this game visually is a true stunning work of art. it goes to show the talent indie developers can have even without having a AAA budget. almost everything about the game looks absolutely incredible and not much about it looks off in anyway.

the gameplay, however, has much left to be desired. its not the most invigorating thing ive ever played but its also not bad. it uses powers creatively in a few puzzles or in some bosses but overall i was pretty underwhelmed by it.

i would say give it a try for the visuals alone, but hey, maybe you would also get a kick out of the gameplay too. who knows?

first pokemon ive ever played in my life

i have a really dodgy memory when it comes to me as a kid but this game is one of the things i remember the most in detail

me and my brother owned both versions of the game, i of course owned heartgold, and it was one of the things we bonded over the most as young kids

i remember us modding the game with a game shark to get a lvl 100 celebi to appear and it wiping out our entire party without us knowing why

grinding the trade system for a shiny but never getting one

or just outright playing the game regularly

it is one of the very very few moments i would say i would want to go back to in my life. and even though I havent played the game in a very long time its gonna be hard for it to lose my respect and love for it because of that

this is a weird one

on one hand this game is pretty amazing

-the graphics are at the top of insomniacs game even with it being a cross gen title

-gameplay exceeds the previous game's with the venom and stealth cloak abilities

-and everything great about the previous game's gameplay also makes a return, if not, is done even better

but on the OTHER hand, this game is also kinda rough

-the story is a GIGANTIC downgrade compared to the previous game

-the villains are pretty underbaked and couldve been done way better

-and the game is surprisingly buggy

overall the game is great but it also makes for an odd comparison when the first game just outright does things better

i sincerely hope spiderman 2 doesnt fall into the same issues this game did

im not even gonna bother giving this a fake 5 star review for the joke because this genuinely should never have became a popular series even if it was for ironic reasons

every entry is devoid of any effort or creativity to the point where it's infuriating. it only exists to take advantage of the younger horror audience obsessed with shit like bendy or poppy's playtime to make money.

the modeling work is abysmal and any and all actually decent looking models in the games are all from either the unreal asset store OR are from other people. animations look like they were made in mere minutes. the story of the main protagonist looking for their child, even though it is a bland concept to begin with, it all gets thrown out the window for dogshit filler that just feels like empty nothingness with dialogue that all sounds like chatgpt generations

nothing can convince me that ANY thought was put into ANY of these games. they are worthless and i long for the inevitable future where it is all forgotten and nobody will feed into no effort garbage like this anymore. not even for the joke