Have you ever had the feeling where you just wanted to beat the fuck out of someone? Of course, you can’t really do that IRL without getting into some kind of trouble (in most circumstances, anyway), but thankfully, video games are there to help with that. Obviously, not all games involve violence, or necessarily beating people up, but games where the main goal is to beat down someone else trying to beat you down, especially in a professional manner, works pretty well, as seen previously with Punch-Out. The original arcade game, while not being too much nowadays, especially in comparison to the much more beloved console games, does still hold up really well, and was successful enough to where less then a year later, a “sequel” was made for the arcades known as “Super Punch-Out!!”.

Now, despite the fact that the game is a sequel to the original game, it is practically identical to the original game in many aspects. There are very few changes made to the game, and it could be seen as a precursor to DLC, so with that being said, I will treat the game as DLC rather then a full new sequel. If you wanna know my full thoughts about Punch-Out (and to an extent, this game), you can read my review on that game, but for you who don’t care about that, I will only discuss what this game changes compared to the original, and how it improves on it.

In terms of gameplay, it all remains pretty much the same, with the only real change being a new mechanic where you can now duck to avoid attacks that you wouldn’t be able to block or dodge. It is a pretty good technique, but you only really need to use it when it is absolutely necessary to use, so it just comes off as another step to winning a match. The main changes only come in the form of the new fighters you take on, as most would become recurring characters in the series. Each one of them are still pretty unique, having traits that make them stand out from each other, as well as moves that no other boxer before were able to pull off, such as kicks and spinning punches. And not to mention, their animations are very charming, and they still have standout, charming titles that will make you remember them, such as Bear Hugger, Super Macho Man, Vodka Drunkinski………… well, glad to see we still have consistency with names that don’t age well.

Aside from those things though, like I said, it is practically the exact same game as the original, which can be a reason people wouldn’t wanna check it out, which is understandable. I would still consider it to be pretty good, and when compared to the original, I would say this is the better of the two, due to having more movement then the original. Nevertheless, if you were to check out the original Punch-Out games, you only need to check out one of these two games, not both of them. Thankfully, the rest of the games in the series would differ somewhat, so this problem of repeating won’t become a common occurrence… at least, not to this extent.

Game #226

Cant believe I haven't logged this yet. Top 5 game on the SNES for me. Me and my cousin spent countless hours playing this. Still remember we hit a wall for ages against that bastard Hoy Quarlow, the pure joy when we finally beat him was indescribable. And then once we beat it, I fully got into speed running the game, before speed running was even a thing. So many great memories from this amazing game. The original Punch-Out gets way more attention for some reason, but this one is so much better IMO.

When I decided to revisit this game it was almost solely for one reason. I scanned my eyes across the shelf of Mega Drive games and when I saw the cartridge I had what I can only describe as an auditory flashback! The main menu screen has a theme song that goes harder than any sports game expected!

During the rocking music in that particular Mega Drive sound style, you can choose to play a simple match or in a tournament and choose your team. I played the European version of the game, so no NHL teams were available to me. Instead, generic international teams were the roster I could choose from. It had to be fair a pretty large roster of nations to choose from, if the world only includes Europe or North America...

Of course, I had to choose my home nation of Sweden and enter the tournament. First match up; Hungary. I have to get used to the controllers and gameplay and that takes most of my attention during the game.

The gameplay is a lot simpler than I remember it to be, but then again I was a child back then when I first played it. The controls are pretty easy to learn even without any tutorial from the game. No, instead the true challenge in the beginning turns out to be the rules of hockey itself. I did not remember the icing rule and again and again I drew the referee's wrath.

Luckily I managed to pass the Hungarians in the tournament. Next up was the Germans. Something that shined with its absence was the music. During the actual matches, there was no music. Only chunky sound effects of the puck hitting various things, monotone crowds, and the "oof" of tackling players. At least there was some music between the periods.

The Germans take a beating and I'm continuing my way toward that pixelated World Cup. The games become harder to win. The other nations are more aggressive. Fortunately, the controls allow me to easily pass between the players and everything on the screen looks readable with its graphics when the camera flies around to follow the puck. I took the opportunity to play this game on an old CRT and the spritework looks good.

Eventually, I made it to the semi-finals. Meeting the Canadians. Uh oh... I tried to gain the initiative but the opposition dominated the ice rink. I lost, but fortunately, there was a way to start from here again. Dirty tactics had to be employed. The Swedes gave out tackelings and soon the penalty booth looked like a Swedish embassy. Fights broke out on the ice. For some reason it seems to be an important part of ice hockey culture so of course there are fighting mechanics. Punch and back away. The very essence of combat.

I never managed to defeat the Canadians. But perhaps I got something better. The confirmation that the best part of a hockey match is the music between play,

I feel like I played this game at an incredibly fortunate time in my life. Struggling to commit to any game for more than a few hours I was burned out on most modern game genres such as shooters, platformers and RPGs. When I first saw this recommended to me on steam during a sale I was intrigued by the art-style and main gameplay mechanic. I didn't have particularly high hopes I just knew it was highly rated and had a unique aesthetic. If you had told me I was going to play through the game in one long 8 hour session whilst losing track of the time I'd have been shocked. This game is good. REALLY good.

Mechanically the game is fairly simple. You walk up to a corpse, use your stopwatch on it and you get several pieces of information. It starts with fully voiced dialogue of the moments leading up to the death. Then once that finishes you get the big picture, the actual moment of death in frozen tableau. One of the most impressive things about this game for me is the way it sets your expectations for what the game will throw at you and then continually makes you re-assess what in the actual fuck is happening.

Once having viewed the scene you are asked to fill in notebook and describe who died and what killed them, and later what happened to the passengers who went missing off screen. Did they die? Did they escape? You don't have the answer spelled out for you and have to make a lot of educated inferences to finish the game. While some games are easy and use puzzles to make you "feel" smart, this game feels both challenging and rewarding. I never got stuck and had to use a guide. Meticulous checking off of names and revisiting scenes with newfound context is the name of the game here. Really great stuff.

This game and Outer Wilds are two games that completely changed how I viewed what games could be. I can easily say I have never played anything quite like it. A must play.

Megaman 2 is often considered one of the best titles not only in the franchise, but one of the best games ever.

And honestly I don't buy that.
I played this game multiple times and yeah, I totally see the things that does incredibly: the movement and jump-&-shootery is fluid and fun even today, the grphics are nice, the ability to approach the game as you want was a novel concept for the time and the soundtrack is a banger to this day (Seriously, Wily Castle 1 still gives me goosebumps)

But also there is a lot of weird design choices, specifically in the later sections of the game. Some parts of the final levels are straight up unaccessible if you don't have the good equipment (ITEM-1 and ITEM-2 being so important to progress feels kinda weird too), and one specific boss (the worst mf I have ever fought) is impossible to pass if you used Crash Bomber at all before it.
Not to mention that, after playing later titles, I really felt the lack of Slide Kick, Rush and Charge Shot in thos one.

My criticism aside, there is not denying that it is a classic that everone should try, and its pros are able to outshine its cons to make it a great experience even after 30+ years.

Mega Man 2 is epic, go figure

The third entry is a series of improvements and a few steps backward. While the innovations the game brings do wholeheartedly make the series better, at some point there is some head-scratching game design that felt like a regression to the formula they have established.

To go over the improvements, the simple addition of a slide mechanic feels great to control and makes traversing each level feel more dynamic. I felt I had more options when dealing with enemies making running past them a viable option that doesn't result in me getting hurt. For the first half of the game, I'd say the levels have been some of my favorite of the game so far. The same goes for the robot masters where each fight felt very hectic but had a somewhat clear pattern. I wish some of these fights were not just trivialized by other weapons and were manageable with the mega-buster. Gemi-Man is a great example of a fight I like where figuring out the rhythm of the attack patterns is very satisfying but is harmed by the fact you can destroy him with a specific weapon. The final addition I enjoyed was transforming the special weapons into the adorable robot-dog companion Rush. He still pretty much serves the same purpose as the special weapons but I'd rather look at a cute dog than a random gadget.

Onto the missteps, I said I only enjoyed half of these levels because the other half felt like a test of patience with trial and error being the main method to get through them. I did not mind the added difficulty of the revisited stages, outside of instant death spikes, but the Doc-Robot fights were not that fun. The idea is interesting with you revisiting Mega Man 2 fights but with little knowledge as to what type of boss was coming and what their weakness is I ended up dying a lot in these sections. Finally the reliance on using Rush in the Wily stages is not necessarily a bad thing but similarly to parts of the last game as soon as you run out of energy for Rush you might as well get a game over.

I still enjoyed my time with this entry and was overall less frustrated with this entry when compared to the first one. Experimentation did lead the series off better in the long run but I was a little sad to see them slightly miss the mark.

I was actually set up and ready to play Super Mario Sunshine for the first time, but it came to my realization that my Mario 3D All-Stars collection was missing out of its case. It turns out that the likely reason why it’s gone is because my nephew swiped it while he was here last, meaning that my LIMITED RELEASE 3D All-Stars copy was stolen. Look, he’s just a kid and I’ll probably see him again later so I may have a chance to get it back. I’m really not mad or anything, it’s just that the next time I see him I’ll probably be whipping Kung Lao’s hat at him instead of Mario’s. Until then though, I needed to find something else to play…

With Mario still on the brain, I had Odyssey basically screaming for me to finally let it out. It’s supposedly nothing like Mario Sunshine but I wouldn’t know anyways. The only 3D Mario I’ve played is Mario Galaxy, so I wagered it would play similarly in that direction instead. What I do know is that when I said I would be playing Mario Sunshine, it was met with tomatoes and thunderous BOOOOOOs. After changing plans to this, the mood instantly shifted to cute rainbows, hugs, and smiles. hotpoppah will remember this. Not sure what caused the hate in their hearts, but I guess I’ll take this situation as fate dealt to me by God himself.

I could be wrong, but this has got to be the most unhinged game in the entire series. Bowser has hit an all-time rock bottom, destroying civilizations in order to force a wedding onto a non-consenting Princess Peach. Mario’s whole gimmick is possessing the bodies of enemies, demolishing their bones in order to platform through natural disasters and discarding them into the ocean. This game has huge TikTok energy. It starts at a 100 right at the gate, then tosses you into the first world where the mechanics are kinda just thrown in your face. The camera’s whipping around like a CCTV monitor. The game’s just giving Moons out like it’s Halloween candy. Holy shit, is that a realistic DINOSAUR? I have so many questions and not enough answers, but it doesn’t matter baby, we’re cruising like it’s NASCAR. I don’t know what the fuck all the rush is, but boy is it cool as shit flicking your way around Metropolis.

New Donk City? This game made me feel like I could Donk anything. It was very easy. Sorry kiddies, I’m the better Super Mario Odyssey player. It really says something when you’re 3,654,844th place in Jump-Rope and yet there are still thousands of children behind you on the leaderboard. Maybe try a little harder next time! But real talk though, why are some levels like 4 seconds long? We can discuss and argue battle mechanics or bosses all damn day, but just the slightest diverging path will net you so many extra Moons for nothing that you can just straight up leave the level as soon as the boss is defeated. Sure, you don’t have to leave as soon as possible, but once you’re 3 worlds deep trying to absorb the area for what it is, you kinda realize that a lot of Moons are just the same puzzle or mini-game in every World. It slightly makes up for it in the post-game where you can re-fight the bosses and run around in Mario 64’s version of Disney Land, depending on who you are. I bet this was awesome for long-time fans, but for me it was like I was invited to the retirement party of some guy I barely knew.

I finished the game with 180 Moons though, 220 with some Mushroom Kingdom exploration. If you think I’m collecting 500 total just to unlock what I assume will just be a cock and ball torture level, you’ve been Donked one too many times. I’m sure it’s easier than it sounds with how the game just gives you Moons for breathing, but it’s the easiness of the collection that made the whole process sound so mind-numbing to me. It’s fantastic and amazing when the set pieces and bosses are all coming together, but boring as shit when you’re just buying Stars in bundles or looking for spots to ground pound. I don’t want to do that shit!!!

On another note, the music in this game slaps but it’s weird that there’s so many long stretches of levels where there is no music at all. Mario is half naked, nipples out on the beach but all you can hear is the sound of seagulls and waves hitting the coast line. It was a very surreal experience that I don’t ever want to feel again. Other than that, fine. It was fun. I finally have another Mario game under my belt, and it was mostly just as good as everyone says it is.

I gotta go though, someone just popped my balloon. When I fucking get you, Splatoon profile picture.