They will never make a better rhythm game than Gitaroo Man

INFINITY==================
Not in a hundred-million years!
===============IMPOSSIBLE

When I've been away from Gitaroo Man, I always have a tentative worry. Does it still hold its power? Have I lost it? By the end of Flyin' To Your Heart, I'm back in. I am the True Gitaroo Man. "We've forgotten this sound for so long!"

Gitaroo Man seems self-aware in a way that its contemporaries don't. I don't just mean in its fun, jokey tone. It knows how to be an hour-long game. Each level presents a new storybeat, and a distinctive musical genre in this shonen anime fairytale musical, introducing enough to keep each idea fun and peppy without ever detailing anything too deeply. It's bright, exciting and fantastical, and that brief running time is the key to so much of that.

The thing that draws you in is how good the music is. It's proper game music. So often, I'll play a music game, and feel let down over how little thought was put into the music. They're often either not very musical, or negligent of how they'll feel to play. Gitaroo Man's music is brilliantly structured for gameplay, with distinct phrases for the moments they're complementing, and the whole thing's so inherently videogamey. Levels are split up into CHARGE, ATTACK, DEFEND and ENDING phases, with the music working so well to convey the drama of each section. Charge sequences have you building your life bar, calmly gaining strength through long, sustained notes. Defend stages have you dodging vicious staccato attacks, that come in the form of rapid button prompts that zoom in from each side of the screen. Attack and Ending phases are the catharsis, with you taking revenge, sustaining long notes to do maximum damage, but if you miss any entirely, that's a knock against you. You've got big Street Fighter life bars at the top of the screen. I don't think there's any piece of imagery you could conjure that could so effectively illustrate the nature of a battle to videogame players. The gameplay mainly takes the form of following "trace lines", which are big bendy lines that converge onto the centre of the screen. You have to react to each one, right on the beat, and follow their bends with the direction of the analogue stick. Bending guitar notes swoop and curve around the screen, in synchronisation with the music, and when you're playing well, you feel like you're nailing a solo, trying your best to resist making Steve Vai faces. It's a similar system to Keiichi Yano's later Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents games, but it feels so much more aggressive with all of the prompts zooming into the middle of the screen. It's combat, it's war!

There's a crucial hook to the game, and something that's deeply undervalued in it. Gitaroo Man adapts to how well you play. It has about a million alternate music bars up its sleeve, determining which would be the best to throw at a player of your skill level. In most levels, you'll very rarely hear the same song twice. I've been returning to Gitaroo Man over and over again for around 20 years, and I still don't think I've heard every bit of Bee Jam Blues hidden on the disc. It's exciting every time, and really encourages multiple playthroughs. This stuff rarely gets talked about, but it's a real feat of both game design and musical composition. You never feel like a phrase is being pulled out from a list of suitable candidates and loaded in. It's all seamless, and given its response to your skill level, it feels both rewarding and emotional. It's the feeling of getting lost in a solo. I have little doubt that the lukewarm response to Project Rap Rabbit's failed Kickstarter pitch was on the fault of the public's ignorance towards this aspect of Gitaroo Man.

It's clear that the game never would have been made without the precedent set by PaRappa the Rapper, and back when PS2 games were all at the same RRP, I can see why so few would have been willing to take a chance on something they'd already dismissed as a flash-in-the-pan novelty, but Gitaroo Man is so much more thoughtfully designed and satisfying to play. 326's artwork doesn't have the broad appeal of Rodney Greenblat's funny animal people. Ignoring the wild rendering techniques of PaRappa and just focusing on what the artists drew, Gitaroo Man's designs are weirder, and pulls more from eccentric 70s robot toys and gag manga. Everything's covered in colourful dials and buttons, and all the faces are bizarre. The visual style is both geekier and cooler than PaRappa, and I've really grown affection for it over the years, but who doesn't love Puma?

The game is so aware of its length. It knows how to use ten levels to tell a Hero's Journey. It never gets too full of itself, or takes itself too seriously, but that doesn't prevent it from doing something beautiful. The story is broad, silly and simplistic, but that's great for a short, E for Everyone game that you'll come back to again and again. The adventure takes the form of one of those Wizard of Oz-style dream scenarios, only a little more ambiguous, where we're returned to the status quo at the end, but one where the hero has learned their lesson. For me, the real ambiguity is in whether or not we're supposed to think U-1 punched Kazuya in the face.

The downsides? Uh... the compression in the FMV cutscenes is a little much. The game makes a great argument for concave analogue sticks, as you might find your thumb sliding a lot on an official Dualshock 2. I don't like that you have to navigate to the Options menu each time you want to load a save... Look - not only is this a 2001 PS2 game, it's a fucking KOEI game. It's amazing that the game came out nearly as slick as it did, drowning out developer talk from the Kessen offices next door.

Gitaroo Man was lightning in a bottle. I don't think we'll ever get a better collaboration of game designers, concept artists and musicians again, and if we do, it won't be with this budget or freedom. I mean, unless the Splatoon team decided it was time to do a narrative-focused Squid Sisters rhythm action spin-off. I don't know. Maybe Nintendo don't have the guts to become the hero.

After Fear & Hunger peaked my interest and watching videos and reading stuff about it , starting to play it full of confidence and thinking that I’d know how to play around its trickery a lil’ bit, only for a malformed Guard to cut my arm off and beat me up till I had no health left, waking up right after without either of my legs and bleeding, surrounded by bodies and gore from which I had to claw and crawl my way out off, trying desperately to find an exit and ending up yet another enemy who promptly took away the only health point I had left, and just when I thought I had finally died for real this time, I woke up once again, and was able to witness how said enemy did something I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t even lay on text on here, watched as the world faded away on those last moments of struggle… that was easily one of the most grotesque, vile yet humbling moments a game ever made me feel.

A feeling that is not mere terror and borders true helplessness, a fate brought by chance and my own hubris, the single best and worst fucking way the game could introduce itself. The Gods are too far away to hear your prayers asking for this madness to stop, but maybe that’s a good thing… maybe a worse fate would await you if they were able to hear them.

The dungeons of Fear and Hunger occupy a space that fascinate me, and it’s kinda funny how that’s a statement that serves well for both the context and lore of the game’s world and outside of it; at its more distilled, Fear & Hunger seems something that The Simpsons or Pen & Teller would have made to parody violence in videogames back in the 90s, it’s a collection of every possible vile or grotesque thing mashed together in a festival of cruelty and pain to such an extreme that should by any means be comical. I don’t blame anyone that hasn’t interacted with the game to only see it at that, when a game starts with a content warning such as this and it’s quite literally called Fear & Hunger, it’s easy to assume that this is gonna be some Itchy and Scratchy shit.

If Fear & Hunger was entirely about that, horrid stuff just for the sake of making people point at the screen in disgust or being cruel to ‘cause pain in the player just because, I do not think it would have garnered the following it has all these years later, it wouldn’t have grabbed me like a leech grabs to a host, that’s for sure. It still can seem a bit silly or ‘’too much’’ a few times, like when you encounter an amalgamation of human flesh and minds and it ends up speaking in the foulest yet most casual mouth you can think off, but I honestly could see those moments being done as such completely purpose, as a small acknowledgement of just how exaggerated this setting can feel at first, or maybe they are just a twisted way to have a little bit of a laugh, ‘cause believe me… there ain’t much to smile at otherwise.

The dungeon seems to have something that calls people —in this case something completely opposite to the game itself—, whether is just the impulse to try it out for yourself to wanting to explore every single part of the accursed catacombs, and when I first played the game back in October of last year… I really couldn’t see why. I could see quality, no doubt about it, but with every turn and step, I could almost feel the game physically rejecting me: being mauled by bogs, getting infected after stepping on a fucking nail and dying because of it, having and undesirable encounter with the Cavemother when arriving at the mines, losing a leg or both because I took a plunge I really shouldn’t have, or that series of, let’s just say, catastrophic events I mentioned at the beginning. Every time I loaded the save, every passing moment, every single hurdle I overcame only to always be met with another that felt even major, I always saw the intent behind it, but I never felt the satisfaction of learning it and gaining the knowledge that comes with it, it only felt like I was being kicked down a stair-case that only got deeper and deeper. I ultimately stopped playing, but I was not free of the dungeon, there was something here that, even tho I didn’t quite understand, kept me thinking about it.

And after months, I couldn’t take it anymore, I caved in, I returned to the dungeon of Fear and Hunger, and this time… well, I actually think it’d be better to say this if I use another example:

After what will be a incredibly high and grueling number of deaths and finally overcoming the upper levels of the dungeon with its Guard and flying Gnome infested halls and torture chambers, and unless you find the Thicket on your first go, you’ll most likely pull the lever you’ll encounter in one of the many rooms, which will grant you access to the elevator that will lead you to the next area… the mines. The mines are the break it or make it point for many players, and in my case, they completely broke me; not because of a certain Crow headed enemy which can break your bones and blind you or the ghost enemies you can’t even hit if you don’t have any cursed weapons or magic, those are bad, yes… But they are not the Yellow Mages. Before this point, the ways you could damaged without engaging into combat ranged from being shot with a bow or stepping on a nail, annoying and potentially mortal, but nothing too dangerous if you know what you are doing, the Yellow Mages then take this and the proceed to take it to fucko-levels. Being able to cast a spell in the overworld which, if you are close enough time or take you by surprise, will make you lose an entire limb, get hit 4 times? You lose all of them. No matter what I did, no matter what I tried, because I always arrived to them really hurt or without a companion, I either died on the overworld, or got killed by them while in combat. I felt powerless and defeated, it didn’t simply feel cruel or hard, it felt like it was a fight I didn’t even had a chance of winning ever. That was where I initially stopped playing, that was where my story with the dungeons first ended, and I look back upon it I only think of stress, fear, and frustration, a mixture of feelings I wanted anything but to experience again… who would have thought that I actually never would, even when coming back.

When I finally returned, something had… changed, not with the game itself of course, bit still, it felt different, I still picked Outlander as my starting class since I really like the survival options it gives and the amazing attack stat, I even picked the same options and the introduction since I wanted to start off with something familiar, but even tho it was the exact same, even tho the dungeon was still the same aside of some layout changes that can happen in certain areas every time you start a new run… it felt different. Maybe I went in with a different mind-set, or maybe it was the fact I already had experience from that past playthrough, but despite the fact I was still dying, despite the many errors and mistake I was making and the punishment the game was putting me through just like it did months ago… it all clicked. I was trying far more stuff, the game wasn’t just a puzlle that consisted on either fighter or evading enemies, it felt much more; the world of Fear and Hunger is as integral as the action in the battles, if not more, and gaining knowledge through books, setting traps for enemies, or even just learning how to get enemies’ souls and upgrading yourself with them, little steps that came with pain and challenges, but also with an enormous satisfaction. I’d die and have to repeat all the process over and over again, but each time faster, more efficient, even when something changed, it wasn’t mere trial and error, it was a continuous experimentation that made going from dark rooms to the deepest of chasms daunting yet worth it.

I learnt and discovered strategies to efficiently take care of the guards, how red and explosive vials can be tools for opening paths and locks but also amazing items to get out to sticky situations, I tried and experimented talking to enemies which even when it most cases didn’t led to much, in others meant basically winning the entire battle or getting an item, I even got an ability which turned the bow, a weapon that isn’t actually that great in direct conflict considering is a two-handed weapon, into something hat can one shot practically every single normal enemy outside of battle. Death at the hands of a boss or the Crowmawler never stopped feeling like a looming threat, but this time it was one that could be overcome, thanks to help of allies as well as the items you can get by defeating them, especially the boss souls. But no moment, no boss defeat, no Crowmawler kill, no item requirement felt as exciting and rewarding as going back to the Yellow Mages, saying ‘’fuck it, we ball’’, trying a new plan and it actually working, making them completely unable to cast spells in battle, and after talking to them in battle, getting an item that an help you recruit a character that not only is a strong spellcaster, but also immortal, AND THEN for him to help you through a certain part of a later area, helping you discover a laboratory that gives you a way to progress without sacrificing any party members, but also that holds one of the most powerful spears in the entire game. Fear & Hunger? More like Hopes & Dreams, because we ridin’ alive out of this one!

It's honestly fucking insane, I don’t think I could put it any other way; I really didn’t have to me an active change to the way I interacted with this experience, and yet through its punishing but constant learning curve, the never ending systems that flow into one another and give so much freedom I’m convinced 90 percent of stuff I did could have been accomplished through other means, everything about Fear & Hunger feels so impossible to describe, once you fully engage with it, not because everything in it is completely original or earth-shattering, but because how immense it feels in spite of how small the dungeon is in reality.

You never achieve a point where you are an unstoppable machine, you can be more of less comfortable with your build and party, but the menace of… you know, dying, never stops being there, your fate can always depend on a coin-toss, after all. I think that the best way to say It is that I’m glad the game is the way it is, a world where luck is a prominent factor, where you can never interact with all of it fully and where a single, tiny mistake result in permanent crippling, hell, even tho I overcame the Mages, I also lost a leg to one of them, making it so I couldn’t run for the rest of the run, one last parting reminder of what I managed to win against, but also of how another mistake like that would spell literal disaster. Yet another way for the game to punish me, yet another way to laugh at it when I triumph despite it all, if you could consider any of this ‘’triumph’’.
Fear & Hunger’s sheer madness and punishments wouldn’t be what they are if it wasn’t because of its world, a world I can’t call alive, not because it doesn’t feel like it, but because it reeks of everything foul thing imaginable. Hell, at times you can be the foul thing, I had to attack an entire village ‘cause I made an accident and fucked up! It fucking sucked and I felt so terrible about it to the point of contemplating trying to load a past save? You bet I did! You are told many times that the dungeon is a horrible place, but no words truly do it justice; it gets worse as you delve deeper, and deeper it delves, to the point of questioning what’s the logic behind this walls, if none. Wretched beings brough by desperation or corruption, fauna perverted by the darkness trying to survive, cults that serve different old gods but share the same madness, and a story of fellowships both in the past and present, all searching something in the dungeon, be it someone, something, desire, or godhood. Fear & Hunger doesn’t have much narrative, the one present being defined and individual to each of the characters, but the story behind and in it is so fascinating to learn about and so horrifying to truly understand that gives so much more force to said individual narratives and a killer fantasy setting.

There are so many reasons the dungeon calls to so many, but I think it all comes down to the experience itself, the idea of finding something you shouldn’t, of continuously experimenting and winning thanks to it, of trying to about starvation and madness by all means and only grabbing onto it by the tip of your fingers, and the idea that every run can go differently not so much because of the random items (tho thank All-Mer for the ones that always are on the same place no matter what) but by decisions you take, the path you decide to go down from, the enemies you face or ignore, the friends or enemies you make. When arriving at the city of M'habre, which has to be my favorite section in the whole game, you could theoretically skip all of it if you killed the other playable characters as Knight or used a ton of Empty Scrolls. You can basically skip three whole major boss fights if you really want to. The fact that’s even a possibility shatters my feeble mind more than spamming Black Orb.

If anything, Fear & Hunger biggest problem isn’t something related to the game itself… it’s how fucking broken it is. I swear the code must have been written on a scroll or something, ‘cause the amount of bugs and glitches is… not really immense, but they a constant and some can even break the game completely, getting you stuck in certain sections or one entire area before the final bosses of ending A and B being completely broken, and in one in particular made me receive that Yellow Mage attack constantly, which honestly may seem poetic, but it made me look an entire hour for solutions, and I ended up having to repeat the whole thing while praying it didn’t happen again. If by any chance what I’ve said about the game has caught your eye and want to give it a shot, by any means, do, but please, install one of the many bug fix patched made by fand (some also include censor mods which is also pretty cool), I should have done it and makes things much better, butt he fact the game still has some of these is infuriating. Getting soft locked isn’t the same type of cruel that the rest of the game goes for, it’s just fucking annoying.

The adventure that awaits everyone in Fear & Hunger is always terrifying, it’s always a race against time and insanity, always a test in resource management and decision making… but it’s also always different, maybe sometimes in the smallest of ways, but that makes an impact, nonetheless. The dungeon forces its players are forced to get creative through sheer cruelty, but it makes those moments of glimmering light the more valuable; even when there are no happy endings at the end of the line, most come down to a simple question; will you let the dungeon change you? Or will you be the one to change the dungeon? Fear & Hunger I can’t recommend like others, if you weren’t interested by it or its premise really irks you, then I don’t think most if the things I said will make you change your mind, and that’s totally fine! I just wanted to tell of my experience with it, what I learnt, what it made me feels, and how it’s much more than it seems, and despite the pain it can induce, travelling into the unknown comes with risks, so part of the course…

After getting endings A, B, D and E, I can say that I have learnt something for sure… Gods are REALLY weak to poison, which hey, kinda nice kowing I can stop an eldritch abomination with a lil’ bit of insecticide!

Some say that the best things are those that take its time in the oven before fully baking, and let me tell ya…

Tour de Pizza fucking COOKED.


It's almost heartwarming to see this realized: I still remember those first Pizza Tower demos on Twitter and Youtube and the Noise always being in the forefront, either as a boss of major part or them or an outright playable character. As we all know, in the final game he’s World 3’s final boss, not even the main antagonist of the game, tho that didn’t stop this psychotic gremlin from being charming as hell… but nah, I really wanted the fucker to be playable, and more than a year later, he’s here, to the dismay of all Italians.

I would have still felt satisfied if Noise felt less interesting or exciting to play as than Peppino, ‘cause I mean, it’s goddam Peppinno, but no, they just HAD to go all out and make a banger move set. I still don’t really know which of the two is my favorite, but that’s just a testIment of how fucking fun Noise is and how it accomplished what it’s going for: to make you feel that you aren’t playing as an overstressed cook, but as a goddam ANIMAL.

If Pepinno was the ‘’fight or flight’’ concept personified, then Noise is just the FIGHT, he cheats the game’s puzzles how many times necessary, he super jumps whenever he wants, he doesn’t need of Gustavo and Brick to save him, he’s got himself! Literally! Like there’s another one of him just becauseWHAT THE HELL IS THIS CHARACTER. And I mean, they gave him the sausage gatling, so at this point I’m pretty confident saying the game is finally whole, this is it chief, happiness has been found.

It taps once again into that sheer adrenaline burst that the first playthrough perfect, but in a completely unhinged way. Once you learn how everything about this mad lad works, everything clicks, the levels break open and the amount of tricks you’ll be performing are second nature: skate wall jumps, tornado spins into dives into jumps into more tornado spins, pizza crushers that demolish everything without much of a sweat and using it is super easy, and that’s not even mentioning how ALL extra mechanics, like the ghost transformation or the rocket, are completely changed to fit this rat brain’s way of acting, and it’s exciting to learn and glorious to master. They somehow found a way to make WAR harder yet more fun. HOW.

One would think that, since it isn’t a boss anymore, part of Noise’s completely unhinched persona would be lost in translation to playability, yet that couldn’t be further from the truth. Some levels even change lay-outs to fit him better and be more fun, but at this point I think it was the Noise himself that changed the before entering to make his life easier. His animations, how all title cards just have different drawings of his face on top of the characters, his ‘’no thoughts’’ face each time he fights a boss and how he can DEMOLISH them with the bombs (whoever thought of that should get a raise, they are so fun to use), some new songs that I'm 99% sure are just the sounds that play inside of Noise's head, it’s INSANE, as it should and then some.

It's Pizza Tower, it obviously was gonna be insane and good, but this is next level from what I was expecting, and I’m so happy it’s here. Noise Mouse is real bois, just that justifies completely another playthrough of this game, having bomb combos and level variations is the cherry on top…

Still, huge missed opportunity to not have Noisette or any other bosses playable in the Gustavo and Brick sections, like yeah, more Noise is fun, but I just think that- Oh dear, no I didn’t mean to- OH GOD THERE ARE 100 NOISES SURROUNDING MY HOME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

If you were to ask a random person in the street which is the best 2D platformer they played in the past years, they will ask you what the fuck are you even talking about, but if you asked the same question to someone that knows a bit about videogames, most people now-a-days will probably point to Celeste, and how not to.

Celeste is so well designed it's scary, every single part of the levels, whether main or secret, is tuned to absolute perfection; everything new is introduced and taught at a perfect pace, you first encounter a cool new mechanic and you think ''Oh, this is cool'' and then BOOM you find yourself flying across the levels, thinking ''Oh wait I may be able to do this'' and you do it and you can, it's a game that makes you be creative and think about the ways you can defeat the level, and that's thanks to the fact that Madeline's base move-set is everything you need: jump, climbing, and a dash, with this three things, the game goes ballistic without never forgetting that core gameplay, which is something that cannot be said about a lot of other games.

And yes, Celeste is hard, VERY hard, in my first playthrough I died about 4,000 times, far more than with other games, so why then while playing, for example, Super Meat Boy I was as rabid as hell, but with Celeste I barely had any stressful moments?

The answer is in how the games presents itself, which is, for a lack of a better word, ''chill'' (no pun intended). Celeste is beautiful, both in looks and sound; it's pixel art it's marvelous, everything looks stylized to the extreme, and that simplistic look helps the game both in how it looks AND in gameplay. And the sound it's almost otherworldly, every sound effect is feels right, recognizable and submerges you even more in this little world, and the soundtrack is honest to god one of the best I've ever heard, period, every song is both memorable and it fits well with each moment, it can be calm, upbeat, oppressive, sad and victorious to a range that's fantastic.

In contrast to all of this, the game's story themes are very heavy, and it doesn't shy away of that. Depression and a sensation of lack of self-worth is what envelopes the game as a whole, but in the end I didn't found myself tearing up sadness, but of joy. Madeline's adventure is one of acceptance of a part that we don't want, of accepting the fact that yes, we may not always succeed, we may sometimes fuck up, but that is a truth that we must accept, and once we do that, we will be able to come up top; this is not the first game to tackle this type of themes, but it was one of the first to tackle it this well both in its story and in gameplay.

I did get mad and stressed ta few times during my time with Celeste, but all of them could be considered my fault. The game really brings home the final idea of doing things at your own pace, the sections where you have to go truly fast and few and far between, respawning is fast as hell and it gives you all the options needed to make this climbing as hard or as easy as you want to. It lets you be you, and never looks down nor up on you for it, it simply has a ton of respect for the player as much as the player has for Madeline.

Celeste is not perfect, some of the side content is really whacky to say the least and what it demands of you to reach the final base levels is sometimes exaggerated, and I'll admit some parts of some base levels are not all winners, but that just pales in comparison with the sheer magnitude of the rest of the game. This may not be my favorite 2D platformer ever, but it has some of my favorite moments, this is truly a piece of art worth to be celebrated, and its message almost everyone will found a lesson to be taught, a reason to keep climb.

Just... don't overdo yourself, ok?

Be seeing ya.

For all the survival horror that I've dabbled with over the past few years, this is the title that made me the most cognizant of the "survival" aspect. It’s this elaborate balancing act of juggling every limited resource at your disposal: ammo for bosses and enemies, kerosene to burn necessary corpses after downing zombies to secure routes, health items as fail safes, ink ribbons to save when deemed necessary, and most importantly, inventory space to minimize backtracking with the bare minimum (knowing what you’re likely to use up as you progress so you have enough room to forage). What’s key to all of this is that it’s often worthwhile not downing zombies at all to not only conserve ammo, but also prevent the possibility of a more dangerous Crimson Head when kerosene is not only limited but requires further planning for refueling and additional inventory slots (lighter + flask). It’s punishing, but in the best way possible; damage and death become instruments of observation to properly plan out backtracking and understanding exactly what goes where. Perhaps my favorite example of this in action was abusing the various doors in a room connecting the shed corridor with a safe room; by quickly going in and out of the entrances, I could not only reset a Hunter’s awareness and spawn, but also place myself in a position where I could immediately run at the Hunter to proc an attack and slip past every time. It certainly helps, regardless, that there’s plenty of leeway for careful experimentation, thanks to all of the scattered health items about the mansion (granted, often requiring careful planning to optimize grounded herbs in rooms and keeping enough inventory space open for trips). It’s also fairly firm at setting its boundaries by telegraphing enemy placement far in advance with rattling doors/windows to signify enemy shifts, background moaning when a zombie is present in the room, and even environmental noises like crunching fallen glass to make up for the lack of vision with fixed camera angles.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the horror has been neglected. If anything, I found this game far more unsettling beyond sudden surprises. It’s not so much the fear of the unexpected, but rather, the lingering fear of waiting for the other shoe to drop while you’re expecting the unexpected. They're scripted events, sure, but they're well disguised thanks to every room often acting as its own isolated microcosm without the presence of the protagonist (not to mention that it's pretty easy to get caught up in the middle of things and forget about each individual room, which makes it all the more viscerally shocking) and there's still a feeling of player control with careful planning and routing. This fits perfectly alongside its core philosophy of risk versus reward, the existential dread of having to backtrack through several zombie infested corridors when you realize you forgot an inventory key and having to constantly and deliberately throw yourself into tight situations just to save another trip across the map. It’s what makes this such an ideal speedrunning game: not necessarily because of satisfying movement or combat, but because Resident Evil is really a game about time management. Every second wasted tromping through another passageway is time that could contribute to a zombie reviving as a Crimson Head or another second spent replaying if you’re not willing to use that extra ink ribbon. The primal fear arising from guaranteed safety as a fleeting resource lends perfectly to the need for optimization; in that sense, pressuring players into constantly checking the map to avoid confrontations and getting lost goes hand in hand with spending as little time as possible, for nothing is more terrifying than having to rewind the simulations in your head for another go.

I can’t help but feel that every detail of this game was thought down to the bone, even the original tank control scheme. That’s right, I’m actually defending tank controls for once in my life… how the turns have tabled. Dodging enemies can seem tougher, but most are conveniently placed near corners and more open areas to give you the room necessary to dodge with a backstep/quick burst to the side if you’re willing to wait and bait committal attacks. More importantly, using tank controls lets you maintain your direction and momentum while running through different camera angles of a room. With alternate controls, you most likely have to hold down the joystick to maintain velocity and upon a new camera angle, will have to quickly retap to keep the intended direction with each new angle. This becomes paramount in tighter chase sequences, where even slight moments of stagnation can lead to damage/death, as well as one timed puzzle where I had to press a button and then quickly run through several fixed angles to get into position to push a statue. In addition, I found it rather difficult to reliably walk (as opposed to running full-time) with alternate controls over tank controls, which can absolutely backfire during an end-game sequence where running for a prolonged period can trigger an explosion during nitro delivery. Therefore, the circumstances created by the environment not only are doable with tank controls, but in fact necessitate the usage of such controls.

Everything just comes together as this tightly designed package. Puzzles have fairly evident tells and can be figured out with careful observation of the surroundings while facilitating the inventory scramble that plays so heavily to the game’s survival elements. The lore never feels overbearing or excessive, and does a great job weaving in hints for crafting approaches and figuring out exactly what has to be accomplished. There’s never an explicit timer on screen outside of the final ending segment, yet the game is great at creating circumstances where you’re forced to make decisions on the fly from environmental stressors and considering the mansion not just on a per room basis, but as a sum of its parts. I genuinely don’t think I have any gripes; it was more than happy to beat me down, but understanding its parameters to scale up against its challenges was an incredibly fulfilling experience. I’d damn well say that REmake is the most focused and cohesive survival horror experience I’ve ever played. Not just a perfect remake, but perhaps a practically perfect game.

Yes, there is a very well known debate about which version of this game is the best. But I’m gonna go out on a whim and say no matter which version you play, you’ll experience one of the most captivating stories in an rpg. This game was so addicting and I clocked in 60 hours in two weeks. The music, characters, story, and gameplay kept me coming back for more. Yes, there are some flaws that I wish they fixed for this port. I would’ve liked to see the cutscenes for the male route in game at least and I feel as they could’ve added overworld exploration too but honestly for this game, there’s not too much to explore so the cursor style movement works really well for this game. Things like Tartarus floors, the antagonist group, and more to do at night are all things I’d like to be tweaked but it’s still incredible. Taking this game on the go for social links and switching to the big screen for boss fights was amazing on the switch and I love playing persona on this platform. So happy they could bring 3, 4, and 5 over so a lot more people can enjoy these awesome games. I think every game has flaws but this game does so much right that the positives very much outweigh the negatives. If you wanna play this game but really need the overworld, emulate FES on pcsx2 and snag the party control mod. AI controlled party isn’t a thing anyone should put up with in 2023 lmao. But nevertheless, buckle up cause this game is a hell of a ride. Here’s hoping for a remake!

Oh, what a cute game! But I'm sure it won't have a soundtrack that will fill me with nostalgia and hit me right in the feels of- This starts playing... fuck.

After the emotional rollercoaster that was Inmost and being busy with college stuff, I figured it would be the perfect time to play something short and relaxing, and Builder's Journey seemed like exactly that! Plus, I was curious about this one, since the LEGO videogame realm has been monopolized by Traveller's Tales style of gameplay, which I don’t necessarily have a problem with, those are pretty fun games, especially in co-op, but I did have the itch for some variations in my LEGO, and BOY is it different.

The way the game presents itself is, and pardon me the outrageous vocabulary I'm about to employ, FUCKING ADORABLE. All the levels feel like little dioramas that could be replicated to perfection in real life, everything is constructed from LEGO pieces, even the characters are made from blocks instead of being the usual figurines. It all just has this homemade feeling that it goes really well with the vibe it's trying to achieve, and even better with the music. I made a joke about it at the start but yeah, it's criminally good, and it all just comes together to form this calm sensation that, even tho Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker did a very similar thing with its levels, I like how it’s done here a bit more honestly, it just fits so nicely with the LEGO aesthetic, it's... perfection.

All of these levels are built (no pun intended this time, I swear) around a puzzle, and I adore how the game keeps building (I SWEAR) on top of itself, slowly introducing new elements and ideas that just feel right at home with the world of LEGO, it never gets difficult or too complex, but I like that, it keeps thing simple and it’s just sweet to find the solutions to the problems the game poses, and they are all extremely creative. However, while placing the pieces feels satisfying and it makes the movement all the more rewarding, I sometimes found it hard to determine where to put a piece, or what even is a piece you can use in the first place. The few times I got stuck were because I just didn't notice something I needed because it blended into the background and not having a free camera it's truly a shame, the main shot of the level is usually all that you need but it would be nice to have the option for the sake of being able to distinguish everything more easily, especially in levels with less light or where more stuff is going off. I also didn't really like the last sections and types of puzzle the game throws at you, which it's a shame because as I said, all the new ideas are usually extremely innovative and fun, but even tho the final sections consist in you basically building and creating new pieces at yours heart content... I don't know, it felt too unclear and even a bit unsatisfying, and it just seemed like I was doing random stuff and I didn't feel smart or like I overcome a challenge when I beat one of those levels. Thankfully they are far from being the bulk of the game, but it's kinda sad that one of the last notes the game leaves on is not a good one...

But even more than that, what makes me even sadder is that the game didn’t quite go all the way in with its narrative. LEGO games have always been characterized by their irreverent humor, and that’s were Builder’s Journey differs the most when compared to its family. At first it feels like an extremely sweet and sincere story about a parent and their kid, travelling and exploring together, all without words yet so much is told, and I would lie if I said it kinda made me feel a bit emotional at the beginning, it all just was so happy and the music elevated it even more. And when you thought the game was going to take and even more interesting route with this concept, it sadly doesn’t deliver. I never expected it a profound story or anything like that, and the game never really changes in tone, but its sad to see that it sacrifices the messages and narrative it could have gone through in favor of a more average adventure that doesn’t even give full context to what was happening. I sometimes thought some things were product by the kid’s imagination, but … nope, it’s all real and while it doesn’t clash with the rest of the game, it just feels like excuses to have MORE puzzles in an already pretty short experience. I would have honestly preferred a story with less steaks in favor on something more personal like the beginning promised, but, oh well, the ending its pretty sweet.

That’s how I can sum up this game: sweet. A sweet little journey that could have been a little bit more if it tried, but it’s just adorable and really charming nonetheless. I really recommend it, mainly because of how different and creative it is, the only bad thing is that it made me want to spend money on LEGO, and GOD they are expensive holy shi-

Yeah, that's right, I played this on the Sega Genesis Classics emulator on steam, I nabbed it when they gave it away for free some years ago. Sega thought it was being clever when it removed the Sonic games so we would buy Origins, well, who is laughing now, SEGA?!... Now please let me buy Rocket Knight Adventure pleasepleasepleaseplease pretty please.

Ah, Sonic, the one and only! I really liked him when I was younger, and I mean, look at the guy: it's blue, has legs, what's there not to love? I remember being really fixated over this guy for a while, even more than Mario... and then I played the games. I honestly couldn't even tell you if they were even bad, mainly 'cause I never got far 'cause man do I SUCK at those games. No matter if it's 3D or 2D, then or now, I'm extremely bad at them and I really couldn't tell you why, guess it's one of my two curses, the other one being bad grammar. To this day the only Sonic games I've played till the end are Generations and Mania, but even tho I really liked the latter it didn't really made me better at them at all; after beating it I tried time and time again getting into the classic ones, but I just kept dropping them 'cause, again, I just felt I wasn't good enough, that something wasn't clicking. Finally beating Sonic 2 so long after my first attempt was an eye-opener, 'cause while I still consider myself really bad at this games, I also noticed the core design issues that make this experience sometimes a chore to go through.

And it's a shame, because Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has so many good elements that the first impression it leaves is always good! The game is beautiful from start to finish, everything looks incredibly well and far more interesting and stylized than many other 16-bit games. The colors pop out, the enemy and zone design are extremely creative and iconic, and the music... is a bit mixed actually, there are some themes here and there that are noticeable worse than others and don't sound that good, but believe me, when Sonic 2's music is good, IT'S FUCKING FANTASTIC. When it comes to presentation, the game doesn't shy away from going all out, even if that does mean that sometimes there can be a bit of slow-down when you have a lot of rings a get hit, but aside from that, and some graphical glitches that I don't know if they are a problem with the emulator or the game itself, in what respects looks, Sonic 2 absolutely shines.

And at a first contact, it looks like it shines in the gameplay department too! The first zone, Emerald Hill is amazing, it teaches you everything you need to know about the game's dependance on momentum and going as fast as possible, the multiple secrets and ways you can traverse the level, introducing some basic enemies from which future ones will expand upon and be more aggressive, etc. And all of this is... fun! It's really fun! I found myself really enjoying both of the acts of the first zone, and when arriving at Chemical Plant Zone, the first act was even more fun, introducing brand new elements that made the level far more interesting and most importantly: helped you go fast and overcome challenges in a far more agile and interesting way... and then Act 2 happened.


I... what the hell happened here? Don't get me wrong, it's far from being horrible, but many of the design decisions I simply don't understand that the game will carry onwards are present here: It simply won't let you go fast ... WHICH IS THE MECHANICN THE ENTIRE GAME IS SUPOSSED TO BE BASED AROUND. From here onwards, there are a ton of sections where the games into a precision-oriented platformer and... it just doesn't work. Sonic feels slippery, as it should! The idea is that he is supposed to go fast, and what slipperiness and imprecision when it goes slow, becomes a crucial key when it achieves incredible speed. So, when the game start to ask to take things more calmly and jump in a more precise way I say: ''OK! No problem, I get it, you got to break up the fast-paced levels with some down time. At least you will compensate the fact that Sonic wasn't designed for this kind of platforming with not so punishing level design, right?... right...?''

The game not only loves to keep slowing you down, but it also FUCKING ADORES to throw random shit at your direction that you just cannot react or recover from. Endless pits, random enemies or spikes, water from which you have no idea where to get out of, you name it! And this makes me specially mad because the game does have some extremely cool ideas and mechanics, and it’s not like it becomes unbearable from this point onwards, zones like the casino , Hill Top or Mystic Cave do have some fun moments and ideas throwed into them, but it just keeps tripping time and time again, not letting you do what's actually fun and unique about thus game and it seems hellbent on it. I don't want to see the final three zones of this game in my life, Metropolis Zone was boring and repetitive and drown out, Wing Fortress Zone was atrocious, and Death Egg Zone are just two bosses that aren’t that fun, and they don't give you any rings...You have to beat both battles without getting hit... YOU CAN'T EVEN USE SUPER SONIC IF YOU GET ALL THE EMERALDS IN THE FUCKING FINAL BOSS UNLESS YOU USE THE DEBUG MODE!

...ok... things got a bit heated there...

Listen, this game, as a sequel, is incredible: it's a huge upgrade in most regards, it introduces Tails and multiplayer, it introduced an incredible reward for getting the emeralds (tho getting them is absolute hell), it had actual little cinematics and it was all and all far more original and creative. And again, I did have fun, even if doesn't seem like it, but really, this game has some really good meat over its bones... but it's also full of rot. I cannot bring myself to really dislike it 'cause it isn't ''bad'' by any means, but I also didn't find myself actively enjoying it.

If you love or like this one, I'm so, so fucking happy for you and I'm so sorry I couldn't see what makes this game so special. I might be bad at Sonic, but sometimes Sonic is bad at design, and I can't look past that...

Tho I'll say I still really want to play Sonic 3, I might take a little break from Sonic before trying it, but I'll get there...

I'll get that hedgehog!