After 40 years of innovations and improvements to the genre, THIS is how you decide to remake this game??? WHAT A FUCKING JOKE. I despise how the Steam page likes to pretend that there was no other way the gameplay could've been improved, and that AI is the ONLY way, as if to completely disregard the Famicom port. I'm not gonna pretend I even can compare this game to the original PC version, but Jesus Christ I can't see how AI improves the gameplay at all. The game can only recognize keywords when presented in the most dry and direct way anyway, so I eventually started typing my commands as if they were pre-determined phrases. You know, like the Famicom version. And only then did the game actually give me results. But even then the amount of times Yasu has no idea what you're saying or misinterprets what your saying is so frequent that I legitimately wanna commit my own Portopia Serial Murders.
Square Enix can fuck all the way off if they think this is an acceptable way to preserve video game history. Honestly, I'd rather play Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir. That's a game I hate on a personal level, but at least there was an attempt to present that game in a modern way that didn't completely shit on video game history.

I originally played this game a few years ago, and completely fell in love with it, claiming it to be an untouchable masterpiece of a game. In recent times, after getting my hands on a legit physical copy, and playing it again, while I don't hold it in as high of a regard as I did before, it's still a remarkable work of art to me. I actually now plan to fully cover this game in a future YouTube video, so I'm not gonna get into details now, but I'll give a quick run down of my thoughts here.

The characters are amazing. Kyle Hyde is probably my pick for the most interesting Nintendo protagonist. And while the rest of the cast has their ups and downs, they all feel real and human on a seemingly impossible level.

The art direction is literally perfect. The rotoscoped character portraits in this sketchy style is a visual treat in itself, but paired with the limited animation in their expressions, it emphasizes and enriches every single detail in their movements. This next part might be DS nostalgia talking, but the environments with their paint-like texture and the simple 3D models make the hotel feel so cozy. Like I can get a feeling from every corner of this building. The music is pretty damn good too. There aren't too many tracks that stand out, but there isn't a single bad song. They all definitely add to the atmosphere.

It's surprising to me that this also works remarkably well as a game, too. Getting to know the people around you being the puzzles themselves just fits so well, and most other puzzles centered around the environments, exploration, and even some great uses of DS gimmicks are great... until you get to the final room of the game where unless you find some random ass item that you can't go back to get and I still don't know the location of, and you don't already know what the Caesar Cipher is (thanks James Patterson), then you're just supposed to bash your head against that fucking computer at least 29 times until you can finally beat the game. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?? Also, that bowling minigame sucks.

But whatever. I can mostly excuse it when the rest of the game is this amazing. And I can't wait until... at least by the end of 2024 when I can fully talk about everything that makes this game special to me.

BREAKING NEWS: Huge BokuNatsu fan excited to play it for the 1st time

Ok to be honest, I don't think I could possibly express the sheer beauty of this game with words. That may seem like a cheap cop-out to avoid using more than 2 brain cells to write, but I truly mean it. No matter what I say here, I can't fully express what it's like to sit by the ocean with your fishing rod. I can't fully express the way the sunset shines through the trees while running through the forest, or just sitting on the bench on that path. I can't express how exhilarating it was to train my little stag to eventually sweep the floor with whatever bullshit level 3 bug on steroids Shigeru pulls out of his ass. I can't express the way I feel when walking in on even the simplest of conversations between any of the characters in this little oceanside town.

This game had me completely engaged and enthralled throughout the last 2 weeks. After a long day of toiling away through projects and work, I'd sit down and play through a few in-game days. As I went to bed and went throughout my day, it would be in the back of my mind. I cared immensely about the things I wanted to see and do, and the possibilities for what secrets this game could hold, and now that it's all over, all I can do is sit here and think about the countless ways it exceeded my expectations.

Please play this game. I cannot recommend it enough.

From a time where platformers reigned supreme, the level of quality found in Sonic 3 alone surpasses almost everything from back then. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is somehow one of the best 2D platformers I have ever played. The levels are these massive open playgrounds to explore, and yet the level design and control makes it so there's never down time, or a dull moment. It's ALL fast. It ALWAYS beckons for you to enhance your skill. It's amazing just how nonstop fun this game manages to be. Even the special stages are great!
The themes are all so diverse, and the visuals to represent them are perfect. Seeing the evolution of implementation of prerendered 3D graphics is almost as impressive as seeing the level design evolve. And the OST is GODLIKE. Hydrocity? Ice Cap?? Flying Battery??? OMG IT'S ALL SO GOOD!!!
The game is even able to implement story and world building in a great way. If anything it only enhances the experience and doesn't get in the way at all. Like if this were released today, I'm sure there'd be some stupid quippy dialogue between Sonic and Knuckles at the beginning of the game. But as the opening is here, it's perfect! Knuckles just knocks Sonic out of the air and steals all the emeralds. It's like the game is saying "what more context do you need?? Just go play the game already!"
In fact, that's what I should've just said here. Why are you wasting your time reading a review on Sonic 3? Just go play it! It's one of the best games of the 16 bit era, and is sure to not disappoint. Hell, I'm itching to get back in the game myself and replay it all over again lol

Yeah this game's just kinda okay. It's interesting to see the ways Shimomura tried to make his Kirby games different from Sakurai's, but all the ideas in this game are much more refined in 3, and probably 64 as well, but I can't comment on that since I haven't played 64 yet. But yeah as interesting as the animal buddies are, it often feels like the levels are designed to favor one of them, and be hell for the rest. I also really don't like how the animals have themes, because you're basically stuck hearing the same 3 songs over and over again. It's because of both of these reasons that Rick sucks. I never wanna use him unless I need him for a rainbow drop. And speaking of rainbow drops, the fact you don't know which level they're hiding in, along with the fact there are a lot of levels that don't give you the correct copy and animal combo to actually find them makes this game a bitch to 100%. It doesn't help that some of the puzzles to get them suck ass.

Let me start by saying G-Mode is doing God's work. They are a blessing to game preservation that we don't deserve. The fact they've brought back so many lost phone games from the Ryunosuke Kibukawa series to the massive back catalogue of Megaten games, and are having a legitimate effect on current/future releases like giving Takanari Ishiyama's career enough recognition for him to direct Paranormasight, and funding a full remake of Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin to have english support, it's the kind of positive effect on the industry every single publisher should strive to behold...

With that said I found Aigis: The 1st Mission to be really boring. Way too many mandatory tutorials, way too much going through the same areas back and forth really slowly, and the amount of lengthy dialogue doesn't seem fit for a phone game. Maybe I need to wait for an English patch, or I should try out the Switch version to have that actual portable experience, but as it is now, I'm just not really in the mood for a game like this. But I don't want to deter anyone else who wants to try the game though, I still think it's worth checking out as a part of P3, and an interesting bit of gaming history, but keep your expectations low, especially since I'm pretty sure there's some messed up visual effects that I hope is patched later.

I really wanted to be the kind of asshole that'd rate this higher than P3R but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Oh well...

I really had a game that takes like, 5 hours to beat on my shelf for 2 years lol.
Anyway, Trace Memory/Another Code is the definition of cozy. The environments and music just has this unmistakable vibe to them so that even though it's such a short game, I really don't mind taking my time with the puzzles, which thankfully are never too obtuse or complicated, yet take advantage of the DS's capabilities... for better and for worse. There's definitely too much microphone related bullshit for my liking.
It's no FDC2 or anything, and it seems CiNG's own works would only get better after this, but it's definitely an enjoyable time. Here's to hoping the remake can recapture the magic