P-06 is an unfortunate reminder that some games are flawed to the core, and no amount of polish can make it good without fundamentally redoing it.

Before I say anything else, I respect the passion that's gone into this. Porting the game can't have been easy, and it must have taken a lot of commitment.

That being said, this is just a better version of an awful game that elevates it to the level of "just bad." There are some good tweaks. It feels a bit better to play, it's a bit more functional, and a lot of particularly frustrating parts have been polished up here and there. Also, boss fights haven't been added yet, which is definitely a positive since none of them were good.

The game's fundamental issues remain. A generally stilted gamefeel, levels with a lot of stop and go, an over-reliance on boring combat, and levels that go on to long but simultaneously feel like they never get going, just repeating their few gimmicks over and over with no evolution.

Sonic's campaign is still the highlight of the game, with mostly just platforming and a greater frequency of fun sections. The camera is a problem across the entire game, but it's more prevalent here as it whips around all the time that really hurts the sense of speed you should be getting. However, it's a mostly enjoyable time.

Shadow's story is just a worse version of sonic's, taking greater emphasis on clunky vehicles and so much of that boring combat. It's just not very fun, and gets tedious quickly.

Silver's is still terrible. He feels slow, and is slow. His telekinesis AND focus on combat requires him to stop constantly to grab boxes and throw them, which is not interesting or fun in the slightest. I really have a hard time gauging depth with his float ability, which makes it a pain to use. He just never gets going, constantly doing uninteresting platforming only to get stopped by a dumb puzzle or boring combat that requires you to wait for the enemies to act first.

Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy most of my time with this. It's a valiant effort, but 06 is an unfixable game without completely remaking it (silver especially). I feel bad for the developer.

Gotta say, this game gets a lot more flak than it deserves. The only major weakpoint is the visuals. A lot of character models look off, especially in the faces. The backgrounds can be pretty wonky, too. However, the animations are good and a lot of them look cool.

The mechanics are quite unique and really fun, and creates a very loose feeling with a ton of creativity it leaves to the player. The tag system is really dynamic, and is honestly more fun than a lot of other tag systems I've experienced. Arcade mode is quite unique and fun, the return of dramatic battle is a welcome surprise, and the customization is fun to mess around with. All in all, a very solid package.

Rocket Knight Adventures is a game with a lot of charm and a great style, but unfortunately gets pretty annoying in a few too many places.

The first big thing is limited lives/continues. I've never really liked this sort of limiter, and makes games needlessly punishing. Playing with infinite lives made the game much more fun to play, and kept challenge intact. In fact, most of the game is a good challenge. The bosses are the highlight, as the parts with regular enemies are fun enough but not particularly memorable. Most bosses are quite fun, although a few are annoying.

Presentation wise, the game's great. The music is really good (especially that boss theme) and the spritework is appealing and expressive.

All in all, pretty above average for platformers of it's time. It's got a few signs of age in the game design that unfortunately bring it down a bit for me, away from the likes of something like Gunstar Heroes. However, it's still a good time and I can recommend it.

I've never been the biggest fan of Fromsoft's games. I could always appreciate all the effort and craft that went into dark souls and bloodborne, but they just didn't click with me.

HOWEVER. Sekiro is a game I really enjoyed, in large part to changes that favor speed and aggressive play. Parrying is a very fun mechanic that makes getting in the opponent's face feel rewarding. The amount of mobility you get is fun to work with as well, making exploration enjoyable.

One drawback I had with Dark Souls was the amount of options at your disposal meant that I was never sure if the build or playstyle I was going for was good or not. While it certainly adds replayability, it lacks focus and requires more experimentation than I really care for. Sekiro's streamlined skill trees make the game less flexible, but results in more focused combat that I prefer.

Some later bosses got a bit tiresome. Several bosses and minibosses got reused a few times, which were never as hard as their first fight but seemed needless. One later boss was kind of annoying since it felt much more like a souls boss and relied on dodging rather than parrying. It wasn't bad, but wasn't as fun as others.

HOWEVER, the rest of the bosses are fantastic. The guardian ape in particular is one of the best bosses of all time. It's hard but doesn't go on for way too long, it's complex but feels fair, and throws a very memorable twist at you with a lot of cool attacks.

Long story short: cool game

JSRF is a pretty substantial step up over it's predecessor, but I unfortunately still had a number of issues with it.

To start with the positives (which there are plenty of), it controls pretty well, and a lot of the level design can be pretty varied and challenging, with a lot of cool platforming sequences and interesting gimmicks. The presentation is an obvious plus, and is basically the whole reason these games are even remembered. Visually it hasn't aged a day, the lighting is excellent on top of a great sense of style and character design that just oozes "cool." The music is consistently great as well, but that probably goes without saying.

Now for some stuff I liked less. A good handful of levels are a pain to play through. The skyscraper district is convoluted and falling often results in getting sent very far backwards. The bosses are often tedious, and combat feels clunky. There's a lot of particular moments that just don't make a lot of sense or get in the way of the game's sense of flow.

Overall, this is a tightly paced, fun game with excellent presentation and personality. While some moments can be pretty annoying, the good elements are more than enough to outweigh the negatives.

I tried this game a few years back, but never got too far and didn't think too highly of it. After actually finishing it, Dawn of Sorrow is much better than I gave it credit for.

The pace and structure is fun and quick. Exploration is always rewarding and you don't get lost for too long. The only exception is one section near the end, where it just gets tedious to progress.

Presentation wise, it's pretty good. Music is consistently great, even better than Aria of Sorrow. The visuals are super stylized and appealing, although the switch to an anime aesthetic for the character portraits is a downgrade. There's also a certain "cool" factor Aria had that Dawn misses, but it's still good.

This is just a strong castlevania game. In some ways it feels like an improvement on Aria, but in many others it feels like a step back with strange mechanics and odd pacing decisions here and there.

It's impressive to me how different SUDA's games all feel while still being distinctly SUDA. On a mechanical level, it's very odd but has a good rhythm to it, killing enemies and solving light puzzles. I do wish it was a bit harder on a puzzle front, since not much really made me think too hard. Visually, the game's pretty cool with a distinct style that has aged very well. Music is effective too, with a lot of good atmosphere pieces with some catchy stuff where it would be the most effective. Story is pretty out-there, even for a SUDA game. It leaves a lot to the player to figure out, which was fun to do. Some mechanics of how the world works could have been better explained, and there's a few too many expository plot dumps that I just kinda zoned out during. But it's still rad, and I was entertained.

I don't think this game is exactly a masterwork, but it's so unlike anything else I've played that I give it a lot of credit for consistently surprising me. If you play this, try not to think too hard (or think REALLY hard)

I can understand why this game initially drew so much ire, but as someone who's been playing for a good few months after jumping onto the final version, Street Fighter V is a very fun time, although there are still quite a few issues.

The first one is single player. I don't play fighting games for singleplayer, but even still what's here is doodoo. The story mode is infamously poor, and that's basically all there is other than just basic arcade modes.

Presentation can be somewhat of a mixed bag. Most of the characters look good in this game's style, although some really don't. One major problem is how this game doesn't feel like it pushes much of anything forwards. Ryu has the same theme and design he's always had, and many legacy characters are in a similar spot. However, many later characters get a much better treatment as development really improved. The music is good, but a lot of the themes are just remixes of pre-existing themes.

Gameplay is quite fun, although defensive options feel a bit difficult to use effectively. Keep in mind I'm barely a gold player so I'm no expert, but I find that the game favors offensive play and feels a bit limiting. Another issue I take is how the V-system works. A lot of the moves are fun to use, but for most characters the V-system is what lets you do the coolest stuff that character can do. As an Ed main, his V-trigger is a really fun ability that allows for crazy combo setups and mixups, but I can only use it if I've been hit enough. It's a limiter that rewards you for actively not winning.

The other thing is a lack of good tutorials. There's a lot of interesting stuff to this game that I could really only learn through external sources. It was through them that I truly began to like this game a lot, so it's a shame that you have to dig around elsewhere to really learn how it works.

Now that sounded like a lot of complaining, but I do really enjoy this game. I'm able to very frequently get fights, and constantly learn new techniques or ways my opponent will throw me off, more than 60 hours deep.

Playing this game a lot just makes me more and more excited for sf6, which looks to solve all the problems this game had and more, although I would still recommend playing SFV if you want to warm up before 6. It's a very fun time, even with it's issues.

Mario RPG is a dang good first attempt to kick off the long line of mario rpg's. It's got an incredibly charming presentation, with very fun characters and writing, a goofy plot with a lot of memorable moments, and a fun soundtrack. All of that stuff is consistently really good.

The gameplay is also quite good, although there's a number of places that feel a bit aged or annoying. The combat is good, nothing too complicated. It's mostly carried by a ton of bosses that all bring something new to the table, which does a good job of keeping things feeling fresh.

I did find that I was a bit tired of the same few enemy types by the time I reached the end of a handful of areas. The area design is much more varied than you usually get in an RPG, to mostly positive results. Sometimes you get a neat puzzle or some light platforming. There are a few gimmicks that don't work, like platforming that requires depth perception that doesn't feel good with the isometric perspective, or combat gauntlets that go on too long.

All in all though, this is a tightly paced and very fun rpg that doesn't overstay it's welcome and has a ton of variety to it, on top of a great presentation.