FrozenRoy
1996
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...
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...
1994
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.
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.
1998
I only played the demo and never owned the full game, so this review is just me leaving a mark of myself for that so people don't think I put Abandoned on the whole game. It was pretty fun but I was also very bad at it.
2019
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.
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.
TBD
Yahoo Pool probably wasn't actually that great of a game but I played it when I was like 13 to the point I was joining online tournaments and actually won some, including coming back from a 6 ball deficit when my opponent was down to the 8-Ball so I have a lot of fond memories of it. And for a simple, basically flash game of 2D Pool it was pretty solid.
1998
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!
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!
1999
Realistically speaking, this game probably deserves to be more of a 7/10. The roster is pretty small, although I appreciate they went with oddball choices like Ness and Captain Falcon even with a small roster, the gameplay is super busted past any casual level, almost every stage is a gimmick and for some reason you can't unlock reasonable stages that are present in the game like Final Destination.
But Smash Bros 64 does have its charm. While it is certainly the shortest single player experience in Smash Brothers, the Break the Targets stages are creative and fun and it's the only one with the pretty cool Board the Platforms minigame as well. I completely understand why they aren't around any more, imagine designing a unique one for 80+ characters, but it is a bit sad to see them gone. The game also looks rather good for the Nintendo 64 with vibrant colors on stages such as Yoshi's Island and Saffron City. The stages themselves are rather elaborate for the time, Saffron City might be jank but getting to see an iconic Pokemon area brought to full 3D (for the first time!) with tons of little flourishes was a treat. I've also, personally, always rather liked the hit effect sounds in this game.
But ultimately the fact is that what pushes it up that little extra bit to me is this: I used to play this all the time with my mom, easily staying up until 3 AM, and despite the fact she was terrible at it (she can beat NES Legend of Zelda easily but can't remember B/A button differences in Smash) we were able to have tons of fun, the game is good at making sure even if your skill levels are different you can find your own fun. Personal bias, sure, but they're cherished memories and simply make the game better for me personally. Not to mention all the times I did stuff like make my own CPU tournaments, or choose a character, set three of the same CPU in FFAs and record them down in a tournament across all the stages (10 points for 1st, 7 for 2nd, 4 for 3rd, 1 for 4th). It might be outclassed by pretty much every Smash game after, but it's still fun to come back to and everything someone could want at the time.
But Smash Bros 64 does have its charm. While it is certainly the shortest single player experience in Smash Brothers, the Break the Targets stages are creative and fun and it's the only one with the pretty cool Board the Platforms minigame as well. I completely understand why they aren't around any more, imagine designing a unique one for 80+ characters, but it is a bit sad to see them gone. The game also looks rather good for the Nintendo 64 with vibrant colors on stages such as Yoshi's Island and Saffron City. The stages themselves are rather elaborate for the time, Saffron City might be jank but getting to see an iconic Pokemon area brought to full 3D (for the first time!) with tons of little flourishes was a treat. I've also, personally, always rather liked the hit effect sounds in this game.
But ultimately the fact is that what pushes it up that little extra bit to me is this: I used to play this all the time with my mom, easily staying up until 3 AM, and despite the fact she was terrible at it (she can beat NES Legend of Zelda easily but can't remember B/A button differences in Smash) we were able to have tons of fun, the game is good at making sure even if your skill levels are different you can find your own fun. Personal bias, sure, but they're cherished memories and simply make the game better for me personally. Not to mention all the times I did stuff like make my own CPU tournaments, or choose a character, set three of the same CPU in FFAs and record them down in a tournament across all the stages (10 points for 1st, 7 for 2nd, 4 for 3rd, 1 for 4th). It might be outclassed by pretty much every Smash game after, but it's still fun to come back to and everything someone could want at the time.
1986
(Played via Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Nintendo Switch)
Castlevania is an absolutely classic game that I am fairly split on, largely because every fun moment feels like it is equalized by a frustrating one. Simon's Castlevania jump physics are wonky, sure, but you can adjust to them pretty fast. By the end of the first group of stages I had little trouble making jumps on platforms, for example. Far more trouble comes in the active game and level design which frequently does NOT feel designed with the slow mechanics in mind, most obvious with any number of small jumping or floating enemies that become infuriating to hit in a multitiude of positions. When the game begins to absolutely spam these, such as on Stage 17, the fun factor tanks and the frustration factor sets in.
This is unfortunate because when the game is more about slow and deliberate platforming with more "fair" enemies it is pretty fun! Or even ones where you can kind of out think them, such as Holy Water on the bats in Stage 16 (although boy that stage would SUCK without power-ups), or a fair amount of the earlier levels really. It feels like the game would do better to lean into this style more given the controls, rather than the more SMB1-ish platforming you'll see in stuff like the aforementioned Stage 17. The sub weapon balance is also all over the place to the point that avoiding accidentally picking up the many more useless weapons is an important part of playstyle. Garlic is very powerful, Holy Water is busted and the cross is good, avoid stuff like the dagger.
Difficulty in general is all over the place, leading to cases of "will it be incredibly tough or will you cheese it". Death without Holy Water is ridiculously challenging, Death with Holy Water just asks you to properly time jumping and attacking to stunlock him forever. Even the final boss' second form can be cheesed this way if you have at least one projectile upgrade, making 2/3rds of the final bosses able to be turned into total jokes, although I wasn't able to do that which led to a lot more pure tough attempts. Most of the other bosses are very easy, but the Level 4 boss gave me some real fits until I won almost effortlessly for reasons I don't understand, sometimes it feels like pure luck. It takes away that sweet difficulty game "YEAH, I BEAT THAT!" high at times.
As an extremely early NES platformer it doesn't exactly have a ton of story, but for what it does do it does well. Old NES games are often about working around the limitations of the hardware to allow the player's imagination to fill the gaps, which makes setpieces and the like more important. This is something Castlevania's an expert at! The stairway climb to Dracula is iconic to the point that soooo many Castlevania games use it and is well-done here, but there's also stuff like the intro with Simon arriving at Dracula's gates, the long vertical drop into the dungeons / catacombs, having a platform section start with just the night sky to the left and a little ledge you can walk to as if to gaze out at it, and my personal favorite: Simon's chugging walk every time you complete a section of stages, while Dracula's bat form flees.
This goes hand in hand with how well done this game's graphics and sound are for the NES. This game positively oozes aesthetic for a 1986 NES game with great spritework for the time, for example the crescent moon in the walk up to Dracula is a great look, and the entire game has a somewhat dark, gritty, gothic feel to it that makes you feel like you're playing out an old school vampire novel. The songs slap for the era with particular highlights of Vampire Killer (DOOT-DOOT-DO-DO-DO-DO), Poison Mind, Nothing to Lose and Black Knight. This game is up there with Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 3 when it comes to graphics (though I'd definitely give it to SMB3 by a large margin) for NES graphics.
All in all, Castlevania is a game too flawed for me to feel comfortable calling good, yet with too many elements I enjoyed to call it back, giving it that coveted 5/10 "average" score. Masocore gamers will absolutely enjoy this more than most and it is a classic for anyone who enjoys that tough difficulty, people interested in Castlevania's roots or just plain good looking NES games will also enjoy checking it out if they can handle the uneven and frustrating difficulty. I'd say it's worth giving a look once, but I wouldn't exactly be jumping to come back to it.
Castlevania is an absolutely classic game that I am fairly split on, largely because every fun moment feels like it is equalized by a frustrating one. Simon's Castlevania jump physics are wonky, sure, but you can adjust to them pretty fast. By the end of the first group of stages I had little trouble making jumps on platforms, for example. Far more trouble comes in the active game and level design which frequently does NOT feel designed with the slow mechanics in mind, most obvious with any number of small jumping or floating enemies that become infuriating to hit in a multitiude of positions. When the game begins to absolutely spam these, such as on Stage 17, the fun factor tanks and the frustration factor sets in.
This is unfortunate because when the game is more about slow and deliberate platforming with more "fair" enemies it is pretty fun! Or even ones where you can kind of out think them, such as Holy Water on the bats in Stage 16 (although boy that stage would SUCK without power-ups), or a fair amount of the earlier levels really. It feels like the game would do better to lean into this style more given the controls, rather than the more SMB1-ish platforming you'll see in stuff like the aforementioned Stage 17. The sub weapon balance is also all over the place to the point that avoiding accidentally picking up the many more useless weapons is an important part of playstyle. Garlic is very powerful, Holy Water is busted and the cross is good, avoid stuff like the dagger.
Difficulty in general is all over the place, leading to cases of "will it be incredibly tough or will you cheese it". Death without Holy Water is ridiculously challenging, Death with Holy Water just asks you to properly time jumping and attacking to stunlock him forever. Even the final boss' second form can be cheesed this way if you have at least one projectile upgrade, making 2/3rds of the final bosses able to be turned into total jokes, although I wasn't able to do that which led to a lot more pure tough attempts. Most of the other bosses are very easy, but the Level 4 boss gave me some real fits until I won almost effortlessly for reasons I don't understand, sometimes it feels like pure luck. It takes away that sweet difficulty game "YEAH, I BEAT THAT!" high at times.
As an extremely early NES platformer it doesn't exactly have a ton of story, but for what it does do it does well. Old NES games are often about working around the limitations of the hardware to allow the player's imagination to fill the gaps, which makes setpieces and the like more important. This is something Castlevania's an expert at! The stairway climb to Dracula is iconic to the point that soooo many Castlevania games use it and is well-done here, but there's also stuff like the intro with Simon arriving at Dracula's gates, the long vertical drop into the dungeons / catacombs, having a platform section start with just the night sky to the left and a little ledge you can walk to as if to gaze out at it, and my personal favorite: Simon's chugging walk every time you complete a section of stages, while Dracula's bat form flees.
This goes hand in hand with how well done this game's graphics and sound are for the NES. This game positively oozes aesthetic for a 1986 NES game with great spritework for the time, for example the crescent moon in the walk up to Dracula is a great look, and the entire game has a somewhat dark, gritty, gothic feel to it that makes you feel like you're playing out an old school vampire novel. The songs slap for the era with particular highlights of Vampire Killer (DOOT-DOOT-DO-DO-DO-DO), Poison Mind, Nothing to Lose and Black Knight. This game is up there with Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 3 when it comes to graphics (though I'd definitely give it to SMB3 by a large margin) for NES graphics.
All in all, Castlevania is a game too flawed for me to feel comfortable calling good, yet with too many elements I enjoyed to call it back, giving it that coveted 5/10 "average" score. Masocore gamers will absolutely enjoy this more than most and it is a classic for anyone who enjoys that tough difficulty, people interested in Castlevania's roots or just plain good looking NES games will also enjoy checking it out if they can handle the uneven and frustrating difficulty. I'd say it's worth giving a look once, but I wouldn't exactly be jumping to come back to it.
1979
I can't bring myself to give it lower than a 5/10, but there's really no reason to go back to it with Galaga out, which came out a mere 2 years later. Revolutionary for its time in hardware, Galaxian is fun enough to play but incredibly simplistic and clearly lacks the polish of Galaga.
Only being able to have one shot out at a time gives it less of a free flowing feel, no power-ups, less interesting patterns, it ends up with only half the shelf life of Galaga.
Only being able to have one shot out at a time gives it less of a free flowing feel, no power-ups, less interesting patterns, it ends up with only half the shelf life of Galaga.
1980
I absolutely did not play this game in arcades, but instead on my computer when I was like 12-13, and it was extremely cool back then. The wireframe graphics give this game a really cool simulator feel that I believe could make for a great aesthetic with a modern take on it, the game is very simple and short (my biggest complaint) but has super addictive and arcade-y gameplay. It's very possible this game doesn't deserve this score but I played this game for plenty of hours, so I'm gonna give it the 7/10.
1980
The game is fine and the Special Flag is fittingly iconic, but I feel like it ages somewhat poorly compared to many of its contemporaries. When taken as a maze game, the AI is a bit annoying and bad compared to Pac-Man which released the same year and is simply a more complex and interesting maze game.
Then you look only two years later and see Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug release and Rally-X just ends up not looking all that special. Not awful, but I would be hard-pressed to return to it any time soon, while Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man have enduring quality.
Then you look only two years later and see Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug release and Rally-X just ends up not looking all that special. Not awful, but I would be hard-pressed to return to it any time soon, while Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man have enduring quality.
1981
By any modern viewpoint Galaga is an incredibly simple game, but a simple game is not a bad game. Anyone can look at Galaga, understand what's happening, pick it up, play it and have fun, while it still gives good reward to those who memorize it and put in time to develop skills. The core gameplay is classic and direct shmup, shooting down enemy fighters and avoiding shots, with the fun addition of intentionally being captured in order to save your ship and get a cool double ship power-up.
While it is very simple, the fact of the matter is that the game released on early 80s arcades and the Atari 7800. There simply wasn't a level of hardware to allow stuff that would come later. On top of that, Galaga is one of the first games upon which all others are built. When considering for the era the game actually has fairly good graphics for the time, even.
You can pretty much find it on any platform and it can run on anything, so if you wanna fire up a shmup and waste a few hours it is hard to go wrong with some old school Galaga.
While it is very simple, the fact of the matter is that the game released on early 80s arcades and the Atari 7800. There simply wasn't a level of hardware to allow stuff that would come later. On top of that, Galaga is one of the first games upon which all others are built. When considering for the era the game actually has fairly good graphics for the time, even.
You can pretty much find it on any platform and it can run on anything, so if you wanna fire up a shmup and waste a few hours it is hard to go wrong with some old school Galaga.
1999
NASCAR 2000 is a reasonably fun game that there is absolutely no reason to go back to past the date it was released. The biggest reason for this is simple: Lack of features. NASCAR 2000 has single race and season mode aaaand that's it. There's no Career or Franchise-style mode, which is the lifeblood of basically every sports game in my opinion, nor anything like race specific challenges, big time race recreations to play or what have you. All you can do is the bare minimum of racing around. Fun to waste some time with, but there is no depth or replayability which means there isn't a ton of a reason to come back to it. This is furthered by the fact that the game doesn't have a full selection of NASCAR tracks,
The gameplay feels very "arcade-y", looser than games like NASCAR Thunder 2003 or to use a contemporary racer F-1 World Grand Prix and more easily exploitable. Really, that's another major issue that NASCAR 2000 ends up having: The AI isn't very strong and therefor resorts a bit more to rubber banding than great racers, but with the arcade-y fun can still be nice to beat, with the end result being that popping it in for like two races can be fun but it isn't a long term experience and it isn't as fun as more modern games. The graphics are good for the time, making the cars fairly crisp and distinct and the courses feel fairly realistic for a Nintendo 64 experience, although I wouldn't say they look as good as F-1 World Grand Prix. Better draw distances on the cars, but that game had superior course detail and so on.
Overall, NASCAR 2000 was okay at the time and I have some fondness for it from my childhood, but even back then there were a ton of racers both simulation (F-1 World Grand Prix, Indy Racing 2000) and more "party" (LEGO Racers, Mario Kart 64) that stood out as superior to me. And as soon as NASCAR games evolved at all, this game became pretty outdated and meaningless. Not the worst experience but simply not worth checking out again.
The gameplay feels very "arcade-y", looser than games like NASCAR Thunder 2003 or to use a contemporary racer F-1 World Grand Prix and more easily exploitable. Really, that's another major issue that NASCAR 2000 ends up having: The AI isn't very strong and therefor resorts a bit more to rubber banding than great racers, but with the arcade-y fun can still be nice to beat, with the end result being that popping it in for like two races can be fun but it isn't a long term experience and it isn't as fun as more modern games. The graphics are good for the time, making the cars fairly crisp and distinct and the courses feel fairly realistic for a Nintendo 64 experience, although I wouldn't say they look as good as F-1 World Grand Prix. Better draw distances on the cars, but that game had superior course detail and so on.
Overall, NASCAR 2000 was okay at the time and I have some fondness for it from my childhood, but even back then there were a ton of racers both simulation (F-1 World Grand Prix, Indy Racing 2000) and more "party" (LEGO Racers, Mario Kart 64) that stood out as superior to me. And as soon as NASCAR games evolved at all, this game became pretty outdated and meaningless. Not the worst experience but simply not worth checking out again.
2008
NASCAR 09 finds itself with such a low rating for primarily one reason, which is to say it is unplayable. The control stick sensitivity is SO BAD that turning your car on PS2 is all but impossible! When I tried to play the game even with max stick sensitivity (a setting not seen in previous games like NASCAR Thunder 2003, likely because it already had good stick balance) I would have to smash the control stick so far to the side my finger would hurt mid-race to the point I had to take a break and I worried about breaking my controller. Not only is this unfun, it means you can't really make any kind of minor adjustments required for REAL racing and are basically limited to wide turns which makes a NASCAR race unplayable.
Because of that, I was not able to make it far into the game, but by all accounts this game had worse features than previous games in the series like NASCAR Thunder 2003 such as less stuff like Thunder Challenges, less unlockables, and a Career Mode that has interesting progression as you rise up the various racing series ranks but lacks the depth of Thunder 2003's management of development, advertisement and teams. Even if you prefer this game's style of Career Mode, you could just play NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup instead, although I would highly recommend NASCAR Thunder 2003 or 2004 over it. And leave this game in the trash bin where it belongs.
Because of that, I was not able to make it far into the game, but by all accounts this game had worse features than previous games in the series like NASCAR Thunder 2003 such as less stuff like Thunder Challenges, less unlockables, and a Career Mode that has interesting progression as you rise up the various racing series ranks but lacks the depth of Thunder 2003's management of development, advertisement and teams. Even if you prefer this game's style of Career Mode, you could just play NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup instead, although I would highly recommend NASCAR Thunder 2003 or 2004 over it. And leave this game in the trash bin where it belongs.
2018
Hades was initially a game I kept an eye on, but wasn't sure if I wanted to buy. Hearing friends talk about the excitement they felt encouraged me to buy it for 5 dollars off on Black Friday sale over other games I was considering and I can tell you right now I was not disappointed!
From top to bottom, Hades is an excellent game. It gets you right into the action with the plot and gameplay as Zagreus, half-human son of Hades, seeking to escape the Underworld for reasons unknown. One thing I appreciate about this game is how it treats the player as intelligent, as it uses smart and strong conversation pieces to establish relationships and dynamics easily in a story you're essentially dropped in the middle of. It only takes 1 or 2 interactions to get a basic understanding of any character while at the same time having pleasurable depth to explore. The game hits the ground running.
Gameplay is crisp and responsive, playing similar to Transistor as an isometric action game but much more smoothly and refined. Dash mechanics have particularly been removed, making the cooldown between dashes feel smoother and reducing the "hitch" it felt like Transistor's dash had. There is a ton of variation for all kinds of playstyles to be represented thanks to not only the greek god's boons but also a multitude of varied weapons with different playstyles, special equippable trinkets to modify what you do, a simple talent tree and other systems which layer on top of a great feeling combat system to add substantial depth to it all. Slashing through hordes of enemies with the blade while timing dashes, your special and your cast is exhilarating and tense.
The rewards of the rooms offer interesting gameplay choices in a variety of ways. There were times I did a run or two without even planning to try to make it out, but instead prioritized nectar rooms for NPC advancement, gemstones for unlockables and so on. Risk-reward management is emphasized and smartly woven into the gameplay. You'll never be screwed over just for making a choice, but you will have to deal with trade-offs and consider situationals. The decision making aspect is also important for the early rooms, as once you advance in skill level they will provide much less threat. Having reasons to approach ordering differently or to consider trade-offs therefor helps keep these interesting even as you get stronger while not being overwhelming to newcomers. It all comes together into an addictive package that I found myself returning to repeatedly even when I booted up my Switch with the intent to play other games.
Layered on top of the top notch gameplay is a strong story, which unfolds over multiple attempts and victories. One way this game feeds into its addictive gameplay loop is by granting you bits of story or character progress with each run: Even if you're not making headway gameplay-wise you'll be making headway into the overall narrative or into getting to explore the characters more. The story itself is pretty nice and feels a lot like one might expect the image of a "greek mythology" story to feel like, it is certainly no coincidence that Sisyphus is an NPC here, which is obviously fitting with the setting. Combine it with top notch character design (all of the gods are some GREAT interpretations!) and snappy dialogue that is pretty much entirely voiced (and this game has a LOT of dialogue, so it is impressive!) and you get a real winner.
My favorite character is probably Achilles. His gentle, weary voice really fits the characterization of a dead warrior looking back at what he's done with a different perspective and you get into his head quite a bit because he is the author of the game's bestiary and glossary which gives more insight. I won't go more into spoilers, but you eventually get to interact with him in more intricate ways as well. Characters can range from the more comedic, like Skelly, to much more straight edge series like Thanatos and helps keep the interactions feeling fresh. But the game keeps a consistent tone thanks to filtering through Zagreus' view and the lovely narrator keeping his drolling voice going. It is all very well done.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the game's graphics and ESPECIALLY its soundtrack! This game has some really good music all around, first time I really noticed is in the first areas boss as "Scourge of the Furies" is a pretty killer boss theme and later on "The Bloodless" also particularly stuck out to me as great, which isn't really a surprise given one thing Supergiant Games has always done well is having killer soundtracks. Who knew lutes and banjos would mix so well with greek rocking? I'll also use this section to give a shout out to the voice actors who really bring the characters to life. From Ares' soft spoken and mild mannered sadism to Achilles' world weariness and Megaera's husky tones. Visually, the game has very lush background art, exceedingly detailed models (to the point where some of the detail can only be seen by zooming in), distinctive character designs and some striking visual effects on things like attacks and item pickups. Even through over 30 attempts it hasn't stopped looking reeeeeally pretty!
For a brief mention of things I found flawed: While the area one bosses get mixed up with time, you never get new bosses for areas two and three. Because of that it can feel a bit more stale at the end. Personally, I wish they had an alternate boss option for those areas for just a little mixing up. While I didn't have a problem with it, clearing the story DOES require multiple runs and that won't be something everyone enjoys. And while I haven't gotten that far, from what I know some of the post-end game dumps for resources are kind of ridiculous. And, yeah, that's about all I've got for issues!
In short: Hades is the kind of game where I recommend playing it and giving it a try even if you aren't a traditional fan of its genre. It blends story with roguelike gameplay in a rather unique manner, the action gameplay itself is incredibly fun and addictive, it has all the bells and whistles of great graphics and music, and I'd say there's little in the way of large flaws.
From top to bottom, Hades is an excellent game. It gets you right into the action with the plot and gameplay as Zagreus, half-human son of Hades, seeking to escape the Underworld for reasons unknown. One thing I appreciate about this game is how it treats the player as intelligent, as it uses smart and strong conversation pieces to establish relationships and dynamics easily in a story you're essentially dropped in the middle of. It only takes 1 or 2 interactions to get a basic understanding of any character while at the same time having pleasurable depth to explore. The game hits the ground running.
Gameplay is crisp and responsive, playing similar to Transistor as an isometric action game but much more smoothly and refined. Dash mechanics have particularly been removed, making the cooldown between dashes feel smoother and reducing the "hitch" it felt like Transistor's dash had. There is a ton of variation for all kinds of playstyles to be represented thanks to not only the greek god's boons but also a multitude of varied weapons with different playstyles, special equippable trinkets to modify what you do, a simple talent tree and other systems which layer on top of a great feeling combat system to add substantial depth to it all. Slashing through hordes of enemies with the blade while timing dashes, your special and your cast is exhilarating and tense.
The rewards of the rooms offer interesting gameplay choices in a variety of ways. There were times I did a run or two without even planning to try to make it out, but instead prioritized nectar rooms for NPC advancement, gemstones for unlockables and so on. Risk-reward management is emphasized and smartly woven into the gameplay. You'll never be screwed over just for making a choice, but you will have to deal with trade-offs and consider situationals. The decision making aspect is also important for the early rooms, as once you advance in skill level they will provide much less threat. Having reasons to approach ordering differently or to consider trade-offs therefor helps keep these interesting even as you get stronger while not being overwhelming to newcomers. It all comes together into an addictive package that I found myself returning to repeatedly even when I booted up my Switch with the intent to play other games.
Layered on top of the top notch gameplay is a strong story, which unfolds over multiple attempts and victories. One way this game feeds into its addictive gameplay loop is by granting you bits of story or character progress with each run: Even if you're not making headway gameplay-wise you'll be making headway into the overall narrative or into getting to explore the characters more. The story itself is pretty nice and feels a lot like one might expect the image of a "greek mythology" story to feel like, it is certainly no coincidence that Sisyphus is an NPC here, which is obviously fitting with the setting. Combine it with top notch character design (all of the gods are some GREAT interpretations!) and snappy dialogue that is pretty much entirely voiced (and this game has a LOT of dialogue, so it is impressive!) and you get a real winner.
My favorite character is probably Achilles. His gentle, weary voice really fits the characterization of a dead warrior looking back at what he's done with a different perspective and you get into his head quite a bit because he is the author of the game's bestiary and glossary which gives more insight. I won't go more into spoilers, but you eventually get to interact with him in more intricate ways as well. Characters can range from the more comedic, like Skelly, to much more straight edge series like Thanatos and helps keep the interactions feeling fresh. But the game keeps a consistent tone thanks to filtering through Zagreus' view and the lovely narrator keeping his drolling voice going. It is all very well done.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the game's graphics and ESPECIALLY its soundtrack! This game has some really good music all around, first time I really noticed is in the first areas boss as "Scourge of the Furies" is a pretty killer boss theme and later on "The Bloodless" also particularly stuck out to me as great, which isn't really a surprise given one thing Supergiant Games has always done well is having killer soundtracks. Who knew lutes and banjos would mix so well with greek rocking? I'll also use this section to give a shout out to the voice actors who really bring the characters to life. From Ares' soft spoken and mild mannered sadism to Achilles' world weariness and Megaera's husky tones. Visually, the game has very lush background art, exceedingly detailed models (to the point where some of the detail can only be seen by zooming in), distinctive character designs and some striking visual effects on things like attacks and item pickups. Even through over 30 attempts it hasn't stopped looking reeeeeally pretty!
For a brief mention of things I found flawed: While the area one bosses get mixed up with time, you never get new bosses for areas two and three. Because of that it can feel a bit more stale at the end. Personally, I wish they had an alternate boss option for those areas for just a little mixing up. While I didn't have a problem with it, clearing the story DOES require multiple runs and that won't be something everyone enjoys. And while I haven't gotten that far, from what I know some of the post-end game dumps for resources are kind of ridiculous. And, yeah, that's about all I've got for issues!
In short: Hades is the kind of game where I recommend playing it and giving it a try even if you aren't a traditional fan of its genre. It blends story with roguelike gameplay in a rather unique manner, the action gameplay itself is incredibly fun and addictive, it has all the bells and whistles of great graphics and music, and I'd say there's little in the way of large flaws.