A fantastic Mega Man game and a major rebound after how Mega Man X7 and Mega Man X6 came out. For starters, I very much enjoy the art style shift they took with this game. The lankier proportions and more expressive faces are quite appealing. While I usually prefer 2D art for sidescrolling Platformers like this, I am a big fan of how this game looks overall.

The story is close to the usual Mega Man X fare of "new bad guy gets upstaged by Sigma" but I love the grandiose flair and religious imagery present with this entry. The stages are fun and the different moves/capabilities of each playable character are fun.

Honestly, as it stands, I think this could be a contender for my favorite Mega Man game and I'm currently placing it as such. I would love to revisit it in the future and go for all the unlockables/post-game stuff to check-in on my feelings for this game but, very positive vibes (since I played it in 2020) on it overall!

Mario Kart really began to hit its stride as a series with this entry, in my opinion. This is the first one that truly got the feel of the controls perfectly to me, it’s just so smooth and responsive.

While it’s hard to pry my own nostalgia away from this review, I can barely help it. This is easily the best suite of brand new tracks any Mario Kart game has brought with it. Airship Fortress, Delfino Square, Rainbow Road, Wario Stadium, Waluigi Pinball, Peach Garden, and Tick Tock Clock are all some of the best tracks in the whole series… and that makes up nearly half of the new tracks!! The music on all these tracks are great, the synthy sounds are so fantastic. I love Rainbow Road and Figure-8 Circuits’ tracks in particular.

Plus, this game introduced online play not just for Mario Kart, but as one of the earliest Nintendo games to do it. It works so well with Mario Kart and makes it more convenient to have multiplayer fun.

Something (almost) unique to this entry is the Mission Mode, something that I feel many sleep on. They add a lot of replay ability to go for better ranks, enjoy fun twists on stages, and extend the single player offerings.

The only major downside here, is another series-first, the Retro tracks. While there are some that I enjoy like Banshee Boardwalk and Sky Garden, sadly a large chunk of the retro tracks are very simple 1st tracks from the previous entries or flat-out not fun.

This is definitely a top-shelf Mario Kart game absolutely worth playing though, even though there are newer entries people usually default to.

depois dos 106%, resolvi fazer um review geral do Crash 4, esse jogo dividiu ótimos e maus momentos comigo, mas eu diria que a diversão prevaleceu bastante comigo, a dificuldade geral pra zerar, eu acho boa, o 106% que ja começa a entrar os verdadeiros problemas do jogo, as relíquias insanamente perfeitas foram uma ideia bem desnecessária (apesar de não serem mais difíceis que as relíquias do time trial) além de muitas gemas por fase, eles inflacionaram bastante coisa pra porcentagem máxima, e isso acabou sendo um problema no longo prazo, mas de uma maneira geral, gostei do level design, Castelo do Cortex é uma das minhas fases favoritas da franquia, em compensação Tuneis Tóxicos... bom, no mais, acho que 8.5 é uma nota bem válida, é um jogo que me divertiu bastante, e o que eu quero no momento é um remake do Twinsanity, mas espero que o 5 tambem venha.

Coinciding with the game's shockingly appropriate subtitle, this review is about time. I have very conflicting opinions about this one; its high points are so high, yet in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but feel unsettled by Crash 4's insistence on my failures.

First of all, the game looks, sounds, and feels incredible. Crash has never felt so good, and the team at Toys for Bob did a perfect job of making this sequel feel right at home with the original trilogy. They even introduced the Enhanced Shadow feature underneath your character for precise platforming. The story is a little silly, but it's still fun and features many familiar faces. The level design is also larger, varied, and interesting. By the later levels, your skills will be tested, but for fans of platformer video games, they won't be an issue.

Now for the big, enormous disclaimer: this game is completely out of control with the nonsense checklist content. Here's the most brief rundown I can give: in the original Crash Bandicoot games, your goals other than beating the level is to smash all the crates and maybe find a hidden gem or secret warp. It's short, sweet, and satisfying. Of course, a modern day studio is expected to add more fun things to do, but the team went way too far, to the point of N. Sanity. People dog on Donkey Kong 64 for its collectibles. It is nothing compared to this.

The goals for every single level, besides boss fights, are:
• Reach the end of the level
• Break all the crates
• Find the hidden gem
• Collect 80% of the Wumpa fruits
• Beat the level without dying more than 3 times
• Beat the level and break all the crates without dying
• Find the hidden Flashback Tape without dying
• Achieve a Platinum Relic Time Trial

In addition to this list, there are also the N. Verted forms of every single level, which are simply mirrored, slightly remixed versions of the normal level, where you have to:
• Reach the end of the level
• Break all the crates
• Find the hidden gem
• Collect 80% of the Wumpa fruits
• Beat the level without dying more than 3 times

Adding to the madness, there are "Timeline" levels where you play as another character. The second half of these stages, you take control of Crash again and replay a stage you just played with slightly different crate placements and have to do all of those bullet points. "Timeline" levels also have N. Verted forms where you do the same. There are also "Flashback" levels which are brief side scrolling challenges in which you also have to smash all the crates. All of these tasks will inevitably take you multiple tries to acquire, namely the time Time Trial Relics and smashing all the crates without dying.

Now let me catch my breath... You might be thinking to yourself, "What's the big deal? You don't HAVE to do all that stuff! Just play the game and have fun!" If you have to avoid a literal majority of what you're expected to play to have fun, the design is inherently counterintuitive, flawed, and frustrating. Ludicrous. Tedious. Levels are also much, much longer than the older games, so missing a single crate is devastating, especially with how sadistically-hidden some can be in levels that have 200, 300, and even 500 crates.

When I have to decide how much game I want to play rather than the game being a tight and tailored experience, the developers are irresponsibly leaving that decision up to the player. The game has no respect for your playtime and artificially extends it, as totally completing this beast could easily take you up to 100 hours. Even after the credits roll, you never really feel like you've beaten the game.

I hesitate writing this off as optional bonus content, because all Crash games and platformers are meant to be played with some form of collectible, but not to this degree. The overstuffed padding can only be described as deliberate. You have to control your level of fun, because if you play the way they intend you to play, you will ruin the game for yourself. The harsh reality of the unobtainability of this achievement is a real downer. This is the only Crash game I would urge players not to fully complete. It takes way too long and is way too frustrating to even bother.

A few more points, then I'm done... Extra lives are worthless: you will inevitably have 99 of them at some point, yet if you die once in a level, you'll need to redo the whole thing anyway. Extra Lives should have been the barrier between that failure, because they currently leave no room for experimentation in levels. There also weren't any crazy warp secrets to be found like in Crash 2 and Crash 3 which was disappointing.

In the end, I still recommend this game. The gameplay and presentation really shine, even though your eye will be twitching when you skip all of the checklist items the game somehow expects you to accomplish. Completion is so unattainable in a reasonable amount of time, and it's very deflating. I would love to play more Crash, but it seems the studios likely won't be making this happen, so we'll have to enjoy what we have for now. Great work, Activision, on pulverizing all of your passionate studios into machines for the Call of Duty factory.