I don't care this is a Smash clone (even though I think what it did was interesting). I don't care that it features DiNO instead of Dante (well, I WAS a little salty about that back then, but I digress). I don't care that it didn't live up to its potential (though, I lament the fact Dart and Abe were cut, along with the titlescreen overhaul, and that Spyro and Crash were never brought in).

This game, despite some flaws, was very much a dream come true. I loved Smash back when I played it at a friend's place (original, Melee, and a little bit of Brawl), and I had always wished for Sony to do the equivalent. I knew they had a great deal of exclusive titles and IPs at the time, and was the only console that could come remotely close to competing with Nintendo's absolutely mammoth roster at the time (I love you Xbox, but I can count your significant exclusives on one hand by 7th gen).

While the roster was much weaker than any of the more modern installments of Smash, it had quite the very interesting cast to pick from, all with contrasting artstyles and playstyles that help give the game quite the differing flavor during matches. I've yet to see a platform fighter utilize characters from FPS/TPS titles (like Killzone, Bioshock, or Dead Space), along side action brawlers like Cole, Kratos, Heihachi. There are just some fun combinations you can get.

What emphasized the topsy-turvy nature were the stage mashups, which I thought were quite interesting and dynamic in of themselves, even without the stage hazards (which can be turned on and off). Even more so when the stage itself slowly evolves over the course of the match from one design to the other, with certain exceptions.

The light character customization in the game was also a neat little bonus, changing colors/costumes, intros, outros, win/lose music, and even taunts, making the characters you play feel that much more unique to you.

Now, again, the game is far from perfect, with some characters being quite overpowered compared to others, the knock-out system being a bit limited, and the roster not reaching the potential it could have. I really do get that. However, I just can't help it. The fact that this game exists at all at the tail end of the PS3 lifecycle was kind of a miracle in of itself.

I don't play it NEARLY as much as I used to back in the day, and the online servers have been shut down for some time now, but once in a while I have a small craving to pop the game in, mess about in Vs. modes with my main (Sir Dan), and putz about in Arcade mode once in a while.

It was a fun, albeit flawed, festival of fighting with a small portion of Playstation's history.

Though, as novel as it is, the final boss in the arcade mode IS kind of crap...

a well-meaning but ultimately underwhelming attempt at giving sony a super smash brothers equivalent. Unlike a lot of other criticisms towards the game, I think that the roster isn't exactly the worst. Yeah, theres no crash, spyro, solid snake, or cloud, but they got a lot of other interesting games represented by both characters and stages, which is honestly really cool in the same way getting an unknown thing in smash is. You get to learn a lil bit more about sonys various IPs that you might not have otherwise known, I guess. Gameplaywise though this is definitely not smash brothers. You can only score points and defeat players by using super moves which makes most of the actual fighting kinda feel like irrelevant filler...? The game also lacks the special level of polish and attention to detail that nintendo puts in smash as well, which just makes the overall experience underwhelming. However, I'd still say this is worth at least a curious play, since especially with modern sony being the party poopers that hate fun with the playstations legacy of IPs, we ain't seeing most of the first-party characters in this game ever comin back. It's kinda like nintendo land in like getting that last little table scrap of content for neglected IPs that I enjoy. I'm glad this game came out when it did because if they did this concept again now it'd have the most uninspired roster known to man, mark my words.

I was so thirsty after the Ratchet & Clank PS5 announcement that I decided to finally check out the one game in the series I'd never played before: the side-scroller made for Java-based flip phones in 2005. I even sought out and played through the completely different, barely-functional Series 40 version as well (though I did not 100% complete that one, as it takes playing through half the game to level up a single weapon one time).

The main Series 60 iteration of the game is surprisingly solid, provided you find the 1.0.10 version that actually runs at a decent frame rate without hitches. The controls, if you try to play it on an Android-based emulator (or, I assume, an actual 2005-era phone), are godawful, but if you use a PC-based one and plug in a gamepad, you can create a fairly comfortable control scheme of your own.

Going Mobile isn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but considering that it's a mobile game released two years before the original iPhone, it's a miracle it's any fun at all. The level design and combat aren't particularly good but work well enough within the massive constraints provided by the hardware, and the game features nearly all the series' staples - upgradeable weapons, an arena with different modifiers, rail grinding, both small currency bolts & large collectible ones, and a challenge mode (though more of a straight new game+ with no real differences here). It's incredible how much they packed into less than 300 KB.

There are about five sound effects total and no in-game music, but the game still retains some of the series' charm with its graphics (I actually love the pixel art renditions of Ratchet/Clank and Maximillian) and silly storyline about the characters being trapped inside your cell phone. This is also technically the first entry in the series where you unlock the RYNO by hunting for collectibles instead of grinding money.

While nothing to write home about outside of its status as one of the few genuinely playable pre-smartphone mobile games, it's hard not to be impressed by what Handheld accomplished here as a huge fan of the main series. If they'd been assigned to develop this for the PSP instead, I think they could've made something really special and we'd still be seeing 2D R&C spin-offs to this day.

It's the Mario game that most understands the character's status as the ultimate video game icon. The structure is simple and has been repeated since 1985, but the decision to transform Mario's "world to world" visits into a trip around the globe (with a tour guide) is brilliant.

While I was playing Super Mario Odyssey I couldn't stop thinking about how it's a game similar to One Piece (it'll make sense, I promise). Firstly because: it's a lot about recognizing that the strong feelings you have while playing come much more through the journey than through any conclusion that may exist (and One Piece may end someday, but Mario never will).

Secondly, because like the Gear 5 transformation, it's a game almost entirely about the malleability of Mario's body, how he reacts to the environment, and vice versa. One of the best feelings you can have playing Super Mario Odyssey is catching one of the many Moons and thinking "was it supposed to be done like that?". It doesn't matter how you arrived at the goal, it matters how you played with the geometry of the levels and Mario's moveset.

It's bizarre to write so many words about the thematic importance of a Mario game, but the fact is that this game is very concise and rounded in what it wants to discuss about the character. It's a celebratory game about recognizing Mario's place in the global media canon, and in doing so it needs to recognize the most primal aspect of the character: he's an actor, a jack of all trades; He's a plumber, a kart driver, a tennis player, a doctor, he's Mario.

In this game, Mario is Bullet Bill, Goomba, Hammer Bro, Yoshi... Mario is whoever he needs to be when the situation demands his messianic presence. At first glance, the mechanics of transforming the game into 2D (several times) may seem out of place, but it is building precisely towards this point of adaptability of the figure of Mario.

Mario saved video games with Super Mario Bros., of course, but Mario is also Jump Man; his first appearance is not even in his own game, it is in the Donkey Kong franchise. How could THE video game icon, who was born in a franchise that is not his own, not take the freedom to visit any place? to transform into whoever he wants?

Super Mario Odyssey is a manifesto about freedom, it's a game full of expression and charisma in every corner, it's there to remind you to always be or do what you want. The game ending on the Moon is especially symbolic, because if for human beings visiting it was a moment of great evolution and celebration, for Mario it is another Monday. But it's another Monday that he can only have thanks to having grown up and matured with humanity. Mario has already had two games exploring planets, but the Moon's ambition is palpable; after 32 years Mario was finally able to see planet Earth from there. It's time to realize how great his achievements are, how many people he reached over during his journey.

"Thank you, Mario. It's been an honor walking a mile on your head".

this game has a fascinating gameplay loop, either you can't lead the flock and cry as they fail to maneuver anything short of an automated mario maker stage or you're the dipshit in turn who can't construct anything

being of the latter variety this is what the sequence of events in an average playthrough looks like every once in a blue moon

1. involuntarily made shaman

2. proceed to try to link two planks together (they will not link)

3. switch to balloons (they flew away)

4. blast everyone out of the map with cannonballs

5. receive eight unanimous death threats in chat

6. uninstall game

the french still got it

love it to bits but also why is this game so weirdly imposing for what on paper sounds like a super chill concept

one the one hand you have oak with the passive hook that consists of "take some pics of pokemon as they frollick in their natural habitat, help me with my research" which quickly morphs into

"oh but it's on rails hop onto my rickety transportation module of questionable origin and go pelt the little shits with pester balls, they like apples oh ok here HAVE ALL THE APPLES x 100 drown them in the fucking apples I have for you today NOW CENTER THE SHOTS HNGGGGG UNACCEPTABLE DO IT AGAIN BITCH

BLOW UP THE ELECTRODE AND GIVE ME PERFECT SYMMETRY WHEN YOU COMPOSE THE SHOT OF THE BLAST"

and then somewhere along the way we ran out of places to visit so now we're revisiting all the old levels taking photos of optical illusions to then fight mew in a shadow realm with a bubble that's impervious to cameras or some shit but shhhh is ok just bask in the magnificence of the moment

certainly didn't help that I had the german version which only excuberated the terrifying nature of Oak's rants and I later found this was a common mistake for a lot of PAL region residents who had parents that mistakenly bought it for them as kids because it was poorly labeled

as a catch the fruit player any opinion I hold on this game can immediately be discarded

quality fodder for degens who have and will never know the touch of a woman but felt chronic masturbation was not speeding up their nerve damage beyond the rookie numbers they were seeing at the time

all in all the skill ceiling is so high you'll find the only barrier the top ranking players are unable to surmount is the reinforced fencing at their nearest elementary school