The game i think of above all others when i think of game boy advance, an exhilarating and unexpected follow-up to Super, replaying it now i’m struck by how much more dread this game conjures than, uh, “Dread”. I remembered this one being rather linear and siloed but was happy to encounter a number of twists and interconnections between areas as you get locked off of the normal path by the SA-X, perhaps as many interconnections as in any other Metroid?? “Dread” was a bit of the opposite experience in that it appears far more open but for the majority of the game blocks off the wrong path to avoid you getting lost, which was a bit of a bummer for me. Both great games, man this series is an all-timer.

Horrendously fun, an odd and entrancing mix of tones that somehow works by leaning into its own eccentricities. Largely more thrilling than scary, apart from one particular bit that scared me more than any other single moment in Resident Evil history and gnawed at some particularly adult anxieties I’ve been wrestling with lately… The focus on sprawling gunplay and more out-there antagonists is super fun but is less of a cohesive revelatory experience than VII, so VII is still my golden boi, but damn I had a lot of fun with this one. Probably my GOTY.

Has that feeling a lot of my favorite games have of being a game-mechanical nut you don’t quite know how to crack, and the early frustration of that gives way to an immense satisfaction when you do crack it, sorting out that no, there is not enough ammo to kill most of the enemies, that doing so might just make your life harder if those enemies resurrect in more ghastly forms, that your character can see and aim properly even if you can’t due to the preset camera angles with pre-rendered backgrounds, etc.

There’s a fiddliness and patience required to come to terms with the design that adds to the anxious fear. I understand why games as a medium have moved away from requiring that level of patience (what busy adult has the time anymore and how many more busy adults are the target market of games now than they were back then?) but when that sort of design hits, it’s really special.

Also, the pre-rendered backgrounds melded with character/enemy models that the full rendering force of the Gamecube can be thrown at still accomplishes a shockingly effective, grimy vibe of dread, I think it’s a gorgeous game in that way, at least when sort of blurred together into cohesion by the phosphors of an old crt tv. God, I’m an old-man gamer hipster now, aren’t I? But what are ya gonna do?

I am totally drawn in, won over and charmed by the world of the ace attorney games, I’ve loved every one even if the last one I played (Dual Destinies) was missing some of the crackling dialogue and cohesive world-building of the previous entries.

This one was a delightful return to form, though, and doing a period piece ace attorney was a great way to inject some novelty into the theming, characters, and casework. It’s biggest strength and weakness is the pretty slow-building way the rapport between the characters and the protagonist’s place in society grows throughout the game, it’s great and earnest and touching by the end because of that slow build but it makes it harder to crack into than the earlier trilogy. But that makes me really excited for the sequel now that our fish-out-of-water lead is more established, especially with the tantalizing loose ends this one dangles at the player at the end.

Also SPOILER WARNING??? as lovingly done as the hd remaster is I really wish I could have played this on the 3ds for nostalgia’s sake and also because the investigation phases have diorama style backgrounds (like Holme’s residence) clearly designed to pop in 3d as you look around, and especially because the last case really explicitly dofs its hat to the 3ds’ unique functionality in a way they seem to do a clever job working around in 2d but still… would’ve been cool to feel the original design’s platform synergy in that case.

Weirdly it reminded me most of Mario 3D World with its constantly inventive ideas thrown out for the next one every 15 minutes in a way that felt pretty fresh and frenetic and sugar-rushy. And there’s lots of good truly co-operative interplay between characters given asymmetric abilities, which I really dig. The art/animation is knowingly ridiculous in a way that’s often pretty fun to look at, while the story is laughably bad in its misguided earnestness. 🤣 But there’s something B-movie enjoyable about that, too, maybe. 🤷‍♀️