This game made me realize a few things.

1. I am a massive pussy
2. I am a dumbass
3. I am a simp

Overall good game

A delightful experience even taking account the glaring issues it has.

If you dislike games with random encounters and confusing methods of progression, I really suggest not playing this. If you are, however, a complete fool like me and enjoy obscure yet charming RPGs, I do recommend giving this a chance.

What you can expect from this game is well-crafted environmental design, fun worldbuilding, charming characters, a phenomenal soundtrack composed by Basiscape, and overall just a feel-good time as you play as a round, orange boy striving to make the world a better place.

It's not a groundbreaking game by any means, but it's certainly one that was put together with a lot of love, and that makes it so hard to hate.

(BTW, if you do give this game a shot, I strongly suggest using the fan retranslation patch that conveniently came out this year. The original localization is really halfhearted and instances of syntax errors and grammatical issues are present in the FIRST area of the game.)

GOTY 2019 - NUMBER THREE
Video version

Resident Evil is one of most confusing brands out there. I mean, fucking, what is it? The big brass-balled action games of the 2000s? The slow, rigid processes of micromanagement and backtracking of the 90s games? The fucking rubbish films? What is it?

Capcom have been attempting to answer this question after reeling back from the messy, obnoxious (mildly underrated) Resi 6 threatened to lose every bit of goodwill players had for the series. There’s been mixed success in the Revelations games and 7, but nothing that really nailed what made Resident Evil so memorable, charming and vital. With this in mind, it makes so much sense to summarise the best qualities of the full series in a Resi 2 remake.

Like the series in general, Resi 2 is often mischaracterised by many. It’s uncontroversial to say that it’s the Judgment Day or Aliens to Resi 1’s The Teminator or Alien. These days, a lot gets made out of the fact that it was directed by action game superstar, Hideki Kamiya. But there’s far more Resi 1 and Mikami to it than those things suggest. It’s very much a game of managing your inventory, planning the most viable routes through large buildings, and enjoying hammy dialogue being laughably read by characters who feel far too wholesome to be blasting deformed nightmare creatures with acid rounds. Resi 2 is Resi 1 in a frayed leather jacket.

It has a little more edge and intrigue to it. There’s more players in the story. The sight of a city overrun with zombies feels far less controlled than some lone mansion out in the wilderness. The monster designs are wilder, and the progression of William Burkin’s mutation from a scientist in a lab coat to a shapeless mass of bleeding eyes and teeth consumed my 12 year-old imagination far more than The Tyrant ever did.

Resi 2 is a perfect middle ground between what Resident Evil was, and what it became (before it became terrible). If you’re revisiting its characters, settings, story and structure, you can pull material from all over the series without taking away from it.

The crux of my pessimism for the future of Resident Evil was always pinned on how Capcom started pishing out all their key talent when they closed Clover and started outsourcing. They lost everyone who understood what made the games work, and focused solely on what made them marketable. Now, it seems they’ve figured out how to foster their new creative talent, and identify how the designers of their old hits were thinking. Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man and, now, Resident Evil, are all exciting, daring franchises again, and they all reflect what made them big names in the first place.

The Resi 2 remake borrows a lot from 4 and the action games that followed it, and crucially, the big takeaway from 7 seems to be that exploration, richly decorated rooms and inventory management were central to what made the survival horror games work well, but there’s also a healthy dose of classic Resi shit in this. Lavishly decorated foyers and libraries, ludicrously specific puzzle pieces, and chatty idiot heroes that I absolutely adore. My mind was made up that this was proper Resi when Leon and Claire shared a sweet, breezy conversation, entirely aware of the undead that were falling through the foliage that surrounded them.

They haven’t forgotten that weird, corny charm that makes me want to cuddle up with Resident Evil, but they haven’t forgotten the dread and regret either. In fact, that’s possibly the richest it’s ever been. You’re constantly pushed into scenarios where careful planning and skillful gameplay could cut out up to two thirds of the dangers around you, but you’re always going to have to deal with that last third. And then there’s unpredictable nature of Mr X to factor in to it all. It’s beautifully balanced. You’re handed situations that make you feel so clever and capable, and then something bursts in that turns you into a panicking idiot in an instant. So much of what I love about game design is in Resident Evil, but so many of the games have lost sight of it. It’s in full focus in here.

There’s also a lot learned from the Resi 1 remake, even if it feels completely different when applied to this game. The self-defense items are back, rounding out the combat and inviting you to attempt to recover knives from the things that slipped you up. More crucial than that is how it taught the team how to make an effective horror remake. It knows where to shift things around, which iconic environments and moments to bring back, and how to keep both new and old audiences on edge. I’d worried that you could only do an effective Resident Evil remake once, but the Resi 2 Remake shows me that it just takes a little finesse and careful consideration to play around with the familiar in a compelling way.

Let’s talk about what’s unique to it though. The gunplay is really excellent. The misguided demands for the series to adopt more contemporary controls has been a massive factor in what took away from the weight and satisfaction of more recent entries. You can move in all directions while aiming in this game, but your shots will be more effective if you stand still for a second and line-up your aim. Monsters move much less consistently here. Zombies feel like piles of rotting flesh and organs struggling to hold together, approaching you on instinct alone. Their heads are never at a constant height. You can’t aim in one spot and wait for them to line up with it. You have to react dynamically to their movement, and thanks to the cramped corridors, you rarely feel like you’re given enough space to feel comfortable that you’re going to get the most out of a shot. You’re scrambling, and firing shots out of panic. You’re making more of those crucial, exciting regrets.

I don’t want to give the remake too easy a time. There’s elements of it that feel a little fluffy and uneven. I’m devastated that the alligator fight is now a fucking rubbish Crash Bandicoot-style chase sequence, and it only illustrates how well Resi 4 adopted QTE sequences for dynamic action setpieces that its core gameplay couldn’t capture. It’s all to be expected when making such a radically different adaptation that still leans so hard on memorable locations and moments though.

The RCPD station is now one continuous environment. There’s no loading sequences between rooms. Everything feels far more physical and connected, and with monsters now having the ability to follow you between rooms, you’re robbed of the relief you once felt from escaping a dangerous corridor. It’s risky to change the dynamics of comfort in an established Resi game, but it really complements the scrambling feel of the new controls and gameplay. It feels like the right approach. This is what a 2019 Resident Evil game fucking should be, and I’m elated that they’ve got it so right.

first off - doesn't this just look incredible? the previous title, Marble Blast Gold (or Marble Blaster) had this pretty fun and amateurish-looking art style with super saturated colors and complete ignorance as to what colors go together well. i do like that look, but Ultra looks soooooo stylish! still blocky, but the square-ish shapes look sharp as hell against the marble's sole roundness.

the ever-present sky is so heavenly. If you look downward, you will see only clouds. upwards, a clear sky looks back. the colors change with each set of levels, but they're all wrapped in what looks like some rulers. some move and rotate around, and some don't. this, together with the single trance song that plays throughout the whole thing, makes this game look completely immaculate. some professional and genuine Y2K visuals here.

when playing through the 60 main levels, you can bounce around like crazy and ignore most of the more traditional level designs. but it doesn't even feel like cheating or anything, it's just an alternate playstyle. it works in layers: you can beat each level with different kinds of experimentation depending on what you're comfortable with. i personally enjoy doing crazy stuff more in the collection levels where, even with only a slight daredevil mentality, you can get minutes ahead of the par time. doing it in the platforming-focused marathons makes me super anxious. but maybe you'd have fun doing that in those!

these physics are so impressive. they're completely merciless. you can bork even the simplest jump by accident depending on the floor shape or even the marble's rotation angle at the time of impact. you can also use corners to bounce miles off where the game thinks you're supposed to go and turn it into a genuine strategy. try bunnyhopping. it's hard to stop the marble once it gets going, but the game begs you to test the limits of where you can push the physics.

many levels even play around with gravity. those collectathon levels i mentioned really love playing with those pickups that make you change gravity so you can walk on ceilings (or just floors made for inverted gravity) and get those gems. as soon as you start one of these, try looking around: the level looks incomprehensible. you just gotta make it make sense :>

I played this game as a kid and I remember enjoying it and this is the first time I've played it in probably 12 years.

This game probably has the single best story in any mario game ever, it's unironically a very touching love story with a lot to say. The individual stories in each of the levels are also very unique and interesting. Like the neckbeard nerd level and the one where Mario DIES AND GOES TO ACTUAL HELL.

The gameplay is honestly nothing that crazy, just a basic 2D platformer with some light RPG mechanics. Like leveling up, using items, switching party members and whatnot. There's also an interesting flipping mechanic which let's you explore the levels in 3D. I enjoyed that mechanic overall and thought it was used in some interesting ways throughout the game. The gameplay isn't that innovative or anything but I thought it was fun enough.

One of my favorite aspects of the game was exploring the hub world, Flipside, and it's counterpart Flopside. They have to much to explore and it's really satisfying to see it open up whenever you get new abilities.

The characters in this game are also really unique and memorable. Obviously all of the villains are awesome and have really cool designs for a mario game. All of the characters kind of have abstract designs which is interesting for a mario game and gives it its own visual identity from the rest of the series. This game kinda looks like a computer, with the mouse cousor selecting your character when you flip and what not, I dunno I like that stuff.

I ended up liking this game so much that I pretty much 100%ed it. Went out of my way to do all of the side content, all of the treasure maps, all of the optional Pixls, doing both of the pits. I actually did the Flopside pit as early as possible so I played through like half the game with double damage and infinite flip meter lmao.

One of the worst parts of this game is that back tracking through levels you've already played is annoying, BUT it's all optional so you can skip all of that if you want. The limited 3D meter is also annoying and completely unnecessary. There are some puzzles that are completely retarded too like the block puzzle in Chapter 5.
Having to beat the Flopside pit TWICE is stupid but it's also really funny so I give it a pass.

I thought this games soundtrack was a lot better than TTYD's soundtrack too. A lot more memorable tunes.

I dunno I just absolutely loved this game and it's probably the peak of Paper Mario, ITS ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE LOL.

A few years ago I made a very funny joke review, and while I still think it's incredibly funny I also think it's important to get my actual thoughts on DMC2 on record. Game sucks. It's a miracle this game got released at all, and for the amount of time they had to make it it's astonishing that there is a beginning, middle and end. But it all sucks to play.

What IS amusing is the amount of reviews by people who really want to be contrarians, but come face-to-face with some true, unfiltered slop. This is when domesticated dogs meet wolves and realize they aren't built for this. This review page might as well have a "TURN BACK, NO SURVIVORS" for anyone who is bold enough to try and play DMC2 and have fun. It's not built for fun, it's not even built for hate, it's built for nothing.

The Devil May Cry games, and arguably action games as a whole, wouldn't be what they are today without DMC2. Everyone knows it's bad, but I think there's an unfortunate tendency to gloss over what an important piece of action game history it is. Few games are as absolutely brimming with legitimately really good and innovative ideas as DMC2 is, it's just that it didn't have anywhere near the development time it needed to realise them. Because of this, I think it's much more interesting to look at DMC2 in terms of what it did well & why it's ultimately much more influential than one would initially assume.

So, what did DMC2 bring to the table? Among other things, we've got:
- Instant weapon switching (albeit only for guns, but a paradigm-shifting precedent regardless).
- Prototypes of what would later become Styles; dodging & wallrunning were refined into Trickster, the air combo into Swordmaster, Rainstorm and Twosome Time into Gunslinger, etc.
- Bloody Palace, which pretty much every 3D action game worth its salt has a loose equivalent of.
- Majin Devil Trigger, which eventually led to Sin Devil Trigger (i.e. the coolest thing ever) in DMC5.
- A level select menu, which is probably taken for granted now.
- Multiple playable characters, which became enough of a series staple that it's effectively the main selling point of DMC3, 4 and 5's Special Editions.
- Customisation of your equipment in the form of amulets, which carried over into DMC3 and was eventually taken to an unparalleled extreme in DMC5.

Make no mistake: DMC2 is atrocious. But if not for its existence, both the DMC series itself & action games in general would be unrecognisable. For that reason, I think DMC2 is worth experiencing for yourself, even if you understandably don't finish it. You probably won't enjoy it, but you will inevitably gain a greater appreciation for why the games that came after this are as good as they are. Hideaki Itsuno and the rest of the developers under him probably deserve more credit for salvaging and expanding upon virtually every ounce of potential that this game had.

Now, I wasn't originally planning on giving this one a shot because I thought it was gonna be more generic wii mario, but I immediately picked it up when I saw that hilarious xbox brain poisoned tweet that went like:

THEY WANT YOU TO BELIEVE THIS
mario jumping around getting coins yahoo
IS BETTER THAN THIS
guy just walking in starfield doing fucking nothing

DONT WATCH THE GAME AWARDS!