MANGOM1LK
Surprisingly competent port of a classic. This was also our first exposure to the prototype version's music... I will never be able to forgive those transcription errors, holy crap.
2007
Maybe I'm being a little too generous here (I grew up with this game), but this is an incredibly fun time. If you like platformers and you're ready for a touching story and fun worlds, this is a good one to go for. I know it's something of a black sheep among the Paper Mario series but that doesn't make it bad.
1995
I have beaten this before with rewinds. Have yet to beat the final boss on real hardware but everything else is done.
This game is honestly a treat. A lot of the other titles fail to provide incentive to experiment with weakness order and the like, but on my real-hardware run I decided to do Freeze Man first and Turbo Man after the halfway point, both of these open up alternate paths in the other stages. Great music, solid spritework, fun gameplay. It's Megaman, baby.
This game is honestly a treat. A lot of the other titles fail to provide incentive to experiment with weakness order and the like, but on my real-hardware run I decided to do Freeze Man first and Turbo Man after the halfway point, both of these open up alternate paths in the other stages. Great music, solid spritework, fun gameplay. It's Megaman, baby.
The best version of Sonic 3, no questions asked. Filled with tiny little enhancements and toggles, and the mod support allows for even more things to be brought in. Has the definitive version of the prototype soundtrack as well as the original Mega Drive version thereof. Sonic 3 is incredible and this simply elevates it to perfection.
1992
Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive still holds up remarkably well, but the 2013 remake is very important to updating the experience and the lack of those enhancements makes certain elements trying to deal with. Namely, the lack of a save feature, the awful special stage draw distance and framerate, and the screen crunch (inevitable for a game this fast) serve to kneecap the fun. If you can get the 2013 version, that's probably best.
Lots to say on this one. Without getting too in-depth, this is unfortunately mostly a downgrade over the NES/Famicom originals due to delayed controls and an objectively worse buster. I will be returning to this for a big video review at some point, but not now.
I find this one difficult to recommend because it still has a lot of the same problems as Color Splash and Sticker Star, apparently. They're just hidden better here. One thing I will praise is the aesthetics. The art style is gorgeous, and the music slaps. However, the story can end up sort of one-note at times, and it feels like there were a lot of creative limitations at play with this one. Plus, the battle system is needlessly unfocused. This game is like those previous titles in that it's warring with its own identity; it's not really an RPG, but it's not really an adventure game either.
2008
PLEASE play this on an Xbox Series system if you want good performance. Most other platforms this version saw release on have awful performance, and it ruins the experience completely.
So, this is something of a controversial title. Personally I really really enjoy it, but I also enjoy the Werehog and would never again touch the first-time experience with a ten-foot pole (if you haven't played this before and you have a good PC and access to Xenia, I will go ahead and plug my own damn mod to pave over these problems: https://gamebanana.com/mods/352055)
So, this is something of a controversial title. Personally I really really enjoy it, but I also enjoy the Werehog and would never again touch the first-time experience with a ten-foot pole (if you haven't played this before and you have a good PC and access to Xenia, I will go ahead and plug my own damn mod to pave over these problems: https://gamebanana.com/mods/352055)
1991
I've technically beaten this before but it was with rewinds and I barely remember it. Need to play through again
2013
Peeling back the enhancements here reveals this is still Sonic 1. This game is a lot more platforming-focused than subsequent titles which does make a lot of sense, but unfortunately that also means it loses some Sonic appeal for folks who are already fans of the series. Not bad by any means, but not always my cup of tea, either. Still, the spindash and widescreen alone make this a preferred way to play the game. Though, right now the best version is the multiplatform decompilation by RubberDuckyCooly, since Sega have replaced the Google Play Store version of this game with a free one with ads and bugs that didn't originally exist, Origins being potentially worse in terms of bugs (haven't played it yet).
1990
They shipped an unfinished game. Who is this, Sega?
Funni aside this game is very important and is usually fun but the doc robot stages kind of kill it for me, and the wily stages are very clearly not finished.
Funni aside this game is very important and is usually fun but the doc robot stages kind of kill it for me, and the wily stages are very clearly not finished.
I remember enjoying my time with this one pretty well when I played it in 2017, but I think I need to do another playthrough before giving it a proper ranking. Still, it's well-loved for a reason.
2005
A lot better than people generally give it credit for, and the story has the perfect narmy charm to it. Definitely give this one a shot. (on Gamecube or Xbox, the PS2 version has kinda crappy performance)
1989
(Refraining from posting a full review until I beat this without rewinds)
(i played on a 3DS actually :p)
collected all star coins (besides one in the final castle i am currently still missing)
this game is very charming and i think a good deal of that was lost in the sequels. namely the soundtrack - most of the music was not reused (and the tracks which were sort of got butchered). overall i think this game is very solid, with excellent level design. it sort of falls down in the controls though, which was to be expected being built off of sm64ds, a fully 3d game. i'd say SMW still controls much better than this game does. also it really shits the bed here whenever there's a star coin that requires the Mini Mushroom - often it's not provided in the level, so you need to backtrack to 1-4 and finish it every time you die. that's my biggest complaint with the game though. it's very fun and very tightly designed. if i had to rank this with the classics i'd put it below smb3 and smw for the controls, but above all prior games.
collected all star coins (besides one in the final castle i am currently still missing)
this game is very charming and i think a good deal of that was lost in the sequels. namely the soundtrack - most of the music was not reused (and the tracks which were sort of got butchered). overall i think this game is very solid, with excellent level design. it sort of falls down in the controls though, which was to be expected being built off of sm64ds, a fully 3d game. i'd say SMW still controls much better than this game does. also it really shits the bed here whenever there's a star coin that requires the Mini Mushroom - often it's not provided in the level, so you need to backtrack to 1-4 and finish it every time you die. that's my biggest complaint with the game though. it's very fun and very tightly designed. if i had to rank this with the classics i'd put it below smb3 and smw for the controls, but above all prior games.