I don't say this often, but this game is embarrassing. Just about every element of it's production feels shockingly amateur, and it feels like a half-baked attempt to redefine a franchise without any understanding of what made it (sometimes) work, or what would even make this new format fun.

Presentation is one of the first notable problems. It's dull and dreary, which hardly fits a sonic game. There's not a single memorable or recognizable locale in the entire game, just identical spires, temples, and plains. Much of the music is very generic and forgettable. I also hate most of the songs for the cyberspace stages. The vocal tracks are pretty lame too, taking themselves way too seriously when compared to the fun and cheesy tracks of the past. I'm at least glad they added the jukebox because the better music from the past at least helps.

The bigger issues come through with the gameplay. Cyberspace levels are the first big issue. The controls are okay, but quite stiff. There's no real sense of speed in these, especially when it comes to boosting. Level design is straightforwards and uninspired, lacking interesting routes or challenges. Add this onto stupid easy S-ranks, and these completely miss the mark.

The overworld is very boring. Again, controls fine. But all you'll do is run around doing unmemorable and repetitive platforming challenges or one of six dogshit minigames that take no thought and all feel the same. It's shocking how little of these stick in my head, considering I just beat this.

Combat sucks too. It mostly just stops you and forces you to do another slow, dull minigame. It's stupid simple and lacks flair. The boss fights are much in the same boat. I can't believe these got so much praise, considering they are as deep as a puddle and dull. It's once again, just flash that fails to impress.

I can't help but be continually interested in this franchise. A disaster like this game comes out and is hailed as a great next step. Instead, it's an underwhelming, boring, unfocused, repetitive slog.

A pretty solid puzzle game. The mechanics are decently utilized, with a solid amount of variety and a quick pace. It's a great looking, polished game on top of that. I can recommend it.

However, it all still ends up feeling a bit shallow. The mechanics rarely stack on top of each other in compelling ways. When they do, it can be really satisfying. Yet the majority of solutions feel very straightforwards, and I can't help but feel like the insane potential this world-stacking concept has goes underutilized. I more often than not felt "that was a neat solution" rather than "that was a clever solution," if that makes any sense. There's just not enough substance to make this something truly great.

This is a game that was clearly made with an absurd amount of love and care. The presentation is stellar all around. It's potentially one of the best looking games of all time, with a wonderful soundtrack to boot. The story is fun, and has some emotional moments that were shockingly well done.

The gameplay is good, although a bit uneven to be sure. The early game can be rough compared to the rest. The pacing feels sluggish, and the excess simplicity of everything can be a chore. It's not a bad time, especially near the end of the chapter, but it really starts picking up in Chapter 2. From there on out there's a constant barrage of new places, new songs, new gimmicks. It rarely gets very deep or complicated, but I was engaged from the regular stream of cool new stuff that showed up.

The pace is great, rarely lingering on something for too long. The environmental design feels like TTYD with a lot of the fat trimmed, resulting in a smooth experience that still feels like the past Paper Mario games. Combat is overly samey but still enjoyable for the most part, and bosses are a standout highlight.

Origami King is an extremely solid game with some particularly standout elements. Hopefully whatever paper mario game comes out after the TTYD remake can combine the environmental design philosophy of this game with some tighter combat mechanics, and we can get something really great.

Viewtiful Joe is a constant balancing act. It's mostly a fun, creative beat em up. The mechanics of slowing and speeding up time are unique and well executed for combat and platforming. Add this on top of creative presentation, and the first three stages are a tightly paced and fun time. But unfortunately, a lot of the game's tough-but-fair gameplay can get dragged down by some obnoxious design choices that really start to crop up the further into the game you get. Sometimes enemies will hit you from off screen. Sometimes you need to make blind jumps. Sometimes you have to fight the same enemy with way too much health over and over. Sometimes the boss you're fighting has an annoying pattern that they use over and over. Not to mention the completely needless boss rush stage, which is capped off by a pretty terrible fight. It's unfortunate, because it takes what could have been a fantastic game down to just a good one.

Disco Elysium really impressed me. It's rare that a story driven game with decision-focused gameplay is actually good, and a lot of what's done here is really great. The writing is stellar across the board. There's an excellent blend of interesting back and forths paired with really dumb stuff that put a smile on my face. This made the game pretty compelling for the vast majority of the runtime. The mystery was fun to see come together, and decisions feel important. Another thing I want to praise is the art direction. The Impressionistic art for the world and character portraits is both incredibly unique and perfectly fitting.

Now, there are some things that didn't work for me as much. It didn't feel like I was solving much of anything. Sure, I was making choices. But I was following a pretty straightforward path for each mystery. The natural and seamless way dialogue is handled works great for making a cohesive story, but doesn't make it feel like I'm actually a detective or solving much of anything. I didn't need to think about who did it, or how it was done. I just explored everything and it became apparent. This isn't a huge issue, the narrative was still compelling. But I would say Disco Elysium is more of a drama than a mystery.

However, there is one issue above all else. And it's not the game's fault (I think) , but there's something here that fundamentally doesn't click with me. While there's so much done here that is done excellently, something was just never quite there. Solving things wasn't as satisfying as I'd hope, and I would often space out during long political diatribes or big info-dumps. Removing either of these things would rob the game of much of it's identity, but I can't say either did much to compel me.

Now this isn't to say it wasn't still great. It was, and I can understand why it's gotten all the critical praise it has. But there's something here that just doesn't work for me. It's an easy recommendation though. Even for others like me who might not love it the way many others do, it's such a unique and well-made game that it's still work checking out.

Ghostrunner is solid, but a bit of a mixed bag near the end. The movement feels good, and a lot of enemies are fun to fight. That's all it really has going for it, since the music, visuals, and story are fairly "generic cyberpunk."

Fortunately most of the game is very fun, with a great sense of flow jumping from enemy to enemy, deflecting bullets and grappling around. It's great. Unfortunately, the last few levels have some pretty obnoxious enemies to deal with. Ninjas that have inconsistent timing to parry, teleporting enemies, shield enemies, duplicating enemies. It gets annoying. It's not enough to drag the game down a ton, but it's worth noting. Hopefully 2 smooths out the experience.

A very short, pleasant little game. Not anything particularly remarkable, but fun.

I will say, I got 100% in about a half hour. Not that I mind, I went in knowing it was small. But I can't help but wish that there were some additional elements here and there to give a bit more substance to the overall package. For example, achievements for beating the game under a certain time, or introducing modifiers that make a repeat playthrough a bit different. Something like that would be (relatively) easy to implement and could elevate the game a lot. Anyways now I'm just talking game design, which is a sign it's time to stop writing.

The most "fine" sonic game there is. Levels are okay, with some occasionally annoying sections and occasionally great sections. Although, there are two pinball levels and that's two too many. The music is similar, with some tracks that standout as great or pretty bad, with an ocean of completely forgettable tracks in between. I don't have many gripes, other than bosses being too long. But conversely, I don't have many positives. There's just not a lot to say about it. A completely forgettable experience that is not worth 60 dollars by any stretch of the imagination.