quite clever! I had a good time just wandering around, finding new items, discovering secrets left and right. The atmosphere is both unnerving and relaxing in equal measure, and the encounters with the titular animals are all quite interesting, even if they're brief. It's very well made, has an identity all its own, it's a good time... but I admittedly don't get where all the high praise this game got came from. As I said, it's a good time, plenty of secrets and mystery, but nothing particularly that stuck with me or really made me go 'wow'. It's not that long and fairly priced, so definitely give it a go.
It’s pretty nice, nicer than the base ACNH game for me since there’s an actual goal the game seems built around, but I guess due to my lack of fondness for the villagers and their lack of personality besides… being cute, I didn’t feel compelled to keep playing for long. Small limitations also got on my nerves rather quickly and made the immersion kind of shatter early on (If I put two chairs side to side, it really shouldn’t be impossible for my character to go from one to the other, it feels so cramped) so though I think this is super well made and I had my bit of fun, don’t think I’ll be returning to this one. Still, I could get behind an entire game based around this concept with a bit more to it.
A frankly terrible retelling of one piece, where knowledge of the manga is mandatory to even know what's going on because the cutscenes do such a poor job at it. Of course, if you already know the plot points, the cutscenes become even more useless, because the presentation is rather terrible. Besides the cutscenes, I actually like the presentation of battles with the limitations of the 3DS in mind, and having seen how bombastic the special moves get, I think they're animated rather well. There's just not much to the battle system, the 'dungeons' if you'd call them that are just straight hallways... I didn't get very far into this one, but from what I have played, it looks like One Piece Odyssey is essentially doing what this game wanted to do, but actually delivering quality. So, go play that instead.
1989
- Played on NSO -
So the general opinion I heard on this game was that it was well-liked and people were really happy to see the first mario land make it over to NSO when we previously only had the second one. I kinda liked the chunky aesthetic of it so I gave it a go and it… is definitely a game. The controls are extremely stiff to the point where making a very simple jump can still lead to you falling down a pit, while also being kind of slippery where I slipped down a platform at light speed. Yeah, mario DROPS in this game as soon as there’s no solid ground, so slide an inch of that platform and he’ll be off to his death in a flash. The shooter segments were actually a nice change of pace in that regard, enjoyed them quite a bit more than the usual levels… and then it just abruptly ends. I expected a little more, especially because levels aren’t shy to re-use the exact same segments by copy pasting them within that same level.
Short, stiff, not really that fun to play, but at least I see why they call it quirky. The random bamboo forest levels had a nice aesthetic, but the rest didn’t leave much of an impression.
So the general opinion I heard on this game was that it was well-liked and people were really happy to see the first mario land make it over to NSO when we previously only had the second one. I kinda liked the chunky aesthetic of it so I gave it a go and it… is definitely a game. The controls are extremely stiff to the point where making a very simple jump can still lead to you falling down a pit, while also being kind of slippery where I slipped down a platform at light speed. Yeah, mario DROPS in this game as soon as there’s no solid ground, so slide an inch of that platform and he’ll be off to his death in a flash. The shooter segments were actually a nice change of pace in that regard, enjoyed them quite a bit more than the usual levels… and then it just abruptly ends. I expected a little more, especially because levels aren’t shy to re-use the exact same segments by copy pasting them within that same level.
Short, stiff, not really that fun to play, but at least I see why they call it quirky. The random bamboo forest levels had a nice aesthetic, but the rest didn’t leave much of an impression.
2017
What a pleasant surprise! Picked it up on a whim because I’m a big fan of mega man, and I had an absolute blast! I’m usually not one for roguelikes, but I saw this one through to the end because the difficulty was manageable, a run doesn’t take overly long and above all, it was just a lot of fun! Some upgrades tear some sections of levels in half, but I think that just adds to the fun of it, getting lucky with an upgrade combination that isn’t necessary to win but allows for some clever circumventing. Only gripe I had is that towards the end, it almost turned more into a touhou game than a mega man game with the amount of projectiles and visual information. I made it through, but it feels like by the end you either use your available moveset to the fullest or you’ll inevitably get hit because you can’t pay attention to five things at once. Besides that, the visual style isn’t much to write home about but it works, and the music was a pleasant surprise as well, quite catchy.
As I said, a nice surprise, definitely worth checking out, especially since it’s quite cheap on sale!
As I said, a nice surprise, definitely worth checking out, especially since it’s quite cheap on sale!
- Tried on NSO -
With emphasis on tried, because so far, the only F-Zero game I decently enjoyed was 99, and I also bounced off that one in a matter of hours. I just don’t vibe with the controls, and though I’m clearly doing something wrong, I feel like the game does not give the proper amount of feedback to even tell if I’m improving or not. With it feeling like the CPU is practically playing the game perfectly while I bounce into walls all over the place, just don’t feel like putting in the time to get better at it. Hopefully one of the later entries has a basic tutorial of some kind on how to drift? : P
With emphasis on tried, because so far, the only F-Zero game I decently enjoyed was 99, and I also bounced off that one in a matter of hours. I just don’t vibe with the controls, and though I’m clearly doing something wrong, I feel like the game does not give the proper amount of feedback to even tell if I’m improving or not. With it feeling like the CPU is practically playing the game perfectly while I bounce into walls all over the place, just don’t feel like putting in the time to get better at it. Hopefully one of the later entries has a basic tutorial of some kind on how to drift? : P
- Played on NSO -
I thought I’d dislike this entry since the older mario karts really control weirdly, especially when it comes to the drifting, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a bit finicky, but certainly serviceable and the drifts felt oddly satisfying to pull off! I’ll stick with the later entries, but this one ain’t half bad.
I thought I’d dislike this entry since the older mario karts really control weirdly, especially when it comes to the drifting, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a bit finicky, but certainly serviceable and the drifts felt oddly satisfying to pull off! I’ll stick with the later entries, but this one ain’t half bad.
- Played on NSO -
Lasts about as long as you’d expect a microgame collection to last, but quite fun the whole time! There’s not enough unique microgames here for even the very short campaign, but because of how quickly you have to react and some challenges being a bit less immediately obvious than others, I didn’t mind this, helped me get better at them faster. Some of the illustrations in here are cute, some are butt ugly, but I was surprised by how the little quirky cutscenes endeared me to the cast. It has lots of personality, and as it’s very first entry, it can only grow bigger and better from here. Onto the next one!
Lasts about as long as you’d expect a microgame collection to last, but quite fun the whole time! There’s not enough unique microgames here for even the very short campaign, but because of how quickly you have to react and some challenges being a bit less immediately obvious than others, I didn’t mind this, helped me get better at them faster. Some of the illustrations in here are cute, some are butt ugly, but I was surprised by how the little quirky cutscenes endeared me to the cast. It has lots of personality, and as it’s very first entry, it can only grow bigger and better from here. Onto the next one!
This is where my love for pinball originated, and the sound effects alone are hugely nostalgic for me. It might even be precisely for the nostalgic value that this pinball game has that I like pinball to begin with. I played it a ton when I was young, was terrible at it, but still quite a bit of fun when I had nothing better to do!