+the cylinder concept here is great, as it keeps you trying to clean out each area in hopes that no area gets too overwhelmed with enemies to deal with
+I only messed with the other ships a little bit (there's 3) but they all have entirely unique features, giving some good variety
+the art design is cool and voxels are neat but what I really love is how enemies and areas crumble into a wave of blocks upon destruction. such a satisfying effect
+saving the humans (by first destroying their keepers and then rescuing the human themselves) gives a bit of forward momentum other than just mowing down enemies. thankfully they're all optional, and also thankfully each one gives the same bonus each time, making it so that you can memorize which humans will give lives/bombs and which ones just give points
+each boss is unique and usually has multiple phases. definitely some are way easier than others (the bouncing block one in particular stands out) but there's very few repeated elements
+enemy variety is also excellent, with each level introducing new foes and each wave mixing up the enemy composition. many just follow you and shoot of course, tho there are so more clever ones as well, such as a beam-shooting ship that is surrounded by reflecting mirrors that contain the beam until you destroy them to get to the ship itself
+boosting at will (on a cooldown) is a fun mechanic, and although it isn't very controllable it's an extremely useful panic button thanks to its invincibility and blast radius at the end. between that, your overdrive shot (which you charge by killing enemies), and your bombs (consumable), you have three separate moves to get you out of any situation at any time

-it's not really a detriment to the game but this is a rather difficult experience, and even with only five levels this may take a bit of time to really get the hang of. it's a one-hit kill and lives are scarce... I'd love to do a 1cc someday for the trophy but it's not happening soon lol
-a full tutorial stage would have been nice to explain how the human mechanic works. the game does have audio and visual cues for when the keepers are coming down, where they're coming and going, which human they free, and where the current humans on the map are, but it took me quite a bit of time to figure this out via trial and error. a little more information on the extra moves would have been nice as well
-I would've really enjoyed a twin-stick mode, since the game only uses the right stick to shoot left or right. wouldn't have to be the whole game, just a single ship maybe

certainly was a frustrating experience at times but when I finally beat that final boss after so many attempts I felt amazing. probably the most mainstream shmup developer around making these, tho their new title is a roguelite third-person shooter with bullet hell elements (looks cool!! reminds me of vanquish). even at its short length, I was very satisfied by this experience thanks to the quality and care of its throwback-arcade mechanics. maybe in the future we'll get a nice ps5 side project in this vein, or even a VR shmup title....

where I stopped: the final boss. dodging the fire it sends down with only 1HP to work with is way too much of a pain, especially while also dealing with enemies running around

+the biggest reason to play this game is the dog: you have a companion that can be sent to immobilize enemies in front of you while you're behind cover or at a distance. the dog moves fast as hell and the enemy placement specifically tests your ability to know when to use the dog and when not to
+I would say that the graphics here are probably even better than revenge of shinobi, with plenty of nice parallax and shearing effects towards the start of the game
+definitely an easier game overall than revenge of shinobi as well, none of the levels themselves are frustrating beyond compare. the bosses also have very identifiable patterns with hitboxes that aren't insanely large or cruel

+you only have one hit point to work for no discernable reason... I really don't know why there isn't a health bar, esp in the japanese version
+while revenge of shinobi was endlessly wacky with both environmental and level design that was all over the place, this game is much more reserved overall. there are cool stages for sure, but it's not surprising in the same way
+very short, this game is around half an hour long, another detriment compared to its predecessor
+enemy variety is very poor: you'll see most of the enemies within the first couple of levels of the game

wasn't sure what to make of this game, since it's a console shinobi by a different team than revenge/III, but it ended up being decently fun overall. this definitely won't blow anyone away compared to later genesis action efforts, but it's solid while it lasts.

other than messing around in TTT2 some I had never dove into a tekken entry before, and finally getting into this series was a real treat. the sheer amount of options initially felt like a roadblock for me, but I quickly realized that the depth allows you to find a few set of tools that work well with your playstyle, and once you need to shore up weak areas you can explore for others that fill a niche, or start swapping in new moves for mix-up purposes. the combo system is thankfully very easy to get into and forgiving input-wise. past that the package is rather good: even without any of the dlc the roster is large, and there's a cute story mode that somehow incorporates akuma into the tekken canon. the online netcode isn't great but since the inputs aren't very demanding it's more bearable than it would be otherwise. thankfully I have friends who play this so I'll probably be pulling this one out occasionally throughout the future (until tekken x street fighter finally comes out...)

+fast-paced, engaging combat with intuitive controls, plenty of unlockable weapons, and combos
+solid turn of the millennium dark mecha story, with great mecha designs by kojipro veteran Yoji Shinkawa
+map is completely open and every area is can be visited again. many areas have optional missions and hidden collectables as well
+good mix of boss fights between gigantic mechas and dogfights with other mechs
+great scenario design, with more than just straightforward hack and slash challenges ahead of you. there's a bomb defusal section, a sniper section, your mech gets corrupted and limits your moveset, among other objectives
+the OP rules, tho sadly it's the in-game CGI cinematics instead of a 2d animated video like is in the HD collection boot-up
+the fog is a little heavy but otherwise the environment design is top-notch, astonishing for an early '01 ps2 game, and emblematic of kojipro's technical prowess
+a very nonintrusive leveling system is in play as well, making your mech feel very powerful by the late game even if you miss certain hidden powerups

-camera control has not aged well... it snaps behind you every time you release the left stick, with very little control on the right stick. the dynamic battle camera rocks though
-the hd remake of this game was a little rough, with some noticeable frame drops in boss fights towards the latter half of the game
-the rescue missions are very easy to screw up, as any civilian deaths can drop your rank tremendously, and each mission can only be attempted once per playthrough. considering how imprecise the combat is, it's easy to cause collateral damage, or for enemies out of your control to cause collateral damage
-speaking of which, there's an early-game boss battle that takes place in an area that later has a rescue mission, and any building damage he causes will affect your mission rank later on...
-the ending is abrupt, making the game feel almost like a side story in its own mythos
-too short!! excusable because it's such an early ps2 title (and probably was on a shoestring budget with a tiny team) but 5 hours is a little slim
-a couple of objectives are difficult to find, aka the padding is a little too obvious

a lot of my minuses here are nitpicks, as this really is an enjoyable game and an interesting early mecha game where speed and fluidity reign supreme in combat. sadly it was not ported to ps4 like 2nd runner was, but it's incredibly cheap on both ps2 and in the ps3 hd collection, and more than worth it.

+I get that the open world of the original is meant partially as parody, but honestly I'm glad they removed it from this one. cuts down on the fluff and filler for sure
+I personally think ignoring much of the latter half of the first game's plot works to the sequel's benefit. then again, I'm not sure how they would've even rationalized a sequel otherwise...
+on that note, this game is much easier to follow than the first. the narrative trickery is kept to a minimum, and the fourth-wall breaks are much more tasteful in this game as well. I think this series is better off as just stupid fun without the thematic trappings of the original
+dual-wielding beam katanas... entirely a game-changer. like actually so fun to use
+I really like the NES-style side jobs and gym minigames, they overall have more depth than the brainless minigames from the original (though the scorpion job came back for some reason)
+overall I prefer the bosses in this game over the first, and there's more of them too. many of the bosses remind me more of shinobu from the first one, with many ways to approach the battle and new moves as the fight goes on, except without the OHKOs and other frustrating gimmicks from the first. I actually felt like I was having a proper swordfight in a few of them!
+in fact, most of the frustration from the first one overall is gone. there's no long hallways of gunmen anymore, no damage sponge boss encounters (or rather, the peony alleviates that)
+in terms of progression it feels like the fat has been trimmed tremendously. there's no need to continue playing the side jobs once you've gotten both weapons and all the gym upgrades, so you can blast through combat sequences after that
+the tiger transformation in this game rules, and also speeds up many of the long endgame levels
+the run of bosses from ryuji to alice is so good. it really makes you wish the first game had something similar

-combat still retains many of the issues of the first game, specifically how poorly the camera behaves with lock-on. I may be wrong but I think there were many more destructable environment objects in this one, and you can easily get caught
-some of the bosses feel very underdesigned, especially in the first half. letz shake, cloe walsh, and million gunmen especially felt like unfinished pushovers
-how did they fuck up a motorcycle battle, like it's really not fun (boss battle afterwards is quite good though)
-getting to play as shinobu is very cool, too bad her platforming is stiff and frustrating
-getting to play as henry is very cool, too bad your first time using him is in a boss battle with no time to learn his combos or get a feel for his dash
-no gardens of madness call... the boss battles in general are given very little lead-up, which is a big drop down from the first game. I'm neutral on the peep show sequences as well
-the level pacing is a little funky, with the first half of the game having very short pre-boss levels and the second half of the game having very long ones. I don't mind the length though, I'm happy to slice-and-dice, and I put up with the same thing in the yakuza games

this game does a solid job trimming the fat from the first, improving the main draw of the game (the interesting bosses), and giving fanservice to those who loved the original. it's still very rough around the edges, but I'm just glad the first one got a worthy follow-up that capitalized on the unique world and designs to make something that is a joy to play. I can't say I enjoyed every minute of it (god no) but I had a fun time blowing through this one in a weekend

I think the gameplay here really has the shine of the classic super-scalar arcade games, specifically in its rollercoaster-like tightness to the controls. it's also impressive how many different tracks they stuck in here, even if many of them do not stick out after a first playthrough. what I didn't appreciate was the constant crashing (pun unintended). I don't know if other versions of the game perform better, but I was forced to reset roughly every 10 minutes, making the marathon and tournament modes completely inaccessible to me thanks to between-race crashes. even in the normal world tour mode it was infuriating, as a crash would often reset my chosen options as well. really hard for me to get past that fact, even if I'm unsure of why it performed so poorly on my machine specifically.

I did at least try to get all of the trophies is most of the areas. I didn't really appreciate having to grab coins and items on the track... that's a feature that feels a bit too "mario kart" to me. the stress to get first was not overbearing at least, other than on a select few courses where the difficulty was ramped up. I would've really enjoyed sinking my teeth into this more if, again, it didn't crash every 10 minutes.

+two great additions to the series: akiyama and saejima. great eccentric personalities to take over the mantle from kiryu
+saejima's charge moves and tanimura's parry breathe some new life into yakuza's tried-and-true combat
+the best majima boss battle up to this point in the series
+table tennis has been added to yakuza 3's roster of minigames
+ps3 version retains much more jp content than yakuza 3, tho the quiz game is still missing
+hamazaki from yakuza 3 returns surprisingly, and gets a touching redemption arc to boot (for the most part, anyway)
+boxcelios 2!! and the first one returns too as an unlockable
+the non-kiryu characters gets a master with their own challenges, which is a first in the series. they do a good job staying away from just "beat up X enemies" during the challenges too
+low bar but on ps3 I think the overall resolution is better than yakuza 3 at multiple points during the game. on ps4 this is a non-issue

-the plot is completely nonsensical. even for a series that favors flash over solid writing, this game is incomprehensible past the midway point
-each act focuses on a single character, and that character can not be used until the finale after their act is done. this renders their substories and exclusive minigames inaccessible as well
-saejima compounds the above issue by being unable to access certain minigames like karaoke or the hostess club. on top of this, his act is roughly the longest in the game
-the number of substories has been cut down significantly from yakuza 3, with ~120 in that game and 66 in this one (counting all four Amon encounters)
-the substories are divvied up between the characters, leaving them with very few substories each. you won't be running into countless substories like in previous games
-each character starts at lvl 1 at the beginning of their act, making the difficulty feel like it's at an introductory level for most of the game. thankfully kiryu starts with an upgraded kit in his act
-kiryu's act is rather short and he himself has little relevance to the plot
-only kamurocho is available, and the three new areas (rooftops, underground, and little asia) are underutilized and annoying to navigate
-at least one entire action stage is reused from yakuza 3, I get that assets need to be reused but this was a little too far
-hostess maker (akiyama's exclusive feature) is glorified dress-up and frankly not engaging. sucks that it's required for multiple trophies
-many of the better aspects of the game, such as gang encounters, masters, and the police scanner, have negligible rewards beyond just progression ie no trophies and they don't count towards substories

it's really hard to recommend this game at all given that the story/structure have serious issues, much of the content is retained from yakuza 3, and an average playtime is the longest in the series yet (I didn't dilly-dally as much as I usually do in a yakuza game and still ended up at 35 hours by the end). it's not unplayable by any means and it retains much of the good features of other yakuza games, but this one should only be played to set up the story of yakuza 5

where I marked this as completed: after slaying valstrax in the village quests. I want to put this down for a bit even though I still haven't touched as much of the content as I would have liked (hypers, deviants, g rank, plenty of late-game monsters I haven't touched) so I'll likely update this review with more thoughts once I eventually get around to them.

+the sheer amount of content here is breathtaking for monster hunter... having these many hunts on this many maps at my fingertips is a dream and I will likely continue playing this for this reason alone, just to have stuff to do while I listen to podcasts.
+valor style in particular is a great addition for this game, even if it's probably a bit OP at the end of the day. getting a super-buffed version of your character about half of the time is great.
+getting to go back to yukumo, pokke, and kokoto (ok, I haven't actually played any games with kokoto) is so fun, and I like that each village gets a mini questline in low rank capped off by the excellent new flagships.
+prowler mode is so cool, and legitimately useful for any non-hunt quests thanks to not needing to carry items and their fast movement/gathering speeds. I dunno if I'll ever actually try a proper hunt with them, but they are certainly fun to pull out on occasion
+classic monhun with the most QoL improvements running on a switch is just too nice to pass up. it's obvious that the goal for this game is to be the ultimate classic monhun experience, and I think they did a great job pulling that off here.
+the meownster hunter minigame is cute and adds some more personality to otherwise rote menuing.
+adding the hunter arts on top of the styles was a smart move and I'm glad they eventually carried it to rise as wirebug abilities. while weapon-specific special moves are cool (wyvernfire for instance) it's nice to have a selectable set of special moves with common inputs.
+valstrax is a great flagship and overall a cool concept (rocket-powered monster). it's interesting trying this after fighting crimson glow valstrax
+the high rank village section goes out of its way to have a slightly more cohesive story and linear route, which is neat and mostly ilkely an attempt to capture what the mainline team was up to with their more elaborate single-player campaigns.

-this game is really pushing the limits of this old engine in terms of the handling and entity interactions. a good example is aerial style, where you get a forward jump that can lead into mounting or major damage... this jump is stiff, especially since it has an excessive amount of forward movement that makes judging how far forward to push the stick very difficult. moving on climbable walls and the valor sheath-guard are other examples of stiff or uncomfortable actions that really would benefit from more fluid movement.
-adding multiple levels to each weapon was an overcomplication and makes the weapon grind less fun. it's just not as fun when I'm searching for materials to level up the same weapon from lvl 5 to lvl 6, and the amount of level ups necessary for each weapon feel like more than I had to do in other games getting multiple weapons (for a single weapon class) to the end of their trees.
-I'm a GL main, and so I gotta bring up the heat gauge... in theory I respect it because it both encourages shelling as well as giving a nice attack boost to anyone remotely competent enough to watch the gauge, but in practice there's some major drawbacks. at the start of a hunt, I wanna avoid shelling to keep my sharpness high and take advantage of blue/white/purple attack bonuses. in this game however, you start in yellow heat which is a damage debuff, and thus I end up having to shell through my best sharpness levels just to get to where the weapon isn't suffering automatic damage reduction. if the gauge just started at a 1.00x multiplier and worked up from there, it would make a lot more sense.
-you have to spend so much time running between villages talking to people assuming you're trying to stay abreast of new features + side quests with rewards. this is especially bad in yukumo, where a wide variety of people use the footbath one at a time. you often will leave yukumo only to find that someone else has spawned there with something to talk to you about, and thus you have to return.
-the styles beyond valor don't seem that great to use, or even remotely practical in solo play. valor and guild mean it's not that big of a deal, but I wasn't having the most fun playing without one of those two.

this game is really outstanding in terms of content but it also obviously wants to molt out of this old gameplay style and into something that can support the weird specials and fluid badass movement the creators wanted. this makes it more of a great game on paper rather than truly amazing in reality, but it's still an absolute pile of monhun content that shouldn't be passed up by fans. it's not a great starting entry thanks to dense the feature set is, but those who want something more beyond rise or world should definitely try this out. hopefully one day they'll do a steam port!

this game is the third in a series of psp PD titles, mixing together mainly DLC content from the previous games in a standalone package with both new tracks and a couple of old ones (including songs up to that point only available in the arcade). what makes this worth checking out is that all of the content from the first game has been updated with more complex charts that take advantage of the d-pad being usable in gameplay, as well as the addition of extreme difficulty beatmaps. these tracks are some of the best in the game (including Hello Planet and Two-Faced Lovers) and it's satisfying to see them get the rhythm game treatment they deserve. the new songs are excellent choices as well, with picks meant to highlight interesting rhythm gameplay such as Close and Open, Demons and the Dead as well as Paradichlorobenzene. I would not hesitate to say this may be the most brutal of the console PD games (tho I have not played PDX) especially since achieving a great and excellent rating requires 95% and 97% accuracy respectively, significantly higher than in the later games. higher difficulty songs can take a good deal of practice to score well on the extreme charts, yet the difficulty is always manageable (except for Intense Voice of HM... yuck) and each beatmap brings a new set of ideas to the table.

the presentation here has also taken a step up from the previous psp games, specifically in the PV department. older PVs would typically feature a static backdrop and a single vocaloid dancing in front of it, usually with pretty serviceable camera work and nothing else. the new PVs here push the limits of the hardware much more, and approach a cinematic quality in the action they convey and the story they tell. there are still a decent amount of old-style PVs thanks to the copied songs/charts/PVs from PD2 and its DLC, but they still get the job done and suit the hardware. presentation outside of this is good in the menus, though I didn't explore the diva rooms significantly or the edit mode. what I'm here for is sega rhythm game excellence, and this game delivers that in spades. this is my favorite of the console project diva games no questions asked, and I can still find songs I haven't played enough in this game to practice more and more.

+I love the premise here, it's especially shocking at the beginning when you don't know very much about the world and the setting. the juxtaposition of brutality and levity is sharp
+the game makes many attempts to tackle weaknesses with the Ace Attorney series, and some of them are definitely successful. I appreciate how interactable objects in the environments are shown, how it won't let you leave areas without getting all the information neeed, the limited number of evidence supplied for each argument sequence, and many other things I can't remember at the moment
+the music is godlike... takada really outdid himself here
+the way the secrets are spooled out over the course of the game is well-done imo; overall the pacing is top-notch. it helps that later chapters have short investigations and long trials, and each trial usually has some oddity that reveals more about the universe of the game
+I also enjoyed the ending quite a bit. they absolutely stick the landing, and the way the mystery clears up in the final chapter is rewarding
+playing on windows has one big advantage: the mouse makes aiming during the trials a breezy process. I really would not have enjoyed playing this with a controller I think

-I really don't like being constantly led around and fed info by byakuya and kyoko... it feels like makoto not only lacks any agency but is also a complete dullard. it doesn't make me feel like I'm solving the case when the two of them are doing so much of it for me, and being incredibly condescending to boot. it's even more annoying when they (specifically byakuya) make obvious mistakes...
-specific annoyance: why are there argument sections where another character says the contradiction, and I have to turn their argument into a bullet and use it on whatever they were responding to in the first place. the reasoning wasn't my own! how would this not be better just as dialogue, or with actual evidence I can use for my own contradiction
-the rhythm minigame is broken on the pc port, as far as I'm aware. whatever the case, the beat to click along with is not properly in sync with the music. I really should not have played this game on Mean difficulty...
-the cases in the middle dip in quality... I think there's frequently a slump in these kinds of games so it's not really a surprise to me here
-a lot of the characters are pretty one note. esp as more people get picked off, I feel like the main survivors are not that great of a group

dr1 throws a lot of ideas at the wall, and the core design is novel and rock-solid. it's enough to carry this game beyond the deficiencies in characterization and the overabundance of needless gameplay additions/minigames, and it makes me very excited to dive into the later entries as I know they are considered improvements on this initial formula. first games can always struggle a bit to make all the concepts gel, and at the very least this one manages to pull through with a lot of heart and a really fascinating premise.

I have mixed feelings on the crash series but found myself really enjoying this game beyond what I would've expected. like most naughty dog games it eschews innovation in game design in favor of excellent presentation and technical tricks, but given the plethora of middling collectathons in this era ND managed to well exceed the proverbial bar. the trick they lean on here is an extension of their dynamic data streaming from the crash series, here writ large to where the entire world is seamless. levels can be walked into at will with no obvious loading (ofc there's always a loading hallway) and it does a lot to remove the artifice of the experience. the animation here is also gorgeous, much like in the crash games. cutscenes are all in-engine and again seamless, and every character is expressive and emotive in a way that virtually no other game at the time could touch.

on the gameplay side, the challenges are thoughtful and memorable (partially owing to the game's taut length). most of the levels are laid out more as a tightly-packed series of challenge rooms rather than a wide-open space, so while exploration is required for 100% you will spend most of your time actively platforming. jak has an extensive set of moves and has, while certainly stiff, a level of polish to him that reflects the better side of early 3D gaming. it's not all perfect - the hover-bike-whatever levels are extremely slippery, and jak's double jump is nearly as strict as the infamous crash 3 double jump - but it more than gets the job done. the art design is lovely as well, I especially like the ancient percursor city in a series of hollow spheres underwater. while there are minigames here and there, the bulk of the gameplay is raw platforming. some of it is certainly frustrating, owing to expected difficulty of the era, but it's a difficulty worth working through.

there's not much else for me to go over; this is really just a very well-made collectathon and a final hurrah for the genre as GTA III came out and shifted focus to open-world games. in fact, I liked this one so much that I went ahead and played it on both ps3 and ps4 so I could double-dip on the platinum. the ps3 version is a proper port, and thus runs at a smooth 60fps and high native resolution. the ps4 version on the other hand is emulation, with all the issues that brings with it. the widescreen is well implemented, but as far as I can tell it runs at its original framerate and suffers from stuttering thanks to code cache misses. it's certainly not unplayable, but it's definitely the lesser version (though also I would assume more accessible to anyone reading this). it also for some reason locks the camera controls to be inverted on the x-axis, something I'm pretty sure the original didn't do, and something that the ps3 version provides options for. regardless, it's still fun no matter what you play it on, and as a 12 hour experience (or even just a 6-8 hour one if you don't care about completion) it's absolutely a high point of the early ps2 library.

+combat is so so cool. sora can finally pull off crazy stunts even without the high-level abilities
+presentation overall has taken a big step up from kh1. a good demonstration of how far games came in the ps2 generation
+gummi missions are way cooler and less boring (tho I certainly can't be bothered to replay them)
+timeless river (the classic cartoon world) owns. port royal and space paranoids are inspired picks as well
+the bosses have taken a big leap forward in both creativity and complexity. a nice 50-50 split between gimmicky minigame bosses and more taxing bosses that require studying patterns and timing attacks
+the payoff is rewarding for those who have kept up with the story
+drive forms let sora go completely nuts for a little bit, especially in master and final forms towards the end of the game
+major increase in the amount of abilities, summons, limits, etc. to provide options in combat
+disney worlds are so much easier to navigate than in the first game
+overall difficulty is scaled much better this time around (sans a certain FM endgame addition that was rather annoying)

-the story is poorly paced. there's three big plot dumps in the beginning, midpoint, and end, with about 20 hours of fluff between it all
-disney worlds have little to do with the plot, and many of them have a mandatory second episode. this is probably the biggest hurdle in the game. these worlds wear out their welcome so fast
-mobility techniques are locked behind leveling up each drive form, which is an extremely arduous task even with exploits
-much of the post-game content is tied to the mobility tech I just mentioned. again, grinding the drive forms is boring
-the story must have been incomprehensible at launch. 358/2 days clears it up quite a bit, but this game really fails to explain what is going on at several key points

overall enjoyment is going to depend on how much you can stomach the second run of each world + the plot dumps. I could't put this game down for the first half, and then had to push myself to clean up all of the second runs and finish it off. thankfully there's enough enjoyment to be had in watching sora flip all over the place to warrant making it to the final credits.

where I stopped: boss of the third stage. dodging around the big shield with the touchy controls... ugh. unforgiving hitboxes too

the boost-dash mechanic once you get the suit is pretty neat, and a step in the right direction in the effort to make run-and-gun protagonists control more fluidly. however, it's extremely sensitive and hard to charge, so you're stuck with much of the game trudging around slowly anyway. nothing feels good and no weapon feels heavy, even once you get the real damage dealers. I can see why sega left this series to rest instead of continuing it later on

+one of the tighter sets of 3D sonic controls, especially with a much-needed double jump. other details like jumping between rails or quick-stepping felt much more serviceable than other sonic games I've tried. the homing attack as well is accurate and responsive, which is never a given
+this is absolutely the best format for a 3D sonic bar none. each world begins with a lengthier stage much like a normal 3D sonic level, generally with a variety of setpieces and a new wisp mechanic introduced. afterwards there are generally a couple levels that expand on a setpiece from the prior level or fiddle around with something else ie rotating platforms or the spring balloon autoscrollers, which are sometimes completable in under a in minute. this pacing kept me from getting fatigued, as it's nice to have those short levels to blow through in between the heftier fare. best of all, no stage in the game took me more than around 5 or 6 minutes, and those were only the result of multiple deaths. no sonic game should have ever had stages longer than that, period
+an absolutely gorgeous wii game, obviously reflecting sega's maturity on the specs of sixth-gen hardware. the environments are each unique and attractive thanks to the constant amusement park ideas strewn throughout, giving each world a distinct look and feel without delving into sonic tropes like "casino area" etc.
+bottomless pits are not as much of an issue here, for one because the game puts up a caution sign whenever you are running towards one, but also because most levels feature alternate routes that you will fall to upon missing a platform or some other failure, much like the genesis sonic games
+I only got one S rank the entire game as far as I am aware, but they definitely don't seem unachievable. likewise with the red rings, I collected quite a few but still have many untouched. even though the game is short, these give much-needed longevity to players seeking full completion (I will probably wait to do this until I can get sonic colors ultimate on sale and work through everything for trophies). it helps that wisps unlocked later in the game populate early stages, so that new areas can be explored upon a revisit
+story is extremely light thank god. the pontac/griff stuff gets hate because it's pretty poor western cartoon-style writing, but at least I don't have to strain myself trying to understand what's going on
+solid boss encounters, even though each one is repeated (with mechanics that change mind you). they never take too long and each incorporate a core gameplay element from the main levels (ie the free-running quickstep segments, or side-scrolling platforming between obstacles) without feeling weird
+the wisp powerups are each such solid gimmicks and can often be quickly deployed in a level without disrupting the pacing. they are also specifically designed to "sequence break" in many cases, which always feels badass
+the music... duh

-some of the aforementioned smaller levels feel brief to the point of being underdesigned. in many cases, I think this is really because the level is mainly meant for red coin collection with a simple race-to-the-finish purposefully being extremely short. in levels with repeated gimmicks though, it feels pointless to go through them... perhaps some of these should be optional stages
-this is by far the least jank in a 3d sonic game but there is still a little bit... some wisp powerups control stiffly or uncomfortably for one. I hate to mention the usual sonic "I was supposed to do a scripted big jump but instead I hit something wrong so I'm flying to my death" issues because I only had a couple deaths to those but they are present as well

after playing generations earlier this year I thought that all 3D sonic was terrible, even the ones generally hailed as better entries. this one really impressed me though... this is finally the sonic game that made me say "this is fucking nice" while I was playing it. so many times in sonic games I have briefly had moments where I thought it only to be disrupted by jank or poor design... in this game you can sit and appreciate how cool the game is without flying into a pit or having to go through a terrible gameplay sequence. 3D sonic at his best no question

where I stopped this game: on the Kill Struggle Leader mission (~25 missions in I think), there's a part a little over halfway through where you will almost certainly fall down a very large pit and are forced to climb up by doing precision platforming, on platforms you cannot see without pausing and looking at a very finicky map based on line of sight. I don't believe this mission is optional so I just gave up; this mission was probably the most cruel I played in the game by far. perhaps the platforms are visible when not played on a small-ish CRT running popstarter on a ps2 but it still was completely ridiculous

+rather deep mech design tools with many configurations possible. shockingly enough each part you buy can be resold for the same price, a very user-friendly move that makes experimentation very feasible
+failing a mission will deduct money from your account but in many cases will not significantly impede you (except on that Kill Struggle Leader mission... I now wonder if I had died rather than aborting the mission whether it would allow me to pass). you can even go into debt a certain amount without any penalty, and if you get to -$50k you'll restart the game but with stat perks, which can be stacked if multiple failures occur
+yea it's tank controls but thanks to the strafe options it actually feels pretty good. bunny hopping around or even just strafing with the four-legged mech variation will almost always do the trick for you
+the outside scenes are actually rendered rather convincingly for a '97 game, with some cool locales and only infrequent environment reuse
+mission objectives range wildly, and often unexpected twists can occur, forcing you to prepare your loadout for any outcome
+I first experienced this in spiritual successor daemon x machina: the emails you get both from your handler and the corporatiosn you work for. I find these so novel lol

-the interior missions suck most of the time, with long missions, copy-pasted layouts, and usually only a single enemy type throughout an entire level. these make up about half of the missions (out of what I played) and are never fun
-combat really struggles to get more interesting than "strafe and shoot", with maybe some hand-to-hand combat if you can get close without taking missiles to the face
-the menus for the shops and such are extremely beginner-unfriendly, and I had to use a guide for much of it until I learned the ropes. so many options, and it's so overwhelming when you first look at it
-even though I'm glad that the game doesn't punish you too harshly for failing a mission and moving on, I still wish there as a "mission retry" option. the alternative is just reloading a save, which takes a significant amount of time and is rather annoying
-the camera controls really would've benefitted from a second joystick, rather than using the triggers to move it up and down
-the lock-on feature seems to not really work in many cases? at least while strafing. if I lock-on to an enemy with heat-seeking missiles I would expect the missiles to hit the target and not veer off wildly

I admire this game in some respects for its depth of play and interesting difficulty mechanics, but it's way too ambitious for a game on the psx. I may try later entries down the road to see if they feel better and have more interesting level design. this game certainly has cult appeal and I do think they actually accomplished much of what they set out to do, but overall I didn't feel like most of it was very fun at all beyond the feeling of progressing in a difficult game.