Crash 1- Finally it's not shit
Crash 2- 100 percenting this took 5 years of my overall lifespan
Crash 3- Crash drives a motorcycle through my house and calls me a racial slur

Overall- Crash can rock my cock any time of the week

they don't make them like this anymore, man. everything about final fantasy x bleeds unfettered confidence and an uncontrollable optimism for games as a medium of art and entertainment alike; not only did kitase and his posse clearly believe video games could Be More but they were doing everything in their power to make those dreams corporeal, to make the future of games become a "here and now" rather than some distant aspiration that video games could one day hope to touch. it's really funny how hallmark western titles like braid or the last of us that would come in the ballpark of a decade later were lauded as "games finally being art," or kojima's insistent and insensitive portrayals of sexual assault in metal gear solid v to apparently "validate" games as art suggest an insecurity in the form, a need to prove itself, when squaresoft in their prime knew games were something special and were putting in all the legwork they could to make people see that and had been doing that since the eighties.

though i treasure final fantasy xvi, i can't help but look at it as having fallen to the same insecurity i alluded to in the aforementioned western titles - which makes ffx's confidence in itself and celebration of its own achievements all the more commanding of respect and admiration. yoshi-p wanted a return to a more conventional fantasy setting so he neutered a lot of the whimsy and off-the-wall wackiness from final fantasy for a grim-and-grisly dark fantasy setting inspired by the hot-button fantasy stories of the era such as game of thrones and god of war. what did kitase do whenever his fanbase demanded a return to a traditional european fantasy setting? he acted in direct defiance of that and instead looked to the folklore, customs, cultures and traditions of east and southeast asia (in particular okinawa) and started from the ground up, sculpting every aspect of the game to make something unlike anything final fantasy had ever seen or would ever see again. that even bleeds into its storytelling - sure, final fantasy x gets a lot of flak as the "goofy" one due to tidus's infamous laugh (fuck you it's one of the best romance scenes in all of final fantasy) or its loud-and-proud nature as a product of the turn of the millenia, but i think this is probably final fantasy's most gripping and eloquent political narrative... even and especially in comparison to the more "serious" political final fantasy games such as tactics, xii and (again) xvi. while a lot of political narratives in jrpgs tend to more broadly broach abstract ideas about classism, imperialism and war, final fantasy x's politics are rooted firmly in okinawa's historical relationship with mainland japan and the ties therein with institutional religion in modern-day japan. it's an aggressively japanese game in just about every manner, to the point where i can't help but wonder if there's a tie between ffx being the laughingstock of the series in the mid-to-late 00s and the really racist hatred of japanese games in the west during the seventh console gen... hmm

speaking of the seventh gen and onward it feels like every single way that developers try to flex the power of their hardware and their grasp over it is just graphics, graphics, graphics, to the point where we're getting diminishing returns and the games just flatly don't look all that great because they're bereft of visual direction and identity. i'm not really gonna do much talking about x's graphics (although this is STILL probably one of the best-looking ps2 games, especially those fmvs - oh my god!)... again, compensating for something, forgetting what makes games what they are. like yeah, games are a medium of art capable of conveying powerful messages and emotions like any other medium, but games are fun too! and man, what a better way to flex the capabilities of the recently-launched playstation 2 by making final fantasy x a GAME's game on top of all the shit it has to say as a story. there's so much shit to do in this game, man. it seems like every other nook and cranny has some minigame, sidequest or post-game content for you to sink your teeth into, squaresoft just packing all this random bullshit into this game because they COULD. like fuck, did you know there's a butterfly hunting minigame in the macalania lake? i sure as hell didn't until this playthrough!

i can't help but mourn what games have become and the state of the industry over the past decade and some change. square enix is a shell of its former self between its unbelievably slimy business practices and the increasingly-cynical nature of its output and middling quality of its games. final fantasy x seems like a relic of a bygone era that we can never return to, a reminder of better times, and a testament to the potential that video games in the AAA sphere have broadly failed to live up to.

but - true to the game's main message - final fantasy x also acts as a reminder of what games can be, what we can hope for and expect out of games, and a reminder that games are not inherently as rotten as the industry nowadays would lead you to believe. who knows? i certainly don't, but i also don't want to just give up and accept the stagnation that games have broadly been reduced to, or resign myself that this spiral of cynical corporate product-pushing is all that there is.

and i don't have to, really. the glory days of the aaa sphere might be over, but making games (and sharing them) is easier than ever. the titans of tomorrow are getting their start now with nothing more than their passion for the medium and a desire to connect with people whose passion matches theirs. ultimately, that's what brings people together to begin with: shared convictions, shared faith, shared ideals and shared love for their favorite things in the world.

and when that love brings people together and unites them in a common belief, thus enabling them to exert their will upon the world at whatever scale their numbers and determination allow for... things change. isn't it wonderful?

In its attempts to combine the lengthy story and battle system of Final Fantasy VII with the fully real-time movement and exploration of Super Mario 64, Kingdom Hearts is a slam dunk. Everything from the subtleties in Sora's movement to the smooth integration of context-sensitive actions in the game world is handled with a level of care and precision that you wouldn't expect from a game that's seemingly being pulled in so many different directions. It's not necessarily the best at the many things it attempts, even at release, but it's admirable just how cohesive the entire package feels. Kingdom Hearts has a lot of meat on its bones, and it feels pretty evenly-spread across the whole game.

In much the same way that its gameplay derivatives form something greater than the sum of their parts, the story utilizes its oddball premise and several disparate IPs to create an unforgettable atmosphere and tone. The nostalgic whimsy combined with somber melancholy and an abstract presentation lend the game a distinct, bittersweet feel. If you played this game at the right time in your life, you know what I felt.

Kingdom Hearts II is an outstanding action game and a great sequel, but outside of that I feel completely indifferent towards all the sequels and spin-off games. Putting aside the fact that I think a couple of them are just straight up bad, they generally just don't understand what made the series special in the first place. Somewhere in its quest to become... whatever the hell it is now, it lost much of its identity in the first place. I won't hammer on about this since there are people who enjoy these other games, but frankly they are the furthest thing from what Kingdom Hearts represents to me and their existence cheapens the original game.

So, ahem, this is when I give a whole-hearted recommendation to this game and say that it's great and awesome and super fun and unique and every other positive descriptor. If you'll forgive me for going for such low-hanging fruit, this game has a whole lot of heart.

Still the king, baby.

Now, I already reviewed Super Mario World in the past and feel that I said everything I needed to say about this game there. However, as I replayed this game over and over throughout my life, I have yearned for ways to make each new playthrough feel unique. For a while, the randomizer did just that for me, and later on I would experience the joys and hilarity of the ROM hack where the game's stages and music were remade from memory. Now, I return to Super Mario World once more for another twist, focusing entirely on the soundtrack.

For this playthrough, I implemented a ROM hack titled Super Mario World MSU-1 Plus Ultra. For those unaware, MSU-1 is a custom coprocessor designed by the late Near that allows Super Nintendo games to play CD quality audio and full-motion videos. Many modders have taken advantage of this coprocessor to do insanely impressive things with Super Nintendo games. Look at this video of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, for example. This is what the coprocessor looks and sounds like in action!

Many games have been given MSU-1 upgrades over the years, and Super Mario World is no exception to this. In fact, MSU-1 mods for this game have had an interesting development history. At first, there were just mods that swapped the music for more orchestral sounding remixes of the music tracks, which is the standard protocol for these mods. Following these would come a more ambitious mod, titled Super Mario World MSU+, which not only swaps the original tracks for CD quality music, but also introduces voice clips for characters and implements the use of different remixes of the overworld music depending on which region of the map you're currently in. I've played that version and loved it, finding it to be a refreshing way to experience this game.

Years later after the release of this mod, however, we would be gifted with an even more ambitious mod in the form of Super Mario World MSU-1 Plus Ultra. Not only did this mod implement everything from Super Mario World MSU+. It also made it possible for every stage in the game to have its own unique remix. This means that the soundtrack of Super Mario World has been expanded to 130 unique tracks!

Needless to say, I've been dying to get into this mod and hear all the music within, and after a breezy 96 exit run of this game, I can say genuinely that this is an amazing way to experience (or re-experience) Super Mario World. It's exciting to drop into a stage and hear an entirely new remix. It could be orchestral, jazzy, rock, or something else! Your ears are certainly in for a treat with this mod!

The best part of this and other MSU-1 mods is that they are fully playable on the most recent models of flash carts, such as the FXPak Pro, for example. You're going to be hearing CD quality music and voice lines from characters in a day 1 Super Nintendo game all on real hardware! It's beyond impressive, and every so often as I play mods like these, I can't help but think of how much these advancements blow me away.

If you love the Super Nintendo and want to see what their games would be like if they had a bit of that Sega CD energy (complimentary) in them, I highly implore you to check out the MSU-1 Hacks Database and try some of these mods for yourself! They take a bit more of set-up to get running than your usual ROM hack, but the extra work is worth it to see and hear how these games get enhanced by this technology!

So after playing Mario Wonder and generally enjoying it, I wanted to replay my favorite 2D Mario. I wanted to see if it was total nostalgia that was keeping me from not liking Mario Wonder as much as this and well maybe it still is? Either way, as I did with my other playthroughs, I had an absolute blast playing this and still consider it peak 2D Mario and one of my favorite platformers ever.

I think the main reason I really love it, is there's just so many secrets to find. There's 96 different exits in this game and like at least a third or more are secret exits. They're everywhere and they're really fun to find. Some of them can be quite tricky for newcomers, tho I've played this game so much that I know where everything is. Finding a secret exit in a normal level and then finding a secret exit in that secret level you just unlocked, man it's just so cool. Every single time I start a new playthrough, I always go to the star world really early, it's super fun.

I also love just how weird and wacky this game is, a lot of the stages can feel very dream like with how out there they are. In general the level design is very fresh and there's new ideas thrown out you even until the very end of the game. The game is also chock full of brand new enemies, even ones exclusive to this game that never returned to future titles.

The general gameplay is more slippery than Mario 3 and while some players may dislike this change, I enjoy it. It takes a little getting used to it at first but once it clicks, it feels great. It's more skill based but also never frustrating at least for me. I also think the game as a whole is never super frustrating (well maybe some of those special stages lol) but also never a walk in the park. I think this game has a perfect difficulty curve, it can get a bit challenging in certain levels near the middle and end. Though you could also easily get 99 1-UPs from that one level with the immense amount of Koopas lole.

I really love the OST, it's very simplistic with how it's just different renditions of the same song for most of it but it really works. I absolutely adore the end credits theme too. Another awesome thing this game did was give Mario a lot of personality. Whether it's his hat bobbing up and down when he jumps, to those really wacky cutscenes that play when you beat a castle, this game is full of personality.

Even though I've played this game many times, I still have trouble with it at certain points. I had a really rough time trying to get the secret exit for Cheese Bridge Yoshi-less, and then some of the special stages (specifically Tubular and Mondo) always give me a hard time. Some castle levels also trip me up sometimes too, I don't think this game is super easy like I've heard some people say idk.

So in the end, yeah it may just be nostalgia talking but I truly think this game is peak and definitely peak Mario, at least for me. I love this game so much man.

Back when Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, they came blasting out the gates immediately with Super Mario World, which is quite possibly one of the greatest launch titles for a console ever made. It is absolutely fantastic, and while I wouldn't consider it my favorite 2D Mario game, it is quite close to that bar, as it does practically nothing wrong in its execution.

The story is what you would expect from a Mario game, except now with dinosaurs, the graphics are extremely appealing and well done, the music is iconic, catchy, and wonderful, being great to listen to even to this day, the control and movement is extremely fast, responsive, and fun, the gameplay is 2D Mario at its absolute finest once again, the amount of things you can do in the game, including all the levels and the secret exits, are extremely fun to clear out, the difficulty is just right, the boss fights, while easy, are all different and varied enough to be entertaining, the powerups are all very creative and fun to use (except for the P Balloon), and not to mention, it introduced Yoshi, one of the best characters in the entire series, and he shines in this game, being very fun to use, with plenty of different types to use and experiment with.

Seriously, I can't think of a single bad thing about this game, it is THAT good. It does everything right for a Mario game, and it would pave the way for many more games to come in the future.

Overall, this is without a doubt one of the best SNES games ever made, and one of the greatest in the Mario series. While it may not be my favorite Mario game, or my favorite 2D one, it definitely deserves all of the praise it gets.

Game #47