Existing in that brief two year period where Acclaim tried to turn NBA Jam into a more traditional "simulation" Basketball Game compared to a purely arcade-y title, NBA Jam 99 is one of the Acclaim greats alongside Re-Volt...at least, in so much as any Acclaim game hit greatness, although I do have some fondness for them in that "6-7/10 game churning studio" kinda way. The point is that despite the wide perception of this era as a bit of a low point for NBA Jam, I would actually say Jam 99 succeeds fairly well and manages to stand out among some contemporaries of the time by still being worth a look today.

The simulation aspects go for a very different style than most sim basketball games by being an almost "arcade simulation" style, focusing less on the minutae and instead going for a "Point" system that is used for free agent signings, a create-a-player system or even in trading with other players. While the system is overall basic it still fits well enough on an old console like the Nintendo 64, many games at the time simply lacked even this level of depth and so it is quite welcome. The fact it is stripped down also allows one to get into it very quickly, giving it high replay value compared to a more in-depth NBA game where you might spend many hours tinkering with roster moves and planning out franchises. This is not without its downsides: Player progression is far too simple to be truly effective, making longer term franchises much less interesting, and keeping together a great team is too easy. But considering games it was competing against didn't have free agents, that's quite a feat!

The gameplay is quite solid even if it is somewhat outdated, the shooing mechanics are incredibly simple for better or worse, the AI is surprisingly good and I found it honestly far better than far later games like NBA Live 09 (though not NBA Live's heyday). It isn't a game where exploits are everywhere even if some are too easy, alley-oops are particularly powerful, it generally plays looser than a hardcore simulation title which lets you pull off some crazy stuff.

Where this game truly shines is in the presentation and feel. Hot take: This game looks better graphically than NBA Live 99, it doesn't get to go for the more "realistic" faces but if anything that's a good thing because even when I was a kid I thought some of them looked pretty off. The more polygonal look of NBA Jam 99 ends up making it more stylized and memorable, which is aided by a variety of over the top and epic dunk animations that make you feel every slam. Said animations are smooth for the era and flow well. Pre-game introductions aren't super animated, but each player gets an announcer fully voiced intro with each team getting a little intro as well. There's just something great about the combination of those late 90s photos for players with the models, intro, feel, it's great. You'll even get people calling out "cotton caaaaandy!" for sale to go with crowd noise among other things, for the time period quite immersive and even today pretty solid.

But it is Kevin Harlan and Bill Walton that REALLY make this game shine, excitable and blood-pumping with flat-out classic and iconic lines. "With NO REGARD for human life!", "He rocked the rim and I'm ROCKIN' IN MY CHAIR!", "Pandemonium inside the building!", "This is NOT the kinda place you wanna take your date after the prom!", honestly I think this is the aspect that really pushes the game over because over the years I have found very few sports games with this level of energy in the announcing duo. It's up there with Pokemon Stadium 2 of classics.

The menu music is also a banger, but the soundtrack overall is pretty limited, and sports games have soooooo many games with good soundtracks that it's hard to put this too highly given the low amount.

Overall, NBA Jam 99 is a game that was somewhat ahead of its time when it came out and still has reasons to go back to even as later 2k and Live entries blew past it in terms of franchise depth and gameplay quality. The free and arcade feel holds up as a niche on its own, all the bells and whistles give it a unique identity that's still top notch to this day, and given 2K games hadn't come out nor had NBA Live hit its pure stride I am honestly surprised this game didn't make it bigger. I joked about Acclaim greatness, but this does feel like a game that could have been a genuine hit for them in another timeline. Go dust off the N64 and give it a look sometime: You won't be disappointed!

A rare Game Boy retro platformer experience, Dogurai instantly sticks out with its visual style that uses the Game Boy-style palettes to create a pretty stylistic art direction. The game's strongest aspect is this retro styling, the sprites fit perfectly into that crunchy old school Game Boy vibe while having enough beyond it to add plenty of personality. The tunes are also perfectly fitting to the idea and some of them bop, although I wouldn't exactly call it an amazing soundtrack and on some of the harder parts it could get more repetitive. The story is very barebones but fitting for the GB/GBC stylings: You're a retired dog samurai and when your partner is kidnapped, you come out of retirement to take out the machines who have taken over the world and their leader and save them! There's even two ending depending on if you get some optional collectibles, although I missed one and didn't do that.

No need beating around the bush: I didn't like this game. At a base it controls well enough, but each level feels like a mix of overly simplistic platforming with at least one gimmick per stage that annoyed me. Let's take the ice world for example. The fact that it has ice physics isn't bad, but they are sooooooo slippery! Even the lightest tap sends you flying. At first it is cool that you can get some serious air from the momentum of it and the very first bit of platforming with it even seems like it would encourage it...then it turns out there's a quite solid wall to anyone who wanted to do that and that now you have to do precision, small block platforming on these ice physics that are just NOT properly tuned for it, with timed traps then added on top of every single one! It isn't even particularly hard, you basically just have to keep jumping to reset yourself on them and the obstacles only deal one point of damage, but it becomes overly frustrating to actually navigate and so ceases being fun. It's also a questionable design decision to make traps that freeze you and want you to mash out on ice physics that send you flying from small taps.

For another example, the fire level has a lava wall segment, if you've ever played a lava wall segment you know the type: Keep moving right, don't let it touch you or you die. It's filled with sliding segments, disappearing blocks and the works, which looks like it should be this fast paced dash and slash segment. The thing is the enemy placements are soooo bad, to the point that multiple times actually dealing with enemies will cause you to be caught by the wall unless you've got it memorized with great execution. I ended up plotting routes that simply worked with me being hit or using it to damage boost because avoiding them was so tight or annoying. It ended up being unfun and hardly a "true" challenge. The second half of the city-forest level also ended up falling into this, I basically accepted a few hits to get through the platforming.

This persists for most of the game: The bike segment in the initial level is cool, but some of the detection is weird for it, the desert level suffers from screen crunch (did we REALLY need to replicate the screen crunch when it's not released on an actual Game Boy? Is there literally a single person in the world who is nostalgic for the Game Boy's screen crunch?) and the amount of enemies + projectiles makes damage feel like an inevitability, the bosses range from extremely easy (most of the stage bosses) to frustrating (the penultimate boss and slime boss). One thing I hated is that the final boss' hitbox on his body feels soooooo tight to his body that jumping up to hit him is likely to take a hit even if your sprites don't overlap. It got to the point I had a first round I dodged every one of their attacks, but ended the first phase at half health solely from those hits. It's extremely easy, literally just time slides, but put together frustratingly.

I admire the dedication to retro, but it feels at times needlessly selective and picky about it. For example, the game automatically is not going for a completely "authentic" Game Boy platformer because it is a 3 button game (jump/attack/slide) when the Game Boy was a 2-button system. Despite this the game lacks any kind of way to change control scheme. Personally in platformers I prefer jump on B and attack on A because I find it the most natural to hit, but here I had to make due with jump on B but attack on Y. This isn't horrible because it functions and isn't some out there control scheme, but would it really be that difficult to at least offer a few control options?

The Game Boy retro model does allow it to go for simplicity, but it feels like it uses that a bit more like an excuse or crutch. The jump, attack and slide are almost all you can do, with no power-ups or boss items or whatnot. Classic Game Boy platformers like Mega Man V, which is a very apt comparison as this game is clearly Mega Man inspired and even uses it for the pre-final boss screen as an homage, or Super Mario Land both offer more depth. Mega Man V fit in Rush, new weapons after bosses, more expansive stages and more. I'm not saying it HAD to be as expansive, but that it being a Game Boy throwback isn't an "excuse" to be so basic, if anything it feels like a demake that has gone so far into demaking it's behind what it was aiming for.

One thing I did like and was forward thinking was the QTE attacking that you could do: Certain enemies, and every boss, have select times where if you are in range an exclamation point will appear over their head, at which point you need to slash with the correct timing and direction the game prompts you to do some sickass flash step moves to deal big damage. This feels stylish, but very few non-bosses use it, and I feel like it could have been utilized a bit more since right now it too often boils down to "wait for the boss to use the attack that lets you use the flash step". Given this is a 3-button game with one button unused, maybe the fourth button could have been a parry that allows you to go into it? This would add an active timing component to it rather than pure patience.

Overall, yeah, I wasn't a fan. A cute throwback art style and a single interesting mechanic can't save levels that often feel frustrating in their placement and not in a fun Castlevania-ish challenge way, it often ends up overly basic and is actually really easy when it isn't throwing level design that can feel nigh impossible to avoid. At a very cheap price, I got it on sale for 1.99, it might be worth checking out if you're reeeeeeeally into retro Game Boy platformers, but for the most part I'd recommend most other games over it.

Until I happened upon a review of this, I totally forgot that I had played it on Fightcade with a friend of mine because a bunch of random fighting games had been put on it and we wanted to see how bad some of them could be.

This one was pretty bad. Balance is all over the place in a bad way, graphics are pretty mid, I recall combos not being particularly effective. The weak point system is honestly a cool idea but it is set to be way too easy to do, resulting in some pretty cheap kills. The character roster is fine, but that doesn't say much when I find the gameplay disappointing.

Maybe if I spent a lot of time with it it'd be decent, but from the time I spent messing around I really would rather dedicate that time to something else.

I decided to beat this game in my backlog because it was supposed to be super short and I wanted to see if I could beat it in an hour.

This game is, put simply, flaming garbage. The only thing it gets right is that it does in fact function and allow you to control a blue hedgehog named Sonic. The bare minimum requirement. Pretty much everything else is a failure. A big one is the level design! The levels are often quite bare and end up very much "nothing" levels, leading the first three zones to be romps with no difficulty and little direction, the first level was beaten in like a minute without me even trying. Green Hill Zone is one of the saddest Green Hill Zones you'll see, Yellow Desert Zone is a desert zone but it's only real gimmick is "spikes exist", Red Volcano Zone ISN'T EVEN RED but while it has tricky platforming sections this is an area where the level design really rears its first issue. Put simply, the game doesn't properly put danger in areas such as the lava platforming sections, the end result is that death is nigh impossible and cheese is ease. I ended up just jumping repeatedly and grabbing a ring, good Sonic games don't make this so easy.

But then we get to Blue Marine Zone and seriously who DESIGNED this? You move SO. SO. SLOW. Slow enough that when I showed my friends I had to add the disclaimer "no, it isn't lagging, you just move that slow". And both of the first two acts are one way pipe mazes with air blowing to force you to do VERY specific actions to continue. The platforming isn't precise, you don't get to go fast, Sonic looks like he is clipping into the pipes entering them half the time, it's an absolutely miserable experience that ensures the game won't come close to escaping the lowest rungs. The final level of Silver Castle Zone (I do like that name admittedly) is 70% teleporter maze which is mostly just boring? It isn't like there's a realistic time limit to race against, so it is mostly just trial and error especially because most of it is low on enemies and you have rings anyway. Putting the enemies in some tight corridors does show this game has some rather...iffy hit detection on normal enemies, though!

Bosses are all bad. Very simple patterns that do not evolve during the fight, honestly like half of them basically use the same pattern, the fact Sonic in this game loses only 10 rings at a time means you have to get hit a LOT to die against them, they only have a single attack, and one of them is underwater with slug speed and it makes me want to scream. There is a post-final boss you can get by collecting every Chaos Emerald Shard, but I didn't do that and have no desire to go back and try to do so. The third acts are all leads up to them and are almost all non-existent, which is fine, but I do want to know why Yellow Desert Zone's had to be an annoying vertical level just so you can grab rings.

Graphically, it's not great but could be worse, it is really obviously aping from Donkey Kong Country with the pre-rendered look. But compared to those games the sacrifice in animation quality is obvious, and it really lacks proper composition of levels. The DKC games put a lot of thought into what their graphics would look like when rendered as 3D sprites and so how the world was composed, really go read about the game's design it is pretty intense, while it is really obvious here that a very basic Sonic look was just thrown into pre-rendered style. Red Volcano Zone looks good, but I'd say the other levels range from mediocre at best (Green Hill Zones) to actively disgusting (Blue Marine Zone). Also something about whenever Sonic goes on a loop, which is very rare in this game, feels off to me. Overall, I would say it is somewhat below average. The music in this game basically dribbled out of my brain as soon as I turned it off, which is rare for a Sonic game.

Frankly, this game was overall an embarrassing performance and there's no excuse for it, in the 2D Platformer landscape all 3 Super Mario Land games had already come out on the Game Boy brick edition and I've heard both Sonic: Triple Trouble and Sonic Chaos on the Game Gear are much better games. It's failure all the way down and I don't think there was a single point I was actively enjoying myself. And while not relevant to the game's quality I really just wanna end by saying: Sega, WHY did you release Sonic Blast and Sonic 3D Blast in the same week with extremely similar cover art when neither game had anything to do with each other? Please...

Putrid. This game doesn't get ANYTHING right. It's so bad I struggled mightily with how to begin this review, because I could start anywhere. I think I'll start with the physics, one of the MOST important things in any 2D Platformer. They're too slippery! You don't really have any good "stopping power" (think turning back in Super Mario Bros 1 or 3 to slow your momentum) and you slide pretty wildly when landing unless you take them very slowly. It isn't tooooooo bad early because at least a decent amount of the platforms are large, but as soon as the game starts throwing single block platforms at you it gets actively miserable to try and land on the damn things without just sliding off. Alex Kidd is also pretty slide-y on the ground, which leads to the annoyance of sliding into enemies while trying to punch them with your punch attack. You COULD use the jump attack but the hitbox on it feels very inconsistent and you can't do it in all situations. Fortunately most enemies are actually pathetically easy to deal with, so you just spam the punch button, instead most of your deaths will come from how poor it controls.

Speaking of controls, why is the jump mapped the way it is? I wondered if I was missing something, but when you jump you go right into the jump kick attack as you rise, UNLESS you hold down the jump button as you rise. If you do THAT, then you will only kick when you let go. It felt incredibly weird holding down the jump button to make jumps like that, doubly so because for some reason blocks on the ground can only be broken with a jump kick. Enjoy jumping in place like an idiot trying to get them to actually break. And yes, this is required at certain points. I think you can use the pogo to break them, but it was mostly frustrating. Anyway, why not make it so you just tap the jump button in the air to attack? Or that tapping A is jump but holding A is attack or something? It feels very unnatural.

Then you get into stuff like the second to last level, which is a mini-shmup style level with a pedicopter you need to CONSTANTLY tap A to fly around with and will begin to dip on the screen if you stop tapping for even a moment. Firing off an attack is NOT on A and you WILL be forced down quite a bit on the screen if you use it, which sucks even more because the downward momentum from falling makes it harder to fly back up. I beat the level pretty quickly and my thumb was soooore. But, look, there's platforms you can sit down and take a moment to rest your thumb! Oh as if the game would be so kind, this is Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle motherfucker, the platforms instantly drop off and you'll be stuck with downwards momentum if you weren't prepared! You get luck-based Rock-Paper-Scissor bosses, a final stage that feels like it drags on forever and burns its mediocre music into your skull for eternity, it also ends with a luck-based RPS fight! But then you get an actual fight that is completely pathetic, literally just crouch, walk up to them and mash the attack button, you'll hit them casually and dodge every attack.

Did I mention this game looks absolutely rancid? Alex Kidd himself is NOT nice to look at, various textures are grainy even for 8 bit, there's eye searing colors at various points and the final level is endless sandy brown blocks with endless light grey blocks that blend into a nightmare. Stage transitions are entirely in eye searing blue like a VCR tape, which also happens when you die. There's no visual cohesion or identity to the enemies or stages, feeling like highly disconnected levels and the two "city" levels are half palette swaps of each other when the game only has 11 stages. The entire thing is butt ugly aside from the woodcutting enemy with a Jason mask that gave me a chuckle.

At least Sonic Blast let you play as Sonic.

It's pretty sad when the box art is the best part of a game. And in this case, it absolutely is. Seriously that is some of the sickest box art Castlevania has gotten, in a series that has a lot of really good box art. Shame the name's positioning makes it look like it says "The Castlevania Adventure".

This game is noooot good and it only takes playing through the first level a little to get through. First, Christopher Belmont walks as if he did not have legs. He is UNBEARABLY slow and it is probably the worst thing about this game. Not only does it make trudging through every level feel like walking through molasses, it means that fighting literally anything that can move is ridiculously frustrating. You simply do not have the movement speed to deal with stuff in a way that actually feels fun even when you see it coming. Not only is this not enjoyable, it also means enemies by and large have very simple attacks / patterns. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from fighting the terrible controls.

This is not helped by the jumping, which is bad. Castlevania jump physics are stiff, that's fine, the games often gear themselves to that, but this is TOO stiff. You WILL initially find yourself having difficulty doing a single jump onto a platform because ol' Christopher doesn't want to move. It IS something you can get used to, but it never feels truly consistent, and combined with your non-existant horizontal movement means the way to take every single jump is to get as cloooose to the edge as possible and leap. I will say right now I heavily save stated playing this game unlike NES Castlevania, because extra lives are very hard to come by and it is way too easy to die to the controls. Bosses are largely extremely easy though, with the exception of the second stage boss...which is still easy if you do it right, but if you do it wrong and a single one of whatever the hell they are gets out it becomes very hard because they move fast and you can't really dodge move fast consistently.

There's no sub-weapons in this game, but given this is a near-launch title on a crunchy lime-green original Game Boy I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is your whip upgrades going DOWN when you get hit. Castlevania games and Mario games have pretty different designs, and Castlevania's doesn't work well with it I feel...but especially not in a game as stiff as this. There's also the fact that it isn't like the whip attack "eats" damage like a mushroom in Super Mario, you just also lose it and your health. Maybe it's because the Flame Whip is OP here? At least the bosses give you a free whip upgrade before they start.

This game does have a little bit to it that is innovative, such as an extended section involving running away from a spiked floor and then spiked wall. It's pretty common but a bit novel for an original Game Boy or old Castlevania game, I feel like the segment would have been kinda fun if the movement speed wasn't so bad. The spike platforms are a bit neat I guess? Okay yeah there isn't much, just a tiny sliver, but ay. Soundtrack is a fairly poor early GB soundtrack, it largely gets repetitive in a bad way when you are dying so often. The graphics aren't that good, but I submit the fact that it is on the original ass green Game Boy and only like 3 months after release means it isn't bad for the time it was made, and honestly I'd take how it looks over something like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

So, yeah, Castlevania: The Adventure isn't good! It is slow, sounds bad, unnecessarily difficult in a way more unfair than challenging, and I would essentially only recommend it to people very interested in Castlevania's full history (like me), the original Game Boy's history or if you got it via Castlevania Anniversary Collection and figured "eh, why not". An unworthy game.

When it comes to its place in the Dragon Quest canon, Dragon Quest II is a rather interesting one. Undeniably, it improves noticably upon the first game: The addition of party members adds at least some depth to the gameplay, you get to travel the overworld via boat in something that I imagine helped inspire five million other games and the story is slightly more advanced. The thing is, the advancement isn't that much, and in the span of only a year Dragon Quest III completely changes the landscape of Dragon Quest and JRPGs. So, how does this awkwardly placed sequel stack up?

Well, the combat is definitely an improvement upon the first game. Not only does the multiple party allow somewhat more strategy and having to deal with more specialized characters (basically a Warrior, a Warrior/Mage and a Mage), but enemies can now appear in numbers more than one means you can get tougher encounters or a bit more variety. A definite improvement, but I do feel this game really doesn't iterate that much. Ultimately, combat is 90% of the time either using basic attacks or using your strongest spells, in part because this game has almost no bosses and almost no buffs, debuffs or status effects. Despite going to a multitude of dungeons, most of them end on nothing special or a "boss battle" that is just against a horde of standard enemies. There's only one buff/debuff spell, both for defense, and status effects are powerful but with few powerful enemies not used often. There's almost no elemental weaknesses or anything like that, some enemies resist Kaboom etc but that's it, so there isn't a lot of decision making when it comes to spells to use. Basically, it is improved but feels half-baked. I did enjoy it, but in the sense that I can kind of dig old school grindy RPGs from time to time, especially as a game during podcasts or the like. Though I honestly basically didn't need to grind in this game.

One thing I was divided on was the inability to target individual monsters in a group, instead it auto-targets. On one hand, given this is an old school NES RPG it makes things go faster which is nice, and the game's auto-targeting was on point to be optimal. On the other hand, I don't really like losing control of my character and I feel part of why it worked was how incredibly simple the combat system is, and sometimes it would kill enemies under Snooze (who I'd rather wait until later since they're asleep) first because they had less HP than enemies not under snooze. I've heard this stays for many Dragon Quest games, so I'll be interested to see how that works out.

This game is infamously difficult and obtuse, but I had little difficulty with that despite very rarely referring to a guide, I can think of only two times I did. One, to make sure the Yggdrassil Leaf's purpose. Secondly, to check the final boss' resistance to status attacks after I got one on him to see if that was supposed to be a thing. Most NPCs in any given town will talk about some specific thing you'll need or a location, so as long as you talk to everyone you'll be mostly fine. Combat is very easy early on and only really ramps up in difficulty late, I game overed once early walking around with like 5 HP like a dumbass but after that only had a few character deaths even until the end game. While the end game is harder, I actually didn't find it that hard. You'll get Kamikazed or Thwacked if you're unlucky, but Kaboom is so strong it rips through enemies. The final boss is the real pain in the ass and is essentially a luck-based boss, but if you go at it enough they'll go down.

I will note I WAS playing on the Switch version (which is based on the IOS version), which from what I can tell made a few changes (relocating a plot significant item for example)...but it is considered to be "very difficult" by most people I saw AND the final boss is if anything harder. But I didn't have much issue. I wonder if this game only having single target healing trips people up? You really need to keep everyone up at near full HP almost all the time against the tough enemies unless you can kill them, because you can't casually heal everyone. It could also just be because Kamikaze/Thwack make things bad if you're unlucky. The bosses in the final dungeon are an absolute joke though, even if one has a tricky gimmick.

There isn't much to the story but it'll pass you by and considering this is one of the first console RPGs, I don't fault it much, if anything having to search for your party and having defined characters is a notable upgrade from a lot of stuff up to Dragon Quest II's point. The finale of the game even has a cool setpiece. The music is...fine. I don't think anything was particularly memorable, the song when sailing is neat I suppose, but it was enjoyable filler music. Graphically, I think the original game's with their NES sprites is actually nice, the simplistic look combined with the textures gives a lot of room for the imagination to run wild, sadly I had the Switch port which feels like it has very generic cell phone replacement sprites with the exception of the enemy monsters which are still Toriyama. Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of Toriyama's character design, so it's kinda mid for me there. That's not to say he's bad, just not to my taste.

I also think "up to Dragon Quest II's point" is a bit of a factor. Setting aside Dragon Quest III blowing the lid off things a mere year later, Final Fantasy 1 would come out the same year with a notably deeper battle system with a wider class variety, while Phantasy Star 1 the same year eschews the class variety but goes a lot harder on the story (and AFAIK gameplay depth). Ultimately, the game feels like an enjoyable half-step from the most primitive early console RPGs to the heavy hitters that will follow within its era. Don't be scared off by its purported difficulty if you're into these old school RPGs as it is a fun if basic time, but it isn't going to turn heads if you're not.

Bonus for being able to get an actual Puff-Puff.

Hot DAMN, this game is good! This game is excellent at giving off a supreme sense of "flow" when everything goes right, a zen-like state of leaping from one action to another. Open a door by cutting someone down, at the same time toss a cleaver diagonally to hit an enemy on next floor from below, slowing down time to slash a bullet away at the gunman on the other side of the room and finally leap over the last, shielded enemy in slo-mo to cut them down from behind, all fluidly one after another! That is the essence of what makes Katana ZERO's quick-twitch, one hit kill gameplay work so well!

It feels a lot like a blend between the difficult, checkpoint-based platformers like Super Meat Boy and Celeste and action-platformers or even character action games, such as Ninja Gaiden with a hint of No More Heroes. Room-based action where your goal is to kill everyone and get to the exit, turning it into an almost puzzle-action game where it is all about planning out the most efficient route of murder. Your toolkit is largely simple: You can jump, slash with your sword or grab certain stage objects to throw as projectiles. But the game mixes this all together to create some wicked areas, especially with the secret sauce of the game's last mechanic, which is that you can slow down time by holding down L2 (or w/e button you want) on a limited, regenerating timer. Slow down bullets to send them back with your sword, roll around opponents, but don't abuse it too much since you'll still die just as quickly. I BELIEVE the game can technically be beaten without ever using it, but only if you're a god at it, instead working out when and how to use it is a pretty strategic and tactical choice. The checkpoint-based retries encourage exploring multiple paths to completing your killing spree and helps with the frustrating that might otherwise arise, this game is very clearly designed with it in mind.

Enemy variety could definitely stand to be a little better, at the least in terms of visual appearance it feels like more could have been done at the end, but ultimately there is plenty enough to challenge your knowledge of the tools at your disposal and bosses end up challenging you in unique ways, since they're 1v1 killfests rather than room-based challenges, with more of a focus on tight dodging and attack windows. Given the svelte playtime, I finished in 4 hours 40 minutes on the nose, it doesn't overstay its welcome at all throughout the run time. The levels keep throwing different challenges at you as well, which helps with keeping things feeling fresh: Even your standard thug or guy with a gun can be fun when they're in a room designed to make you tackle them in different ways, after all!

But while the gameplay is great, it was the story that ended up really drawing me in to the point I would say that by the end I was much more interested where that was going then on the next gameplay challenge! I'm not going to spoil it, as I think it's probably best enjoyed without that, so allow me to just say that it is a lot more than you'd normally get out of this kind of game, something I quite enjoy in a 2D Platformer. Funny enough, the other games that come to mind for this also have "Zero" in the title: Mega Man Zero. I will also say one thing I loved was how the game's mechanics are so woven into the story, with pretty much all of it coming in-universe, even stuff like the checkpoint basis! Hell, even the soundtrack is almost entirely diagetic, either being played by someone in-universe or listened to by the protagonist on his headphones which even brings up the title of the song as if you were using a cyberpunk iPod.

And ooooooh man, the music, the graphics, this game is slick when it comes to aaaaaaall that. Synthwave-inspired, so many tracks fill in nicely with the mood of a given scene and the thrill of the momentum-based gameplay, to the point I'd say the music is a critical part of how the game's "flow" works. It knows when to be bombastic, techno-infused and keeping you on your toes, but there's slower tracks best in tune with more quiet moments as well, a good blend. Some of my favorites are Overdose, Katana ZERO and Third District. This has to be a contender for best video game soundtrack of 2019! Visually, it's got a super neon look that feels right at home with games like Hotline Miami and Hyper Light Drifter, along with obvious inspiration from classic cyberpunk works. While some of the spritework is pretty simple, the aesthetic stylings do more than carry it along with some swift animations and stuff like how blood splatters on walls or injections look. I was also quite impressed with how this game utilized some "glitchiness" aesthetic, especially since the game already uses VCR stylings for menus or security tapes so it fits in really well.

There's a few things keeping it out of 10/10, one of which is the ending, which isn't bad (I'd even say I liked it) but feels like it is tacking too hard on a sequel or DLC. It isn't that it just has a sequel hook, but that it leaves too much kinda unresolved and hollow, desperately in need of completion, even if there is stuff about it I like. Another pertinent reason is that decent chunks of the final level dipped a bit too much into frustration rather than challenge, in particular there are multiple "Gotcha!" moments where if you didn't essentially know it was happening before it did you WILL die, which fits flavorfully but feels bad. One of them is rather easy to trip, too. And then there's just a few slight random quibbles that don't hurt the game much but add up overall, this game just would have been perfect if it went on another two hours, but it's a bit too short for the narrative.

Overall, though, these are more minor issues that keep it from a "perfect score" than anything to worry about. Absolutely anyone who is interested in this kind of action platformer should play this and it has enough going for it I'd even recommend it to people normally disinclined by that if they're up for trying it. Given this game has received widespread attention, I think this one's on track to truly be an action platformer classic as time goes on. Out of the 10 games I've completed to date this year, it was easily my favorite, so I'm very excited for where that (free!) DLC takes us, or even a sequel!

I don't have a ton to say about this game, but given it was a bit of an enjoyable surprise I feel sad it has no reviews at all right now, so...yeah. SKYPEACE is a pretty charming and fun, short game! It's pretty simple, arcade-y fun: Get to the end of each stage, collect as many coins and as much treasure as possible and avoid enemies, with a few secrets here and there. It ends up playing a lot like a horizontal shmup but without the shooting, which is interesting in a way. The art style is a cute little "indie anime" style, kinda nice, and the music is honestly kind of a happy-chill banger that got me into the zone to play this game.

The game itself is pretty short, it has 10 stages + a tutorial and will be completed in about 35-40 minutes if you're just trying to beat each stage, but I was rather surprised at the number of achievements on display! There's plenty of standard ones like just beating the level, getting X amount of coins in the level or not getting hit, but there were also some little inventive ones like beating the game only using vertical movement. While the game is quite easy to beat normally, I am going to guess that getting the best ranks is harder as I didn't particularly come close to any S Ranks (I got two A Ranks and eight B Ranks), so there's plenty of room for replayability. And while it is short, the game is also only a dollar, so it's really impossible to complain about the size. I certainly felt like I got my money's worth.

Ultimately, if a simple little arcade-y high score game sounds your speed, I definitely recommend this if you got a spare dollar! I picked it up with eShop coins and felt happy with my purchase. It was apparently a little 20th anniversary project for the company, so maybe that's why it feels like it has a little extra heart put into it.

This game starts off as a pretty solid, easy kid's platformer type of game. And that's what you'll get early on. It is decent, not especially engaging but I am going to bet if I was the age of the target audience (young kids who'd want a McDonalds liscensed game) it wouldn't be so bad, nonetheless I would say after a while this game gets really grating? The thing is the game never gets hard, pits can be defeated with balloons which can even be strategically used to skip large parts of the stages even, but at times it just kind of adds in some obtuse stage design or gimmicks. For example, the brief ship level with the penguins actually confused me for a bit, and had me trying other stuff until I realized you were supposed to platform to the right (which looks the same as the left, which is death if you go that way). The end result is spending some minutes dwadling around while not in any realistic danger. especially since health pickups are impossibly common in this game.

In general this game feels very reliant on "gimmicks", in the sense that the platforming very rarely evolves beyond the simple and so instead it is spiced up with some gimmick that the game feels like it adds more to it, like having sumo wrestlers that stomp down and cause the track platforms it is on to be angled differently. This doesn't actually change up gameplay, it's the same simple jumps to do them, so it didn't do much for me. Boss fights in this game are also weird? You need to deliberately get hit by one of their attacks so they can suck up your life, then attack them while they chew the life gem after attacking, and frankly this mostly leads to fights becoming dragged out. It's nearly impossible to actually die to any of them except for the final boss since their patterns are simple and they spawn enemies that drop health (otherwise they could become unbeatable easily), so you just wait for the attack and sometimes only get a few hits. The final boss is frustrating because they set it up so if you mess up his easy pattern, you nearly unavoidably lose half your health, necessitating either grinding health to win or dying if you make more than a single mistake. It's still fairly easy, but it is annoying to die in this way and since the fight isn't super clear at first it will be a "gotcha!" at first.

Graphically the game is solid, but for some reason this music just absolutely slaps? Must be that Treasure power. The final boss theme is way too intense for the puzzle boss fight, the stage music all bop with some of the moon stages bein' reeeeal funky, this was by far the best part of the game, maybe this should have just been a McDonalds album. Also, for some reason this game just. Has racist caricatures?? What?

I know some people got nostalgic memories for this but gotta say I wouldn't recommend this one.

A short review for a short game. Toree 3D is a basic throwback platformer to the days of the PS1 in terms of aesthetic and style, something which I would say it executes reasonably well, particularly given the extremely cheap 99 cent price tag.

The best thing about this game is the tight controls, this game feels GREAT to control and reminds me that I wish more games would map dash buttons to the shoulder buttons or allow you to remap them. It's soooo nice to hold down the shoulder button for running, thumb ready at a moment's notice to jump at will (or in games with more than just jumps, like Mega Man Zero, attacking or special abilities). If anything the game is a bit TOO good controlling! Because of how much precision you're able to have it can be a bit too easy to save yourself from mistakes you make, especially thanks to the game having a double jump, and because the level design is pretty simple this means the game is pretty easy for better or worse. I think it could have gone a bit harder on not letting you "get out" of mistakes so easily, basically. Still, this game's physics and feel is a real keeper for any future projects!

The entire aesthetic and presentation of the game feels on point for the PS1 retro mood, the harbor levels feel right out of Sonic Adventure 2 in feel (though obviously not as expansive) and Toree's design absolutely would appear like this back in the day. It feels kinda like if someone turned Flicky into a 3D platformer. There's also some fairly memorable tunes included in the package, although I'll take this moment to note that some of the sound effects could be a bit loud, and that one thing I wish this game did better was have a bit more expansive Options for stuff like sound, Options menus aren't really something that need to "throw back'.

This game was made for a "haunted PS1 demo disc" game am and so it has some light horror elements, but they're veeery minor which I would say was absolutely to this game's strengths. In fact, I'd say 95% of this game's spooky elements would feel exactly at home from a PS1 platformer even without them, like some enemy designs being fairly cartoonishly scary. I also love how it actually mixed this into the game's story: Toree's ice cream is stolen by a "creepy mean guy" and Toree rushes to get it back. The first stage then shows this glitched out grim reaper ass guy holding an ice cream. It is very amusing!

While I wouldn't say the game is THAT ridiculously short for 99 cents, you can't expect a dollar game to be as expansive as Breath of the Wild, I do think that the game was still somewhat too short even for that. Given the late 90s platformer feel I am really surprised there weren't any simple boss fights in the game, which could have helped break up the stages, in particularly the end of the 9th stage could have tied the spooky elements of the game into a surprise boss fight or something for some flair. It feels like the game ends right when the level design is opening up, as many of the first four levels are VERY simple, even something like two more levels (one for top and bottom row) could have added a lot. This game's shorter than Super Mario Bros. 1 on a casual playthrough, I beat it in 38 minutes while trying to 100% all stars on each stage, so I don't think that much is unreasonable to request.

Overall, Toree 3D's a short game that nails what it is going for but admittedly never goes beyond that, held together by well put together aesthetics and very tight controls to make up for some quite simple game design and the feeling there could be "more". At 99 cents? Yeah, I'd absolutely recommend it if you want a quick fun time, and there IS a good deal of replayability thanks to two unlockable characters and the option to go for A Ranks. I even got it for free with gold eShop coins! Just don't expect tooooooo much.

About thirty years too late to be presenting any fresh takes about Super Mario World, but here comes my thoughts regardless! This game's a classic, launching off the SNES and entering fierce competition with the contrasting Sonic 1 a year later.

Let's start out with the positives. The introduction of Yoshi is a nice touch, functioning as a power-up with his own unique rules such as being able to get him back after being hit or eating enemies for power-up variations. I quite enjoy the overworld's system of secret exits in tons of levels to unlock alternate routes, warps and secret worlds, and when I thought about it I'm actually shocked more games haven't really used this system given how popular Super Mario World was? Most games that use level selects are either pretty linear or have more direct branching paths (just look at Super Mario 3D World for example), rather than the complex web of exits that Super Mario World has. I will say though that, and this comparison will pop up a few times due to the games being connected and being my favorite 2D Mario (currently), I do prefer Super Mario Bros. 3's overworld. It doesn't have the complexity of exits, but the different ways you can tackle pathing is very interesting, and I always liked the way you could use items before entering levels.

The game doesn't FULLY utilize the SNES' power, unsurprising for a launch title, but Super Mario World is still a pretty looking game (even if I prefer SMB3's a bit more dusty, even "realistic" feel at times), and some parts of it particularly ooze quality such as Bowser's overworld or the Forest of Illusion. I really like the small touch of lightning flashes in the Bowser level overworld giving you a glimpse of the final boss! This game also does all the little things right, stuff like Peach in the final battle helping you out, that help elevate it beyond what would feel like bog standard New Super Mario Bros fare. This game clearly seeks to iterate on the NES Super Mario games and loves introducing new concepts such as springs, the aforementioned Yoshi, the cape's movement, and a toooooooon of gimmicks to mess around with. Super Mario World doesn't play it safe and when it is on, it is on! My favorite levels would probably be most of the Bowser levels, Forest of Illusion levels, Chocolate Island 2 (what a crazy cool gimmick!), Chocolate Island 3, and Ludwig's Castle off the top of my head.

This game had a lot of problems for me too, though, and when it was off it was pretty off. The most obvious thing that hurt a lot of the cool level design was the physic. Mario feels waaaaay floatier and loose compared to the NES titles, is this just me a thing? I hear a lot of people complain about SMB1 or even SMB3's physics, but when I was replaying SMB1 recently I was able to consistently bring myself to a halt on the edges of platforms and do crazy tricks. But in World, Mario retains much more of his momentum when he lands from a jump while also being floatier in the air. Great when you have lots of open space! Not so great whenever you jump on something small. I legitimately had an easier time with a bunch of the Bowser levels because they asked you to do daring, risky, precision platforming but onto large platforms than sometimes I had with simple "hit a block, jump on the block" stuff because it is so easy to slip off of one block if you get the momentum even a bit off.

Similarly, I would say I prefer the P-Speed of Super Mario Bros 3 to Super Mario World's dashing system. World feels a bit squished onto an SNES controller frankly, with both the power up and dash buttons on the same button leading to awkwardness if you want to both run and attack. You also basically want to be holding down dash 80% of the time, which can feel kinda weird to then also jump and led to me often letting go of dash to jump when I really shouldn't. You CAN just fat finger the dash with the jump and spin jump, but it often feels off and with the spin jump in particular not great. I also had a few troubles with my fingers being a bit big for the buttons for this, but I won't really dock points from the game for that because on the SNES (which it was designed for) the buttons were bigger and more spread out than a Pro Controller, so it'd work better with its intended design. P-Speed also feels more skillful, needing to find ways to keep up your momentum and plot out how to move and platform through a course, versus holding down a button. It also allows you to build it up while attacking and felt super smooth with the fire flower.

While the base graphical quality is solid, the game is sorely lacking in variety. The Ghosts Houses and Castles looking the same isn't the issue, but Donut Plains and Chocolate Island for example feel like they could easily be the same "area". It feels like for the main game at least the game has about 3-4 themes that it stretches out compared to the extreme variety of Super Mario Bros. 3 or some other platformers, without having a "unifying" feel that would make it be more logical. Valley of Bowser and Forest of Illusion not only had some of my favorite level design but were some of the only levels that had a truly unique aesthetic which I think really helped them stand out.

Thirdly the game has some VERY uneven level design, to the point by the end I was getting into a rhythm of liking about 2-3 levels fairly well then coming across one I rather disliked. Pretty much every castle level except for Iggy's, Ludwig's and Bowser's sucks. Lemmy and Larry's are probably the worst offenders here, the start of Lemmy's castle is just a needlessly annoying gimmick (and I don't think Ieven ended up clearing it the "right" way lol) which sours a fun latter half, while Larry's has a very boring snake block segment at the start that is RIDICULOUSLY easy but takes like a minute, which if you have to retry the level multiple times starts to feel like brain rot. Wendy's level also suffers from me finding the spin jump onto sawblades or wrecking balls unreliable, leading to frustrating deaths. Sunken Ghost Ship was also a level I disliked.

And while I know many people describe one of THE moments of Super Mario World as getting the cape...I gotta be honest, Donut Plains 1 is one of my least favorite levels in the entire game. The placement of the enemies feels all wrong! The start of the course clearly wants you to be able to get a cape from a Cape Koopa, then learn how to use it to fly, except they placed them in such a way that the enemies at the start will respawn super easily and make it tremendously annoying to do so! The entire level was annoying and actually one of the ones I had the most trouble with, on top of that I get the appeal of how the cape controls but I wasn't exactly a great fan. It does feel pretty nice whenever you get a very wide open space (unless there's enemies), but anything not meant for you to basically skip over everything feels trashy.

Unsurprisingly the story is very barebones and I don't think it has setpieces that match up to taking down Bowser's entire army in SMB3, but I did really enjoy all the little skits after clearing each castle. Were they necessary? Not at all. Were they one of those little things this game does quite well? Absolutely! I looked forward to seeing what each one would do, and of course this is the kind of thing that is enjoyably abusable in the SMW modding scene.

Overall, Super Mario World was a good game with some great highs and frustrating lows. It's easy for me to understand why people consider it a masterpiece, particularly anyone who really gels with the physics (watch people who REALLY know how to play this game and they can pull off soem crazy stuff!), but too much dragged it down for me for it to reach that level. I got half the exits in the game and it was fun enough I'll probably go back some day to get some more, though, so I'd say mission accomplished...and I'm pretty excited to play Yoshi's Island sometime soon. :)