Earningcone1442
Easily the best of the modern pokemon games I've played (I haven't played scarlet/violet yet). The new gameplay loop is really fun to the point where this was the first pokemon game I've ever actually wanted to 100%.
I wish the game were more polished overall though. I don't usually care about graphics, but this game gets really bad at times. I can deal with the random pop-ins when flying around the areas, but the weird tracing issues (especially bad when in caves) are just baffling.
I have a few other smaller issues with the game like the random invisible walls in the sky, the main character really can't handle inclines of any size which can be annoying when you're trying to sneak over a tiny incline to avoid scaring a pokemon, and the main character's run speed is a little too slow for me. It's not a big deal when you're out exploring the areas since you'll probably be riding a pokemon, but when you're in town or in a place where you have to travel somewhat long distances and can't ride anything it gets a little annoying, especially when you're trying to get somewhere far away from a teleportation spot.
Overall, I had a really fun time with PLA though and I hope future pokemon games use this as a template (and hopefully future games will be more polished).
I wish the game were more polished overall though. I don't usually care about graphics, but this game gets really bad at times. I can deal with the random pop-ins when flying around the areas, but the weird tracing issues (especially bad when in caves) are just baffling.
I have a few other smaller issues with the game like the random invisible walls in the sky, the main character really can't handle inclines of any size which can be annoying when you're trying to sneak over a tiny incline to avoid scaring a pokemon, and the main character's run speed is a little too slow for me. It's not a big deal when you're out exploring the areas since you'll probably be riding a pokemon, but when you're in town or in a place where you have to travel somewhat long distances and can't ride anything it gets a little annoying, especially when you're trying to get somewhere far away from a teleportation spot.
Overall, I had a really fun time with PLA though and I hope future pokemon games use this as a template (and hopefully future games will be more polished).
Why was this considered the black sheep of the series? Metroid 2 holds up a lot better than expected and is way more fun to play than NEStroid. Going for 100% is satisfying and feels rewarding since it makes the later metroids much more manageable.
I really liked the environmental storytelling. I already knew metroid 2's story going in, but the way the planet works and interacts with you throughout is engaging and still provides a nice level of mystery. The ending is really good too, but it felt a little underwhelming without the little additions made is Super's recap. It's still effective, but I'm not sure it would have the same effect on someone going into the game blind and without any prior knowledge of Super's opening.
The controls are a lot better and Samus is starting to feel a lot closer to how she did in super and fusion. Samus is still a little slow but she's just the right amount of floaty and weighty that was missing from the NES original. It's really cool seeing how many series staple upgrades came from this game (even if they can be a little janky). Being able to crouch and shoot downward make the game so much more fun than NEStroid and help fix a lot of those games' issues that should never have been present in the first place.
There are a few little controls quirks that annoyed me but nothing overly frustrating or game ruining. I never fully got used to not being able to activate the morph ball in midair and activating/deactivating the spider ball can be a little janky. The space jump timing feels pickier than later games and took some time to get used to. I also didn't like how if you messed up the space jump timing or were in the air for too long, Samus would uncrouch and you couldn't do anything to recover. This made using the screw attack to deflect bosses a little janky at times and is something that NEStroid does better. It was also a little awkward trying to short hop to shoot enemies at first since samus crouches mid air and you end up shooting a little lower than you'd initially expect. This only happens during the ascending part of the jump and isn't a big deal overall, but I'm happy future games fixed it.
The multiple missile and health recharge stations are very much appreciated and provide a nice way to reward exploration and eliminate the need for tedious grinding sessions.
The bosses are about on par with the NES original since they're all pretty much just missile sponges in those games. The bosses in metroid 2 have a few different attack patterns which makes them a little more engaging than NEStroid's bosses but none of them are as engaging as the bosses in the future entries.
The soundtrack is alright, but definitely a downgrade from the first games. The only track I really like is the SR388 surface theme which is one of the best themes in the entire series. The soundtrack tries to be more atmospheric and contribute to the storytelling and it's very effective towards the end of the game with the final area and the final walk to the surface, but tracks like the ruins were a little too short and repetitive for me.
Overall, Mettroid 2 is a decent time. It feels like a really big improvement on the first and there was never a point where I had to force myself to keep playing like with NEStroid. It's really interesting to see the series develop, but future entries do a lot of what it does better.
I really liked the environmental storytelling. I already knew metroid 2's story going in, but the way the planet works and interacts with you throughout is engaging and still provides a nice level of mystery. The ending is really good too, but it felt a little underwhelming without the little additions made is Super's recap. It's still effective, but I'm not sure it would have the same effect on someone going into the game blind and without any prior knowledge of Super's opening.
The controls are a lot better and Samus is starting to feel a lot closer to how she did in super and fusion. Samus is still a little slow but she's just the right amount of floaty and weighty that was missing from the NES original. It's really cool seeing how many series staple upgrades came from this game (even if they can be a little janky). Being able to crouch and shoot downward make the game so much more fun than NEStroid and help fix a lot of those games' issues that should never have been present in the first place.
There are a few little controls quirks that annoyed me but nothing overly frustrating or game ruining. I never fully got used to not being able to activate the morph ball in midair and activating/deactivating the spider ball can be a little janky. The space jump timing feels pickier than later games and took some time to get used to. I also didn't like how if you messed up the space jump timing or were in the air for too long, Samus would uncrouch and you couldn't do anything to recover. This made using the screw attack to deflect bosses a little janky at times and is something that NEStroid does better. It was also a little awkward trying to short hop to shoot enemies at first since samus crouches mid air and you end up shooting a little lower than you'd initially expect. This only happens during the ascending part of the jump and isn't a big deal overall, but I'm happy future games fixed it.
The multiple missile and health recharge stations are very much appreciated and provide a nice way to reward exploration and eliminate the need for tedious grinding sessions.
The bosses are about on par with the NES original since they're all pretty much just missile sponges in those games. The bosses in metroid 2 have a few different attack patterns which makes them a little more engaging than NEStroid's bosses but none of them are as engaging as the bosses in the future entries.
The soundtrack is alright, but definitely a downgrade from the first games. The only track I really like is the SR388 surface theme which is one of the best themes in the entire series. The soundtrack tries to be more atmospheric and contribute to the storytelling and it's very effective towards the end of the game with the final area and the final walk to the surface, but tracks like the ruins were a little too short and repetitive for me.
Overall, Mettroid 2 is a decent time. It feels like a really big improvement on the first and there was never a point where I had to force myself to keep playing like with NEStroid. It's really interesting to see the series develop, but future entries do a lot of what it does better.
Mario land 2 is really neat! It keeps a lot of the really weird and unique enemy types and design quirks from the first Mario land while providing a more polished and fun experience (as far as I know, this is the only Mario game where finding a 1-up in a item box has a chance to spawn a tiny witch that tries to steal it from you).
The world and level themes are all super cool and I can see why some of them were revisited in future Mario games. All the levels are really well designed too. I don't think there were any themes or set pieces that I found particularly annoying like in the original Mario land. It was really cool to play a non-linear 2D Mario game as well.
The controls also feel pretty unique compared to the other 2D Mario games. Mario requires a bit of build up to reach top speed which can be a little annoying at times when you have to make precise jumps on small platforms. However, when Mario gets going he really moves. He's really fast and slippery and floaty to the point where he controls sort of similar to Luigi in the modern Mario games and it can be really fun zooming through levels. The only other time the controls didn't really work for me were in the underwater levels. For the most part the underwater controls are fine, but there are a few instances in the turtle world where you have to walk underneath enemies to avoid them and Mario just moves way too slow for me when walking underwater.
The new power ups are super cool as well and I'm surprised they haven't shown up in something like the Mario maker games. I really appreciate the game uses the tiered power up system from future games. It was a little annoying learning that collecting a mushroom while having a tier 3 power up downgrades you back to super Mario, but it's ultimately not a big deal and easily avoidable once you know about it. The final boss is also really cool and a unique use of the power ups.
Mario Land 2 is just pretty solid. The controls still haven't reached that perfect spot for me yet, but they were never overly frustrating to deal with and the levels account for them very well for the most part.
The world and level themes are all super cool and I can see why some of them were revisited in future Mario games. All the levels are really well designed too. I don't think there were any themes or set pieces that I found particularly annoying like in the original Mario land. It was really cool to play a non-linear 2D Mario game as well.
The controls also feel pretty unique compared to the other 2D Mario games. Mario requires a bit of build up to reach top speed which can be a little annoying at times when you have to make precise jumps on small platforms. However, when Mario gets going he really moves. He's really fast and slippery and floaty to the point where he controls sort of similar to Luigi in the modern Mario games and it can be really fun zooming through levels. The only other time the controls didn't really work for me were in the underwater levels. For the most part the underwater controls are fine, but there are a few instances in the turtle world where you have to walk underneath enemies to avoid them and Mario just moves way too slow for me when walking underwater.
The new power ups are super cool as well and I'm surprised they haven't shown up in something like the Mario maker games. I really appreciate the game uses the tiered power up system from future games. It was a little annoying learning that collecting a mushroom while having a tier 3 power up downgrades you back to super Mario, but it's ultimately not a big deal and easily avoidable once you know about it. The final boss is also really cool and a unique use of the power ups.
Mario Land 2 is just pretty solid. The controls still haven't reached that perfect spot for me yet, but they were never overly frustrating to deal with and the levels account for them very well for the most part.
1988
The first time I played Mario 2, I was surprised at how fun it was. It holds up much better than Mario 1 and is still really solid today.
The terrible Mario 1 physics are gone and game plays so much better for it. All the characters are much faster and a little more slippery feeling which makes the platforming a lot faster paced and fun.
The game looks really nice and the new characters are really cool. I tried to use everyone a few times, but I mostly stuck to Toad and Mario. The new moveset takes some getting used to at first, but they provide a nice variety in platforming by allowing the game to have vertical levels. The soundtrack is really nice too (although I wish there were a few more tracks).
The game still has some jank, but it's nowhere near game ruining. For example, in most circumstances, you cannot hit the run button to prepare for a jump when standing on a floating projectile. I also never got fully used to the throwing physics in this game, there were many instances where I wanted to throw it further, but I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for the game to register it as a throw, so mario would just play whatever project/object I was holding in front of him. Additionally, if I was trying to throw something mid air while underneath a platform, Mario would place the projectile on the upper platform instead of throwing it at the boss or enemy. The blast radius of the bombs were a little janky at times too. The bombs bounce and if they bounce a small distance off a wall or if they bounce up before exploding a bombable floor piece, the wall/floor are not gonna explode your target.
It's not too hard to adjust to these issues, but it does take some time, especially if you've played a lot of Mario maker 2 like I have. That game fine tuned the Mario bros 2 controls and physics to fix some of the jank from the original game, but the gameplay/physics differences is nowhere near as drastic between MM2 and the Mario bros 1.
Overall, Mario 2 is still a really good time. It holds up much better than you would expect and controls so much better than it's two predecessors. It's still not perfect, but it obviously stands out as being unique from the other 2D Mario games and is still very much worth playing today.
The terrible Mario 1 physics are gone and game plays so much better for it. All the characters are much faster and a little more slippery feeling which makes the platforming a lot faster paced and fun.
The game looks really nice and the new characters are really cool. I tried to use everyone a few times, but I mostly stuck to Toad and Mario. The new moveset takes some getting used to at first, but they provide a nice variety in platforming by allowing the game to have vertical levels. The soundtrack is really nice too (although I wish there were a few more tracks).
The game still has some jank, but it's nowhere near game ruining. For example, in most circumstances, you cannot hit the run button to prepare for a jump when standing on a floating projectile. I also never got fully used to the throwing physics in this game, there were many instances where I wanted to throw it further, but I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for the game to register it as a throw, so mario would just play whatever project/object I was holding in front of him. Additionally, if I was trying to throw something mid air while underneath a platform, Mario would place the projectile on the upper platform instead of throwing it at the boss or enemy. The blast radius of the bombs were a little janky at times too. The bombs bounce and if they bounce a small distance off a wall or if they bounce up before exploding a bombable floor piece, the wall/floor are not gonna explode your target.
It's not too hard to adjust to these issues, but it does take some time, especially if you've played a lot of Mario maker 2 like I have. That game fine tuned the Mario bros 2 controls and physics to fix some of the jank from the original game, but the gameplay/physics differences is nowhere near as drastic between MM2 and the Mario bros 1.
Overall, Mario 2 is still a really good time. It holds up much better than you would expect and controls so much better than it's two predecessors. It's still not perfect, but it obviously stands out as being unique from the other 2D Mario games and is still very much worth playing today.
Needed to take a break from the other games I'm playing so I figured I'd just play my favorite game of all time again.
Played it on NSO for the first time and the game is still amazing, but it doesn't feel the same as playing it on the actual SNES (also why is the button mapping normal for the dkc games on NSO, but weird for the 2D mario games??). Not the worst way to experience the game if you haven't played it before, but I'm probably gonna stick to playing the actual cart in the future.
If you haven't played DKC 2 before, you should (as well as the entire trilogy) as soon as possible. I always recommend going for 102% (or at least going for all the bonus rooms) since you unlock the secret world and secret final boss. Just a heads up though, if you're new to the game, don't save all the secret world levels for after the non-secret final boss. You gotta reload your save after that fight and you start with 5 lives vs however many you would normally accumulate throughout a normal playthrough and you don't want to try those levels with so few lives on your first time.
Played it on NSO for the first time and the game is still amazing, but it doesn't feel the same as playing it on the actual SNES (also why is the button mapping normal for the dkc games on NSO, but weird for the 2D mario games??). Not the worst way to experience the game if you haven't played it before, but I'm probably gonna stick to playing the actual cart in the future.
If you haven't played DKC 2 before, you should (as well as the entire trilogy) as soon as possible. I always recommend going for 102% (or at least going for all the bonus rooms) since you unlock the secret world and secret final boss. Just a heads up though, if you're new to the game, don't save all the secret world levels for after the non-secret final boss. You gotta reload your save after that fight and you start with 5 lives vs however many you would normally accumulate throughout a normal playthrough and you don't want to try those levels with so few lives on your first time.
Very solid way to experience SH2. I would not recommend you play it via 360 backwards compatibility though. There are a lot of visual glitches that can be very distracting. On my last playthrough, Eddie's face didn't properly render in and he looked like the pillsbury doughboy for the entire second half of the game which made his scenes really funny.
Born from a wish is a good addition which develops one of the characters in an interesting way.
The only other differences that are worse than the original ps2 version or the enhanced edition are that the cutscenes are lower quality and run at a slower framerate and the lighting system is different (although its not noticeable if you haven't played the original).
It's still Silent Hill 2, so the game is still amazing. There really isn't a bad way to play this game besides the hd collection.
Born from a wish is a good addition which develops one of the characters in an interesting way.
The only other differences that are worse than the original ps2 version or the enhanced edition are that the cutscenes are lower quality and run at a slower framerate and the lighting system is different (although its not noticeable if you haven't played the original).
It's still Silent Hill 2, so the game is still amazing. There really isn't a bad way to play this game besides the hd collection.
Prime 3 offers a lot of quality of life improvements to the formula while keeping most of the best parts from the first two games. It's not my favorite in the trilogy, but it's pretty good.
I played the trilogy through the wii collection, and gameplay wise, it plays just as good as the first two games for the most part. There was the occasional jank, mostly involving the new grapple pull technique during the more intense fights. The nunchuck just wouldn't recognize the second half of the pull sometimes which made a few fights drag a bit.
The game is much more combat focused than the first two games in general, to mixed success. Combat has never been the prime games' biggest strength, but it's alright here for the most part. Fights can drag on a little too long, if you don't rely on hyper mode. Hyper mode ended up being my "ok I'm tired of this fight and I just wanna move on feature. Fortunately, this didn't happen too often, it only ever reached that point for me when the smaller enemies started using hyper mode on me or with the enemies with annoying hitboxes. Enemies tend to move faster and in some cases a bit more sporadic than the first two prime games. This can lead to more intense fights, but it also resulted in the lock on system being a bit finicky on certain enemies (i.e., the aerotroopers). This can be annoying when the game throws endless hordes of enemies at you and you've got to re target the flying enemy while being swarmed.
The improved combat is especially true for the bosses. For the most part, all the bosses in prime 3 are pretty solid (if a little on the easy side). I don't think any of the bosses reach the heights of the best bosses from 2, but they're all much better than the huge health bar, damage sponges from prime 1.
Most of the returning power ups are at their best in prime 3. Everything just feels most fluid and fun to control. The screw attack in particular feels less stiff than prime 2, and you can course correct a bit if you take off at an awkward angle. Prime 3 keeps the improved scan visor from prime 2 and I really love the new x ray visor. However some power ups felt a little more awkward to use. The seeker missiles in particular felt more hit or miss to me than the previous games, and there were multiple instances of me targeting each object, but the seeker missiles not working just I wasn't standing in the exact right spot.
Prime 3 kind of reminds me of fusion, and not just with some of the similar power ups. The environments are a lot more linear than the first two prime games in a way that feels like a nice mix of fusions linear level design and the looping level design from prime 2. Instead of having one really large planet to explore like the first two prime games, prime 3 gives lots of smaller scale, more linear looping set pieces across multiple planets which I think worked out really well. I think the new design helps streamline the exploration and reduce backtracking (although if I had to pick, I would rather have a game structured more like prime 2 with the quality of life improvements of prime 3).
The best improvements of all though are how prime 3 handles item tracking and the final maguffin sidequest. You can unlock a map upgrade that actually shows you where collected and missing items are on each planet with saves so much time when you're trying to find those last few upgrades you missed. The final maguffin sidequest is vastly improved as well. You no longer need all of them to finish the game (but they are all still required for 100% completion) and you can get pretty much all of them through normal thorough exploration (I think I only had to backtrack to get 1 of them and it probably took less than 5 minutes).
Prime 3 does a lot of world building as well which was really cool to see. It was nice seeing other bounty hunters and members of the federation, even if they were underutilized.
There were some other things that frustrated me with the game. I really don't like the removal of being able to scan things when you're receiving a transmission. I can't count how many times I was in the middle of scanning when a transmission would come in, stopping me from being able to finish scanning everything in the room until I opened the map and watched the slow animation. There were a few times where the doors would not open for an extended period of time so the game. It didn't really bother me, until I booted up prime 1 again to get the last logbook scan I missed on my first play through and I never ran into this issue at all.
I also wish dark samus were more present in the story. She has some good lore scans and I like her boss, but she doesn't feel as prominent in the story for being the big bad, especially compared to prime 2.
Prime 3 also has the weakest soundtrack of the trilogy. It's not bad, but it focuses more on ambiance and doesn't have as many memorable melodies as the first two prime games.
The game is also really mean at times with missable scans. You really gotta be thorough with your scan visor if you wanna 100% the logbook in this game and there are a lot of instances of certain enemy types only appearing the first time you clear a room. Needing to scan the hunters before you enter the elevator on Norion is also really mean for first time players. I managed to 100% the logbook, but I tend to scan every little thing. If you're gonna go for 100% scans I really recommend using a reference to make sure you don't miss any of the permanant missable scans (use the metroid recon logbook guide and DO NOT use the wikitroid guide. The wikitroid guide list a few scans as missable when they aren't even in the logbook and I've never felt more panic than thinking I permanently missed a scan from the very start of the game when I was doing my endgame item/scan cleanup).
Overall, I really liked prime 3. The prime games are a series where you could tell me any game is your favorite and I could understand why. It's probably my least favorite of the trilogy (neither game comes close to prime 2 for me), but the least good 3D metroid game is still a really great game.
I played the trilogy through the wii collection, and gameplay wise, it plays just as good as the first two games for the most part. There was the occasional jank, mostly involving the new grapple pull technique during the more intense fights. The nunchuck just wouldn't recognize the second half of the pull sometimes which made a few fights drag a bit.
The game is much more combat focused than the first two games in general, to mixed success. Combat has never been the prime games' biggest strength, but it's alright here for the most part. Fights can drag on a little too long, if you don't rely on hyper mode. Hyper mode ended up being my "ok I'm tired of this fight and I just wanna move on feature. Fortunately, this didn't happen too often, it only ever reached that point for me when the smaller enemies started using hyper mode on me or with the enemies with annoying hitboxes. Enemies tend to move faster and in some cases a bit more sporadic than the first two prime games. This can lead to more intense fights, but it also resulted in the lock on system being a bit finicky on certain enemies (i.e., the aerotroopers). This can be annoying when the game throws endless hordes of enemies at you and you've got to re target the flying enemy while being swarmed.
The improved combat is especially true for the bosses. For the most part, all the bosses in prime 3 are pretty solid (if a little on the easy side). I don't think any of the bosses reach the heights of the best bosses from 2, but they're all much better than the huge health bar, damage sponges from prime 1.
Most of the returning power ups are at their best in prime 3. Everything just feels most fluid and fun to control. The screw attack in particular feels less stiff than prime 2, and you can course correct a bit if you take off at an awkward angle. Prime 3 keeps the improved scan visor from prime 2 and I really love the new x ray visor. However some power ups felt a little more awkward to use. The seeker missiles in particular felt more hit or miss to me than the previous games, and there were multiple instances of me targeting each object, but the seeker missiles not working just I wasn't standing in the exact right spot.
Prime 3 kind of reminds me of fusion, and not just with some of the similar power ups. The environments are a lot more linear than the first two prime games in a way that feels like a nice mix of fusions linear level design and the looping level design from prime 2. Instead of having one really large planet to explore like the first two prime games, prime 3 gives lots of smaller scale, more linear looping set pieces across multiple planets which I think worked out really well. I think the new design helps streamline the exploration and reduce backtracking (although if I had to pick, I would rather have a game structured more like prime 2 with the quality of life improvements of prime 3).
The best improvements of all though are how prime 3 handles item tracking and the final maguffin sidequest. You can unlock a map upgrade that actually shows you where collected and missing items are on each planet with saves so much time when you're trying to find those last few upgrades you missed. The final maguffin sidequest is vastly improved as well. You no longer need all of them to finish the game (but they are all still required for 100% completion) and you can get pretty much all of them through normal thorough exploration (I think I only had to backtrack to get 1 of them and it probably took less than 5 minutes).
Prime 3 does a lot of world building as well which was really cool to see. It was nice seeing other bounty hunters and members of the federation, even if they were underutilized.
There were some other things that frustrated me with the game. I really don't like the removal of being able to scan things when you're receiving a transmission. I can't count how many times I was in the middle of scanning when a transmission would come in, stopping me from being able to finish scanning everything in the room until I opened the map and watched the slow animation. There were a few times where the doors would not open for an extended period of time so the game. It didn't really bother me, until I booted up prime 1 again to get the last logbook scan I missed on my first play through and I never ran into this issue at all.
I also wish dark samus were more present in the story. She has some good lore scans and I like her boss, but she doesn't feel as prominent in the story for being the big bad, especially compared to prime 2.
Prime 3 also has the weakest soundtrack of the trilogy. It's not bad, but it focuses more on ambiance and doesn't have as many memorable melodies as the first two prime games.
The game is also really mean at times with missable scans. You really gotta be thorough with your scan visor if you wanna 100% the logbook in this game and there are a lot of instances of certain enemy types only appearing the first time you clear a room. Needing to scan the hunters before you enter the elevator on Norion is also really mean for first time players. I managed to 100% the logbook, but I tend to scan every little thing. If you're gonna go for 100% scans I really recommend using a reference to make sure you don't miss any of the permanant missable scans (use the metroid recon logbook guide and DO NOT use the wikitroid guide. The wikitroid guide list a few scans as missable when they aren't even in the logbook and I've never felt more panic than thinking I permanently missed a scan from the very start of the game when I was doing my endgame item/scan cleanup).
Overall, I really liked prime 3. The prime games are a series where you could tell me any game is your favorite and I could understand why. It's probably my least favorite of the trilogy (neither game comes close to prime 2 for me), but the least good 3D metroid game is still a really great game.
Great collection of 3 amazing games. Definitely the best way to experience prime 2 and 3 (remastered is probably my new favorite way to play prime 1, but I would have to play through it again in the trilogy to say for sure).
I was feeling nostalgic for gen 3, so I decided to play through an emerald randomizer in between some other games. My original rating is going up half a start because of the battle frontier. It's such a great addition that adds so much to the post game that I really wish I had messed around with more as a kid. I didn't go for all gold symbols this time (I've done that once and still need some recovery time before I attempt that again), but I messed around with all the battle formats for a bit and it's still just as great as the first time.
As far as the rest of the game goes, it's still pretty great. Hoenn is such a well designed region and I love all the little interconnected shortcuts between towns. It makes traveling throughout the first half of the game super streamlined and there's never much down time in between story beats.
Gen 3 is also a big step up visually from the previous games and the sprites still look great. Double battles are a nice addition that changes up the pace every once in a while and obviously the newly introduced abilities and natures are series staples now. The soundtrack is also fantastic.
The game's not super hard, but it still presents a nice challenge if you don't grind. It's always so refreshing going back to the pokemon games where the later gym leaders and elite 4 members have full teams that are at a much higher level than you.
As far as nitpicks go, the bag limit is really dumb and can be a big pace breaker if you need to go back to a pokemon center in order to deposit some items. There are also brand new HMs which nobody asked for and you'll probably cycle through a few different HM mons until you find one compatible with all the ones you need. I'm also not a big fan of this games victory road. The layout itself is fine, but I think it requires too many HMs to get through which means you most likely won't be able to use your full team in there.
If you haven't played gen 3, play emerald. It's the definitive version of the mainline gen 3 story and takes the best of ruby and sapphire while adding additional new content and revamping certain gyms. I can't deny I have a lot of nostalgia for this generation of games, since the gen 3 games and remakes were the pokemon games I played growing up, but they still hold up really well and emerald in particular offers a lot of replay value with it's new additions that still give me shit as an adult at times.
If anyone is interested my team was: Aggron (starter), Gardevoir, milotic, ampharos, scizor and torkoal.
As far as the rest of the game goes, it's still pretty great. Hoenn is such a well designed region and I love all the little interconnected shortcuts between towns. It makes traveling throughout the first half of the game super streamlined and there's never much down time in between story beats.
Gen 3 is also a big step up visually from the previous games and the sprites still look great. Double battles are a nice addition that changes up the pace every once in a while and obviously the newly introduced abilities and natures are series staples now. The soundtrack is also fantastic.
The game's not super hard, but it still presents a nice challenge if you don't grind. It's always so refreshing going back to the pokemon games where the later gym leaders and elite 4 members have full teams that are at a much higher level than you.
As far as nitpicks go, the bag limit is really dumb and can be a big pace breaker if you need to go back to a pokemon center in order to deposit some items. There are also brand new HMs which nobody asked for and you'll probably cycle through a few different HM mons until you find one compatible with all the ones you need. I'm also not a big fan of this games victory road. The layout itself is fine, but I think it requires too many HMs to get through which means you most likely won't be able to use your full team in there.
If you haven't played gen 3, play emerald. It's the definitive version of the mainline gen 3 story and takes the best of ruby and sapphire while adding additional new content and revamping certain gyms. I can't deny I have a lot of nostalgia for this generation of games, since the gen 3 games and remakes were the pokemon games I played growing up, but they still hold up really well and emerald in particular offers a lot of replay value with it's new additions that still give me shit as an adult at times.
If anyone is interested my team was: Aggron (starter), Gardevoir, milotic, ampharos, scizor and torkoal.
I played the original Re4 on gamecube so I never got to play the original separate ways. Based on what I'd heard, the original was alright but felt kind of tacked on as a way to justify people buying the game again on new platforms, so I was really interested to see how the remake would handle the SW content.
For $10, this is a steal. The DLC was surprisingly lengthy (for reference HLTB has it listed as about the same length as RE3 remake). I was really impressed with the new separate ways. I figured I would like it since at the very least it would provide more fun RE4R content, but they really went above and beyond with this and added some new fun mechanics and really flushed out Ada's story.
I really like the way that separate ways reintroduced (and in my opinion, improved upon) a lot of the content cut from the original game. The new U3 stuff is great and I like all the little changes they made to some of the original setpieces to mess with veteran players. The new content introduced is great too and fits right in with the tone/feel of RE4R and everything keeps that improved pacing from the base RE4R.
The ost is great too. It really enhanced the action scenes and the little spy guitar riffs were really fun and charming in that RE4 way.
The other characters the story chose to focus on were great too. I will die on the hill that remake Luis is so much better than the original and it's always nice seeing more Wesker (although as a hispanic person, I died a little inside every time he called Luis "Lewis").
It's not perfect, but the core RE4 formula is just so fun that I can't help but give it 5 stars. I wanted to jump right back in and start a new RE4R and SW playthrough immediately after I finished, which I've never really felt with any of the other RE mainline games.
For $10, this is a steal. The DLC was surprisingly lengthy (for reference HLTB has it listed as about the same length as RE3 remake). I was really impressed with the new separate ways. I figured I would like it since at the very least it would provide more fun RE4R content, but they really went above and beyond with this and added some new fun mechanics and really flushed out Ada's story.
I really like the way that separate ways reintroduced (and in my opinion, improved upon) a lot of the content cut from the original game. The new U3 stuff is great and I like all the little changes they made to some of the original setpieces to mess with veteran players. The new content introduced is great too and fits right in with the tone/feel of RE4R and everything keeps that improved pacing from the base RE4R.
The ost is great too. It really enhanced the action scenes and the little spy guitar riffs were really fun and charming in that RE4 way.
The other characters the story chose to focus on were great too. I will die on the hill that remake Luis is so much better than the original and it's always nice seeing more Wesker (although as a hispanic person, I died a little inside every time he called Luis "Lewis").
It's not perfect, but the core RE4 formula is just so fun that I can't help but give it 5 stars. I wanted to jump right back in and start a new RE4R and SW playthrough immediately after I finished, which I've never really felt with any of the other RE mainline games.
2020
The post game depression hit hard after I finished royal. I kept telling myself I wouldn't jump right into strikers cause I had other games I needed to prioritize on my backlog, but I finally caved in (plus it felt appropriate to make a game about a summer road trip one of the last games I played this summer).
Strikers is pretty fun and does a lot of things I really like. I enjoyed the game giving some extra screen time to some of the more underdeveloped characters from royal and the new characters and storyline fit right in with the world and I ended up really liking them (Zenkichi is the goat!). The story was fun too and I really enjoyed a lot of the new set pieces and environments. It was not particularly groundbreaking but I'd say most of the reveals/twists were still effective and enhanced the story overall.
It took longer for strikers to really click for me than royal did. The opening is nowhere near as effective as it's predecessor although I never found it bad. The game finally clicked for me once the actual road trip started and there were more things to do outside of combat. I still miss the social links, but being able to do requests and talk to more people outside of combat was still appreciated. I really started messing around with the different combos and experimenting with personas and team layouts at this point which really helped the combat click for me.
The combat itself is fine. It's one of those easy to spam, but tough to actual be good with sort of systems. If you put in the time, you can do some really fun stuff with it, but if you don't want to bother you can get away with spamming a lot of high damage sp moves. I think the combat is at it's best in merciless mode and this is when the combat really clicked for me as something I actually really liked. Merciless really forced me to approach fights in a entirely different way since most enemies can one or two shot you. This really forced me to mess around with the timing of combos and when to use status conditions to restore SP or heal.
Most of my issues with the game became negligible the more I progressed. My biggest issue with the game is that I was not a big fan of the new level requirement for persona fusion at first. Now, I feel pretty mixed on it overall because if you use a fusion loop (which can be done relatively early with cheap, low level personas) you end up with so many persona points that the level requirements become pointless since you can dump them into any persona to level them up and still have millions of pp left over (I ended up with over 60 million persona points by the time I was done building my merciless team). On the one hand, the level requirement is a complete non issue since this is super easy to do, but I also don't think this should be necessary in order to fuse personas since it takes up a lot of time that could be used to progress further in the story or grind. I'm not sure the best way to fix this (maybe lowering the level up threshold for personas you use?) and it's ultimately not a huge issue, but it's something that I was thinking about a lot when I was playing through the story.
I will say this game is not worth going for 100%. Going for all the requests is fine, but the final trophy required for the platinum (the bond rank trophy) is really tedious since it will require you to either grind an end game boss for around 10+ hours or farm an earlier boss in merciless mode for around 6-7 hours.
If you really want to go for 100% I would recommend getting Joker to lvl 90 off that end game boss, then building a bunch of really strong personas with the spell master skill for a merciless run. Then play merciless up to the second dire shadow and farm that until you get max bond rank. This is what I did and I think it makes for a relatively fast and the overall least monotonous grinding experience (ended up only having to grind the dire shadow for about 5-6 hours since the bond also goes up a bit as you play through merciless).
Overall strikers is a good time. It's not perfect and it has a few annoying elements, but those are few and far between. It's a fun little adventure with characters I really like and it's a game I could see my rating increase for on repeating playthroughs. I'll definitely return to finish my merciless run some time in the near future.
Strikers is pretty fun and does a lot of things I really like. I enjoyed the game giving some extra screen time to some of the more underdeveloped characters from royal and the new characters and storyline fit right in with the world and I ended up really liking them (Zenkichi is the goat!). The story was fun too and I really enjoyed a lot of the new set pieces and environments. It was not particularly groundbreaking but I'd say most of the reveals/twists were still effective and enhanced the story overall.
It took longer for strikers to really click for me than royal did. The opening is nowhere near as effective as it's predecessor although I never found it bad. The game finally clicked for me once the actual road trip started and there were more things to do outside of combat. I still miss the social links, but being able to do requests and talk to more people outside of combat was still appreciated. I really started messing around with the different combos and experimenting with personas and team layouts at this point which really helped the combat click for me.
The combat itself is fine. It's one of those easy to spam, but tough to actual be good with sort of systems. If you put in the time, you can do some really fun stuff with it, but if you don't want to bother you can get away with spamming a lot of high damage sp moves. I think the combat is at it's best in merciless mode and this is when the combat really clicked for me as something I actually really liked. Merciless really forced me to approach fights in a entirely different way since most enemies can one or two shot you. This really forced me to mess around with the timing of combos and when to use status conditions to restore SP or heal.
Most of my issues with the game became negligible the more I progressed. My biggest issue with the game is that I was not a big fan of the new level requirement for persona fusion at first. Now, I feel pretty mixed on it overall because if you use a fusion loop (which can be done relatively early with cheap, low level personas) you end up with so many persona points that the level requirements become pointless since you can dump them into any persona to level them up and still have millions of pp left over (I ended up with over 60 million persona points by the time I was done building my merciless team). On the one hand, the level requirement is a complete non issue since this is super easy to do, but I also don't think this should be necessary in order to fuse personas since it takes up a lot of time that could be used to progress further in the story or grind. I'm not sure the best way to fix this (maybe lowering the level up threshold for personas you use?) and it's ultimately not a huge issue, but it's something that I was thinking about a lot when I was playing through the story.
I will say this game is not worth going for 100%. Going for all the requests is fine, but the final trophy required for the platinum (the bond rank trophy) is really tedious since it will require you to either grind an end game boss for around 10+ hours or farm an earlier boss in merciless mode for around 6-7 hours.
If you really want to go for 100% I would recommend getting Joker to lvl 90 off that end game boss, then building a bunch of really strong personas with the spell master skill for a merciless run. Then play merciless up to the second dire shadow and farm that until you get max bond rank. This is what I did and I think it makes for a relatively fast and the overall least monotonous grinding experience (ended up only having to grind the dire shadow for about 5-6 hours since the bond also goes up a bit as you play through merciless).
Overall strikers is a good time. It's not perfect and it has a few annoying elements, but those are few and far between. It's a fun little adventure with characters I really like and it's a game I could see my rating increase for on repeating playthroughs. I'll definitely return to finish my merciless run some time in the near future.
1997
I had a lot of fun with X4, but it's one of those games with really high highs and annoying lows for me.
I first started X4 way back when the legacy collection first came out in 2018. At that point, I had just binged through X1-X3 back to back and I started to feel burned out (this feeling was especially strong after I finally managed to finish X3's final boss). I ended up taking a break about 1/3 of the way through my X4 playthrough and didn't pick it back up until this year.
Presentation wise, X4 looks great. It took me a bit to get used to the new art style since I really love the sprites from the SNES games, but it really grew on me and feels like a nice step forward visually. The animated cutscenes look really nice too and could be surprisingly brutal at times (there's more some of the X4 cutscenes than some M rated games I've played). The english dub voice acting is also really funny to the point where it kind of comes around full circle and adds to the charm of the game (it's definitely nowhere near as bad as the Megman 8 dub for comparison).
In terms of the usual megaman x action and gameplay X4 is probably the best feeling and most polished so far. Runnning and gunning as X just feels really good and the maverick stages are super fun. The X4 armor is also one of if not the best fully upgraded armor sets in the series so far. I especially love the helmet and buster upgrades with the buster upgrade that leaves behind the energy ball being my favorite upgrade of the set. I'm not the biggest fan of the new boots upgrade, specifically the hover ability. Being able to air dash horizontally is as great as always, but I preferred the upward dash from X3 and found the hover to be a little too slow and pace breaking. I also thought it was a little too easy to activate the hover accidentally while trying to wall jump during some of the more intense boss fights which could be a little annoying. It's not bad, but it feels more like a downgrade compared to X's air movement in the previous game.
Like the previous X games, there is some required backtracking if you're going for 100%. This can be kind of annoying, but it's nowhere near as bad as X3's and I think figuring out the best route adds to the games replayability. I ended up doing the 100% speedrun routes for both X and Zero since it reduces backtracking (you only return to 1 stage as X and there's no backtracking for Zero) and I thought it was pretty fun and provided a nice challenge (especially on the X playthrough since I rarely had any of the maverick's weaknesses).
The stage designs for the mavericks are mostly great as well. It's really amazing that the devs were able to build stages that fit two completely different gameplay styles perfectly.
The OST is a big step up from X3's, but I think it's weaker than X2's and X1's. The closest comparison I can think of would be that X4's OST is similar to Banjo Tooie's while X1's (and to a lesser extent X2's) OST's are similar to Kazooie's. Both are great and fit their respective games perfectly, but one is more memorable and catchy while the other feels more environmental and ambiance like. I just finished the game a couple hours ago and I can only remember one stage theme off the top of my head (magma dragoon's), but I remember liking the music while I played the game if that makes sense.
I found the bosses to be pretty hit or miss. I love pretty much all the maverick fights and the buster upgrade made them all super fun and engaging to try and take down without their weaknesses when playing as X. However, there are a few that felt kind of unengaging and tedious. Fighting the colonel as X is particular was probably the biggest low point for me since he's not particularly hard, but he's a bit of a damage sponge. This combined with his smaller hit box, his ability to block your attacks and his small window where he can actually be hit made for a boss that just kind of dragged on for too long (and you have to fight him twice as X).
I'm also not sure if this is a hot take, but I really didn't care for the final stage and sigma fight in this game. I think the decision to put the maverick rematch gauntlet and the final boss in the same level was a really bad decision. In the previous X games, you could leave the stage and grind out your sub tanks or just grind in the hallway leading up to the final boss if you died. You can't do that in X4 so if you use your sub tanks on the sigma fight, you have to either suck it up and fight him without them or quit the stage, grind and then go through the entire boss gauntlet again before you can get a chance to fight sigma again (which I learned the hard way). Please save yourself the time and if you're struggling with the sigma fight, don't use any sub tanks and take a few lives to learn his attack patterns. You only really wanna use those sub tanks if you get a good run and need a little extra health boost during the last phase of the fight.
Being able to play as Zero is also amazing and by far my favorite feature of the game. Zero's gameplay feels like another step forward in the MMX formula and provides another style of fast action packed gameplay that the series is known for. It feels really good blasting through stages slashing through enemies. I also really love how Zero's upgrades work and this upgrade system hit the same spot that finding an upgrade in a really good metroidvania makes you feel.
The bosses are even better with Zero's gameplay and I think the different gameplay style helped improve some of the weaker bosses from X's campaign. The colonel fight in particular was so much faster when playing as Zero and just felt so much better.
Unfortunately, I think Zero's campaign staggers a bit at the end similar to X's with the final stage once again being the low point for me. I really hope the maverick rematches and the final boss are separate stages in future X games since it ended up dragging here again in Zero's campaign for me. A few of the rematches ended up giving me more crap than I was expecting (especially since I knew I had to save my sub tanks for the sigma fight afterwards). Weirdly enough I thought the sigma fight was easier as Zero than it was for X though. I was able to deal a higher amount of damage more consistently with Zero's upgrades (especially on the head in the third phase) than I could with X and I was able to finish the fight on my first try without the sub tanks.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with X4, but the stuff that annoyed me really annoyed me. I think part of that might be the game being overhyped for me. I don't think it's the best of the X series and X1 is still my favorite, but it might be the second best (I would need to replay X2 before I could decide for sure). I could see my rating going up with future replays. I'm already excited for my next inevitable Zero playthrough.
I first started X4 way back when the legacy collection first came out in 2018. At that point, I had just binged through X1-X3 back to back and I started to feel burned out (this feeling was especially strong after I finally managed to finish X3's final boss). I ended up taking a break about 1/3 of the way through my X4 playthrough and didn't pick it back up until this year.
Presentation wise, X4 looks great. It took me a bit to get used to the new art style since I really love the sprites from the SNES games, but it really grew on me and feels like a nice step forward visually. The animated cutscenes look really nice too and could be surprisingly brutal at times (there's more some of the X4 cutscenes than some M rated games I've played). The english dub voice acting is also really funny to the point where it kind of comes around full circle and adds to the charm of the game (it's definitely nowhere near as bad as the Megman 8 dub for comparison).
In terms of the usual megaman x action and gameplay X4 is probably the best feeling and most polished so far. Runnning and gunning as X just feels really good and the maverick stages are super fun. The X4 armor is also one of if not the best fully upgraded armor sets in the series so far. I especially love the helmet and buster upgrades with the buster upgrade that leaves behind the energy ball being my favorite upgrade of the set. I'm not the biggest fan of the new boots upgrade, specifically the hover ability. Being able to air dash horizontally is as great as always, but I preferred the upward dash from X3 and found the hover to be a little too slow and pace breaking. I also thought it was a little too easy to activate the hover accidentally while trying to wall jump during some of the more intense boss fights which could be a little annoying. It's not bad, but it feels more like a downgrade compared to X's air movement in the previous game.
Like the previous X games, there is some required backtracking if you're going for 100%. This can be kind of annoying, but it's nowhere near as bad as X3's and I think figuring out the best route adds to the games replayability. I ended up doing the 100% speedrun routes for both X and Zero since it reduces backtracking (you only return to 1 stage as X and there's no backtracking for Zero) and I thought it was pretty fun and provided a nice challenge (especially on the X playthrough since I rarely had any of the maverick's weaknesses).
The stage designs for the mavericks are mostly great as well. It's really amazing that the devs were able to build stages that fit two completely different gameplay styles perfectly.
The OST is a big step up from X3's, but I think it's weaker than X2's and X1's. The closest comparison I can think of would be that X4's OST is similar to Banjo Tooie's while X1's (and to a lesser extent X2's) OST's are similar to Kazooie's. Both are great and fit their respective games perfectly, but one is more memorable and catchy while the other feels more environmental and ambiance like. I just finished the game a couple hours ago and I can only remember one stage theme off the top of my head (magma dragoon's), but I remember liking the music while I played the game if that makes sense.
I found the bosses to be pretty hit or miss. I love pretty much all the maverick fights and the buster upgrade made them all super fun and engaging to try and take down without their weaknesses when playing as X. However, there are a few that felt kind of unengaging and tedious. Fighting the colonel as X is particular was probably the biggest low point for me since he's not particularly hard, but he's a bit of a damage sponge. This combined with his smaller hit box, his ability to block your attacks and his small window where he can actually be hit made for a boss that just kind of dragged on for too long (and you have to fight him twice as X).
I'm also not sure if this is a hot take, but I really didn't care for the final stage and sigma fight in this game. I think the decision to put the maverick rematch gauntlet and the final boss in the same level was a really bad decision. In the previous X games, you could leave the stage and grind out your sub tanks or just grind in the hallway leading up to the final boss if you died. You can't do that in X4 so if you use your sub tanks on the sigma fight, you have to either suck it up and fight him without them or quit the stage, grind and then go through the entire boss gauntlet again before you can get a chance to fight sigma again (which I learned the hard way). Please save yourself the time and if you're struggling with the sigma fight, don't use any sub tanks and take a few lives to learn his attack patterns. You only really wanna use those sub tanks if you get a good run and need a little extra health boost during the last phase of the fight.
Being able to play as Zero is also amazing and by far my favorite feature of the game. Zero's gameplay feels like another step forward in the MMX formula and provides another style of fast action packed gameplay that the series is known for. It feels really good blasting through stages slashing through enemies. I also really love how Zero's upgrades work and this upgrade system hit the same spot that finding an upgrade in a really good metroidvania makes you feel.
The bosses are even better with Zero's gameplay and I think the different gameplay style helped improve some of the weaker bosses from X's campaign. The colonel fight in particular was so much faster when playing as Zero and just felt so much better.
Unfortunately, I think Zero's campaign staggers a bit at the end similar to X's with the final stage once again being the low point for me. I really hope the maverick rematches and the final boss are separate stages in future X games since it ended up dragging here again in Zero's campaign for me. A few of the rematches ended up giving me more crap than I was expecting (especially since I knew I had to save my sub tanks for the sigma fight afterwards). Weirdly enough I thought the sigma fight was easier as Zero than it was for X though. I was able to deal a higher amount of damage more consistently with Zero's upgrades (especially on the head in the third phase) than I could with X and I was able to finish the fight on my first try without the sub tanks.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with X4, but the stuff that annoyed me really annoyed me. I think part of that might be the game being overhyped for me. I don't think it's the best of the X series and X1 is still my favorite, but it might be the second best (I would need to replay X2 before I could decide for sure). I could see my rating going up with future replays. I'm already excited for my next inevitable Zero playthrough.
Retro did the impossible with DKC returns. They not only managed to revive a 2D platforming franchise, but they also made DK fun to play as. With tropical freeze retro did the impossible again. They managed to fine tune the new DKC formula and gameplay to the point of tropical freeze becoming one of the best 2D platformers of all time.
I love Tropical freeze. Between the original Wii U release and the switch port, it's one of the 2D platformers I've put the most time into. I've 100% this game too many times to count, I know where every puzzle piece is, I've 100% the game on the unlockable hard mode with every kong and I like the game enough to have gotten the max rank on the time trials for each level and even briefly having a world record (or at least number 1 on the online leader board) for an individual level for a very brief time. This is one of my favorite 2D platformers.
The returns style gameplay is back and more fine tuned to make for an even better experience. DK has a nice feeling of weight to him and it feels really good to keep a fast momentum throughout the stages. The SFX also contribute to this feeling. It just feels really good bouncing off enemies or rolling through a line of snowmads.
The stages are all amazing. These are some of the most well designed and creative stages in any 2D platformer. The stages play around with the foreground and background in new and creative ways compared to returns as well. The OST is great as well with a nice mix of amazing new tracks and remixes of classic DKC tracks. The enemies are also a step up from returns. They're more expressive and integrated into the stage layouts in more creative ways than the tikis were in returns. They're still not as memorable as the kremlings in the original series, but they're still a big improvement over the last games'.
I'm very happy that some of the previous kongs have been reintroduced to the series and each of them provides a nice difference in gameplay. Dixie is still great with her helicopter twirl, cranky is great for blasting through levels since his pogo conserves momentum, and diddy is just kind there to help you keep an even height with a short hover. I do wish that diddy had more unique style since he is consistently my least used kong in each playthrough. I only really find him useful for lining up hits on the final boss and I actively skip his barrels in levels if I have another kong with me.
I don't think the game is perfect, and there are a few small things that hold it back from being my favorite DKC game. The bosses can go on a little too long at times (although none of them are anywhere near as long as the endurance tests that were returns' bosses). I still like most of them and a lot of the bosses I didn't initially like have grown on me since they have fun time trial strats, but none of the bosses are as good as the best bosses from DKC 2 or 3 in my opinion. The final boss in particular is also really underwhelming and kind of mediocre. All the other bosses have a better sense of increasing stakes with new attack patterns as they go on, but the final boss just kind does most of the same initial moves with a few new easy to dodge attacks.
Some of the puzzle pieces can be very cryptic for a first time player as well. Generally speaking, I don't think going for 100% is too daunting and you'll get most of the puzzle pieces on your first run through a level as long as you're collecting suspicious looking groups of bananas. There are a few were you have to line up with something in the foreground or background which isn't super intuitive for a first time player or if you haven't 100% returns.
I also wish there was more variety to the bonus rooms. They're all some version of "collect all the bananas within the time limit" which isn't bad and there is a nice variety of different stages, but the original trilogy had multiple different type of mini games for the bonus rooms and this lack of variety is felt a bit towards the end of a 100% route. It's nowhere near burnout inducing, but it's something that could be added to a future game.
I also really wish retro would utilize more of the animal buddies. I love Rambi, but he's still the only buddy to return (besides Squawks but he's not playable). With the return of underwater levels, I wish Enguarde would return and I think retro could design some good Rattly or Winky stages since they play with verticality in a few of tropical freeze's stages (or even adding a Sqidder section to a bee stage would be fun).
The absence of a memorable big bad guy is also felt towards the end. K Rool was just so weird and memorable in the original rare games and his final bosses were highlights of those games. I hope that retro will either bring the Kremlings back or make the big bad of the next DKC game more engaging.
I'm hopeful that these small issues will be fixed in a previous game. The changes to the formula between tropical freeze and returns show that retro really loves the DKC series and is willing to celebrate and integrate what worked well in those games into their new series while still keeping the core returns formula. I'm confidant that they have what it takes to make the perfect DKC game if given the chance.
The small issues I have with the game are enough to keep me from giving it a full 5 stars, but tropical freeze is by far the highest 4.5/5 I can give to a game and a serious contender for one of the best platformers of all time.
I love Tropical freeze. Between the original Wii U release and the switch port, it's one of the 2D platformers I've put the most time into. I've 100% this game too many times to count, I know where every puzzle piece is, I've 100% the game on the unlockable hard mode with every kong and I like the game enough to have gotten the max rank on the time trials for each level and even briefly having a world record (or at least number 1 on the online leader board) for an individual level for a very brief time. This is one of my favorite 2D platformers.
The returns style gameplay is back and more fine tuned to make for an even better experience. DK has a nice feeling of weight to him and it feels really good to keep a fast momentum throughout the stages. The SFX also contribute to this feeling. It just feels really good bouncing off enemies or rolling through a line of snowmads.
The stages are all amazing. These are some of the most well designed and creative stages in any 2D platformer. The stages play around with the foreground and background in new and creative ways compared to returns as well. The OST is great as well with a nice mix of amazing new tracks and remixes of classic DKC tracks. The enemies are also a step up from returns. They're more expressive and integrated into the stage layouts in more creative ways than the tikis were in returns. They're still not as memorable as the kremlings in the original series, but they're still a big improvement over the last games'.
I'm very happy that some of the previous kongs have been reintroduced to the series and each of them provides a nice difference in gameplay. Dixie is still great with her helicopter twirl, cranky is great for blasting through levels since his pogo conserves momentum, and diddy is just kind there to help you keep an even height with a short hover. I do wish that diddy had more unique style since he is consistently my least used kong in each playthrough. I only really find him useful for lining up hits on the final boss and I actively skip his barrels in levels if I have another kong with me.
I don't think the game is perfect, and there are a few small things that hold it back from being my favorite DKC game. The bosses can go on a little too long at times (although none of them are anywhere near as long as the endurance tests that were returns' bosses). I still like most of them and a lot of the bosses I didn't initially like have grown on me since they have fun time trial strats, but none of the bosses are as good as the best bosses from DKC 2 or 3 in my opinion. The final boss in particular is also really underwhelming and kind of mediocre. All the other bosses have a better sense of increasing stakes with new attack patterns as they go on, but the final boss just kind does most of the same initial moves with a few new easy to dodge attacks.
Some of the puzzle pieces can be very cryptic for a first time player as well. Generally speaking, I don't think going for 100% is too daunting and you'll get most of the puzzle pieces on your first run through a level as long as you're collecting suspicious looking groups of bananas. There are a few were you have to line up with something in the foreground or background which isn't super intuitive for a first time player or if you haven't 100% returns.
I also wish there was more variety to the bonus rooms. They're all some version of "collect all the bananas within the time limit" which isn't bad and there is a nice variety of different stages, but the original trilogy had multiple different type of mini games for the bonus rooms and this lack of variety is felt a bit towards the end of a 100% route. It's nowhere near burnout inducing, but it's something that could be added to a future game.
I also really wish retro would utilize more of the animal buddies. I love Rambi, but he's still the only buddy to return (besides Squawks but he's not playable). With the return of underwater levels, I wish Enguarde would return and I think retro could design some good Rattly or Winky stages since they play with verticality in a few of tropical freeze's stages (or even adding a Sqidder section to a bee stage would be fun).
The absence of a memorable big bad guy is also felt towards the end. K Rool was just so weird and memorable in the original rare games and his final bosses were highlights of those games. I hope that retro will either bring the Kremlings back or make the big bad of the next DKC game more engaging.
I'm hopeful that these small issues will be fixed in a previous game. The changes to the formula between tropical freeze and returns show that retro really loves the DKC series and is willing to celebrate and integrate what worked well in those games into their new series while still keeping the core returns formula. I'm confidant that they have what it takes to make the perfect DKC game if given the chance.
The small issues I have with the game are enough to keep me from giving it a full 5 stars, but tropical freeze is by far the highest 4.5/5 I can give to a game and a serious contender for one of the best platformers of all time.
My first thoughts when I finished wonder were, "wow, that was a pretty solid platformer."
I feel like it goes without saying at this point, but wonder feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the more recent 2D mario games and honestly feels like the next logical step forward for the 2D mario franchise. The level design finally feels creative and unique again and the occasional nonlinear approach to level selection was appreciated. I really loved all the music levels in particular and this might be my favorite bowser fight in the 2D mario series.
Wonder feels like it took a lot of the best aspects of previous 2D mario games and combined them all together while also bringing it's own unique mechanics and gimmicks to the table. Movement feels really good. If I had to describe it, it feels like a mix of the new super mario bros series and mario world and the two styles mesh surprisingly well.
The new powerups were all really fun and I liked the added utility and variety they provided to movement. It was really satisfying using them to traverse the levels in creative and unintended ways (I got way more use of the drill power up than I thought I would in this regard) or to creative new shortcuts to collectibles.
I was also a really big fan of most of the "break" and mini badge challenge levels. I think these brought a nice palate cleanser from the usual levels while providing engaging and unique platforming challenges that at their best, really made the most of the new movement system.
The only mini challenges I was not a fan of were the enemy gauntlets and a few of the find the hidden object challenges. The find worst find the hidden object challenges felt like a terrible mario maker level where you had to find the exact right spot to jump to find the invisible block which felt more tedious than engaging. I've also never really been a fan of time trials in games, mostly cause it brings out my inner perfectionist and I end up resetting way more often than I need to and the time trial enemy gauntlets were no exception to this for me.
My only other nitpick has to do with the games difficulty. I've always valued challenge in platformers (which is a big reason why I love the DKC series). If the platformer isn't particularly challenging, then I need to have a fun moveset to mess around with to get really engaged with it. Wonder isn't braindead easy or anything like that (I'd say difficulty wise, it's maybe a notch higher than new super mario bros ds), but it is definitely easier than the classic 2D mario games. Fortunately, the movement is super fun and polished so I wasn't ever bored playing the game, but I wish some of the levels (particularly the special world and later world levels) provided more of a challenge. However, I will say that I really like the new trend of making the 100% reward in these modern mario games a really tough challenge level and wonder is no exception to this.
Overall, I had a really good time with wonder. I feel like my thoughts on nintendo's modern 2D platformers tend to go up on replays since they tend to be super comfy games for me, so I'm interested to see how my thoughts on the game change on future playthroughs. As for now though, I'm happy a played it and I felt satisfied with my overall experience with the game, even if it is a bit on the easy side.
I feel like it goes without saying at this point, but wonder feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the more recent 2D mario games and honestly feels like the next logical step forward for the 2D mario franchise. The level design finally feels creative and unique again and the occasional nonlinear approach to level selection was appreciated. I really loved all the music levels in particular and this might be my favorite bowser fight in the 2D mario series.
Wonder feels like it took a lot of the best aspects of previous 2D mario games and combined them all together while also bringing it's own unique mechanics and gimmicks to the table. Movement feels really good. If I had to describe it, it feels like a mix of the new super mario bros series and mario world and the two styles mesh surprisingly well.
The new powerups were all really fun and I liked the added utility and variety they provided to movement. It was really satisfying using them to traverse the levels in creative and unintended ways (I got way more use of the drill power up than I thought I would in this regard) or to creative new shortcuts to collectibles.
I was also a really big fan of most of the "break" and mini badge challenge levels. I think these brought a nice palate cleanser from the usual levels while providing engaging and unique platforming challenges that at their best, really made the most of the new movement system.
The only mini challenges I was not a fan of were the enemy gauntlets and a few of the find the hidden object challenges. The find worst find the hidden object challenges felt like a terrible mario maker level where you had to find the exact right spot to jump to find the invisible block which felt more tedious than engaging. I've also never really been a fan of time trials in games, mostly cause it brings out my inner perfectionist and I end up resetting way more often than I need to and the time trial enemy gauntlets were no exception to this for me.
My only other nitpick has to do with the games difficulty. I've always valued challenge in platformers (which is a big reason why I love the DKC series). If the platformer isn't particularly challenging, then I need to have a fun moveset to mess around with to get really engaged with it. Wonder isn't braindead easy or anything like that (I'd say difficulty wise, it's maybe a notch higher than new super mario bros ds), but it is definitely easier than the classic 2D mario games. Fortunately, the movement is super fun and polished so I wasn't ever bored playing the game, but I wish some of the levels (particularly the special world and later world levels) provided more of a challenge. However, I will say that I really like the new trend of making the 100% reward in these modern mario games a really tough challenge level and wonder is no exception to this.
Overall, I had a really good time with wonder. I feel like my thoughts on nintendo's modern 2D platformers tend to go up on replays since they tend to be super comfy games for me, so I'm interested to see how my thoughts on the game change on future playthroughs. As for now though, I'm happy a played it and I felt satisfied with my overall experience with the game, even if it is a bit on the easy side.
I originally wanted to wait until the NG+ update was released before talking about this game's story, but given that it's probably not being released for a while and I've had a month now to reflect on my thoughts about the game I just wanna write about it.
As a lifelong spider-man fan, I love this game. I had a big grin on my face throughout the entire time playing it and no matter what I end up saying about the story, that doesn't change how much I enjoyed playing through it.
Starting with the positives, technically this game is great. It really feels like it was designed with the PS5 hardware in mind and warrants being on the new system.
Almost everything from a gameplay perspective also feels like a step up from the first game. The swinging feels even better, the new movement options are all fun and being able to pulls off long movement and trick chains to keep your speed and momentum just feels really good.
I also think the non spider-man missions were a lot better than in the first game. For the most part, they all felt faster paced while still making you feel vulnerable to whatever threats you had to deal with. I think they're spaced out well enough and fit within the story to not completely detract from the spider-man play style and it feels like they're designed in a much more open ended way that would allow you to just run through them and get them over with if that better matches your play style. By the end of the game Mary Jane feels like a resident evil character, and I mean that in a good way.
I'm kind of mixed on the combat. For the most part it still feels good, with the symbiote combat in particular feeling perfect. My biggest issue is with the gadgets. For the most part, they just felt like a step down from the original game and I found myself missing my go-to gadgets from the first game a lot. I understand the lack of the gadget wheel in terms of trying to streamline the combat, but the new system never fully clicked for me and I had to constantly remind myself to use gadgets during combat and never really experimented with them like I did in the first game. I also feel like the devs chose the strangest gadgets to bring back and I really ended up missing the impact webs, trip mines and web bombs in particular.
The side content ranged from good to ok for me. In general I really liked the smaller scale side missions and think they effectively show what makes spider-man unique from other super heroes. Other than those side missions it feels like a majority of them were overly reliant on combat and enemy beat em ups, and I think the game could have benefitted from a larger variety in the side content.
The voice acting is also great. Yuri Lowenthal really goes all out as Peter and is quickly establishing himself as one of my favorite actors to play the character. If he didn't convince you before in the previous games he will now.
My biggest issues with the game are story related. In short, the story just feels rushed and the game lacks the character work that made the previous 2 insomniac spider-man games so memorable.
As far as set up goes, I think the game nails this down very well. The opening set piece is fun and feels like a step up from the first game, while also serving as a good set up for Kraven. Kraven in general is really good in this game too and the new take worked for me. The game sets up Harry and Peter's relationship really well too and for the most part, I think everything story related feels consistent with the first game up until Peter gets the black suit.
Once Peter gets the black suit, the story feels like it's put on fast forward. It has most of the key moments required for an effective symbiote storyline, but it lacks the character moments to tie it all together and as a result it just feels rushed, the characters feel underdeveloped and the game never reaches that "O crap this thing is bad" moment that they story is building up to (at least from an emotional standpoint). Then when Venom is introduced, he feels very underutilized and does aspects from a lot of more recent interpretations without incorporating anything that made him interesting from the comics and other source material.
Something I've heard more recently that has stuck with me is also the thought that it's ironic how the game has themes of rehabilitation, but doesn't commit to that with spider-man's original enemy turned ally in venom.
All this results in a story that feels like it jumps from scene to scene around the 1/3 mark that doesn't check in with the characters in any meaningful way. It just kind of happens without having the emotional highs that the first game's story had.
The podcasts weren't as fun as the previous games for me either. Jonah's felt consistent to me, but I don't remember hearing it that often to really compare it to the previous games. The Danika one ended up getting on my nerves because she seemed to know too much about what was going on with the spider-men to the point of clairvoyance. I prefer how they were handled in the previous games and I hope the devs just stick to using the podcasts as fun world building and character interactions in the third game instead of using them as a way to re-explain the plot that we just experienced.
As far as the flame side story goes, I think it's alright. I think it sets up a really interesting take on and set up for a big character, but I can't say anything more than that because it doesn't amount to anything more than setup for a third game or future dlc. If that storyline continues with the same level of quality of the setup and concludes in a satisfying way, then it has the potential to the be the best take on that character though.
I don't want to give the impression that I dislike the story or the game because I still had a lot of fun with it. The gameplay is still great and feels like a step up from the previous games. The story just feels rushed and lacks the character moments that made the previous games so memorable and impactful for me which is disappointing because I consider the first game's story to be the quintessential spider-man story. This creates a weird contrast for me since the game doesn't have any major story or emotional moments that stand out to me like the previous games, but I still have a pretty vivid memory of fun little gameplay moments I had while playing through it.
At the end of the day, I'm still a biased fanboy though and I based on how happy I am that this game exists and how much fun I had while playing through it, I can't help but rate it highly. I know it's a game I'll come back to again at some point, but probably not until NG+ is actually released.
As a lifelong spider-man fan, I love this game. I had a big grin on my face throughout the entire time playing it and no matter what I end up saying about the story, that doesn't change how much I enjoyed playing through it.
Starting with the positives, technically this game is great. It really feels like it was designed with the PS5 hardware in mind and warrants being on the new system.
Almost everything from a gameplay perspective also feels like a step up from the first game. The swinging feels even better, the new movement options are all fun and being able to pulls off long movement and trick chains to keep your speed and momentum just feels really good.
I also think the non spider-man missions were a lot better than in the first game. For the most part, they all felt faster paced while still making you feel vulnerable to whatever threats you had to deal with. I think they're spaced out well enough and fit within the story to not completely detract from the spider-man play style and it feels like they're designed in a much more open ended way that would allow you to just run through them and get them over with if that better matches your play style. By the end of the game Mary Jane feels like a resident evil character, and I mean that in a good way.
I'm kind of mixed on the combat. For the most part it still feels good, with the symbiote combat in particular feeling perfect. My biggest issue is with the gadgets. For the most part, they just felt like a step down from the original game and I found myself missing my go-to gadgets from the first game a lot. I understand the lack of the gadget wheel in terms of trying to streamline the combat, but the new system never fully clicked for me and I had to constantly remind myself to use gadgets during combat and never really experimented with them like I did in the first game. I also feel like the devs chose the strangest gadgets to bring back and I really ended up missing the impact webs, trip mines and web bombs in particular.
The side content ranged from good to ok for me. In general I really liked the smaller scale side missions and think they effectively show what makes spider-man unique from other super heroes. Other than those side missions it feels like a majority of them were overly reliant on combat and enemy beat em ups, and I think the game could have benefitted from a larger variety in the side content.
The voice acting is also great. Yuri Lowenthal really goes all out as Peter and is quickly establishing himself as one of my favorite actors to play the character. If he didn't convince you before in the previous games he will now.
My biggest issues with the game are story related. In short, the story just feels rushed and the game lacks the character work that made the previous 2 insomniac spider-man games so memorable.
As far as set up goes, I think the game nails this down very well. The opening set piece is fun and feels like a step up from the first game, while also serving as a good set up for Kraven. Kraven in general is really good in this game too and the new take worked for me. The game sets up Harry and Peter's relationship really well too and for the most part, I think everything story related feels consistent with the first game up until Peter gets the black suit.
Once Peter gets the black suit, the story feels like it's put on fast forward. It has most of the key moments required for an effective symbiote storyline, but it lacks the character moments to tie it all together and as a result it just feels rushed, the characters feel underdeveloped and the game never reaches that "O crap this thing is bad" moment that they story is building up to (at least from an emotional standpoint). Then when Venom is introduced, he feels very underutilized and does aspects from a lot of more recent interpretations without incorporating anything that made him interesting from the comics and other source material.
Something I've heard more recently that has stuck with me is also the thought that it's ironic how the game has themes of rehabilitation, but doesn't commit to that with spider-man's original enemy turned ally in venom.
All this results in a story that feels like it jumps from scene to scene around the 1/3 mark that doesn't check in with the characters in any meaningful way. It just kind of happens without having the emotional highs that the first game's story had.
The podcasts weren't as fun as the previous games for me either. Jonah's felt consistent to me, but I don't remember hearing it that often to really compare it to the previous games. The Danika one ended up getting on my nerves because she seemed to know too much about what was going on with the spider-men to the point of clairvoyance. I prefer how they were handled in the previous games and I hope the devs just stick to using the podcasts as fun world building and character interactions in the third game instead of using them as a way to re-explain the plot that we just experienced.
As far as the flame side story goes, I think it's alright. I think it sets up a really interesting take on and set up for a big character, but I can't say anything more than that because it doesn't amount to anything more than setup for a third game or future dlc. If that storyline continues with the same level of quality of the setup and concludes in a satisfying way, then it has the potential to the be the best take on that character though.
I don't want to give the impression that I dislike the story or the game because I still had a lot of fun with it. The gameplay is still great and feels like a step up from the previous games. The story just feels rushed and lacks the character moments that made the previous games so memorable and impactful for me which is disappointing because I consider the first game's story to be the quintessential spider-man story. This creates a weird contrast for me since the game doesn't have any major story or emotional moments that stand out to me like the previous games, but I still have a pretty vivid memory of fun little gameplay moments I had while playing through it.
At the end of the day, I'm still a biased fanboy though and I based on how happy I am that this game exists and how much fun I had while playing through it, I can't help but rate it highly. I know it's a game I'll come back to again at some point, but probably not until NG+ is actually released.