Twisted Metal already made a stunning, triumphant return with TM Black on the PS2, having most of the original crew handle that game's development. However, the team would struggle to properly keep that momentum going, likely due to the game's director --David Jaffe-- leaving the team in order to pursue a huge project with Sony's full support that would become "God of War." An opportunity he couldn't pass up.

Thus, this is the most straight-forward continuation of where Twisted Metal 2 left off, even bringing back a lot of the characters. However, much of the edge from the original game seems to have been sanded down in order to provide a slightly cleaner, less explicit vibe. Jaffe has gone on the record to say that has always been Singletrac/Incognito's natural path when he isn't the one steering the ship. More family-friendly stuff that he doesn't vibe with at all.

Even so, the presentation is good! This was a launch title for PSP, and it really boasted how good games can look on that little rectangle back in 2005. Level design's great, really sporting that world tour feel again, and I love the overall character designs as they went with the comic book feel once again.

The overall gameplay, however, is kind of lackluster. Not awful by any stretch of the word but felt like a snail's crawl after the ultra-tight, fast, rambunctious nature of TM Black I was used to. They stuck to their guns and left most of the design unchanged from TM2 and Black, but the speed of the gameplay is just not that crazy. It could be due to the PSP's own limitations, though, I can't be sure. Even so, neat little game to this day. As an early PSP adopter, I thought it was awesome back then! These days . . . still not too shabby.

The unique ideas that Crab Souls brings to the formula are an entertaining mixup to be sure, but they don't hide the issues I had with the game.
Enemy stats seem overtuned. Even with a lot of stats put into attack, it never felt like it made a difference. Their damage output is also kind of absurd. Being prone to two-shotting the player at any given time.
Bosses felt the most balanced. Predictable but tricky attack timings and movesets that felt more in line with Dark Souls 1 than the later titles in that franchise. They were the highlight of the experience for me because of this.
The writing was winceworthy to me and I really didn't like the characterization of the main character. The overuse of the word "kiddo" also bugged me as I went on. Seeing as a prominent character will call the protagonist this about 50 times every conversation with her.

The game is on gamepass and I'd probably reccommend playing it there if you really like souls clones. It has some neat ideas, but unfortunate jank and lacking enemy variety prevent it from being something really special.

I could write many paragraphs about every little thing that annoyed me about this game. From the mediocre soundtrack where you'll mostly hear the droning alert theme, the cramped open world, or the unsatisfying and frustrating gunplay.

Instead I'm going to say that buried within the muck and filth that is this trend-chasing derivative mess, there's a Jak sequel I wish I was playing instead. The few all too short levels taking advantage of the jetboard. Mixing it in with proper platforming and reasonable enemy spawns.
If Naughty Dog had made that game I would've swallowed the weird edgelord tone no problem. Instead it's a game I never want to return to.

I AM TRANSGENDER SO I CAN SAY ALL OF THIS AND YOU CAN'T GET UPSET AT ME

This is Black Panther for 4tranners. Everything about this game reeks of being made by someone who is completely and utterly detached from reality. I hope they've gotten help since making this.

As for the 'commentary' on video games, it's the most surface-level superficial garbage I've perhaps ever read about the subject. The only part of this game I remotely found interesting is the one singular page about video games being a system, and how unique that makes them.

Also a lot of extremely gross chaser shit in this. I know the author is trans, but that doesn't mean they can't also fetishize transgender people. In fact, I'd say some of the most heinous chaser things I've read have come from people who are transgender.

This game is a genuinely very sad showcase of delusionalism. Alternatively, it's moon if it was made by someone who is terminally online.

Edit:
THIS REVIEW IS AWFUL. I have made an updated review that expresses my opinion about this much better. If you liked this review, I implore you to please read my new one instead.

Also, I doubt she's even read this, but I want to apologize to the author of this game regardless. This review is extremely mean-spirited and accusatory, and I had no right to talk this way about someone I've never even met. This person doesn't deserve to have her ideas obsessed over like this and to be psycho-analyzed by random people online just for giving her opinion on video games of all things.

To put it bluntly, Muv-Luv Extra is a generic romcom, with obviously stereotypical characters. Takeru, for example, is the stereotype of a romcom idiot, dull and blind to everything around him, it gets frustrating that he can't even decide things for himself even without someone pointing the way. The emphasis of the work is clearly on the Slice of Life moments of the work and on the comedy, which at least worked for me in most cases. Regarding the two main routes (Meiya and Sumika), but as a whole the drama of the work is quite off, and seeing how things happen after Extra, I don't know if the author wanted something mediocre/terrible on purpose or not. Mainly regarding the final stretch, things are very rushed and full of clichés (not that the work wasn't full already). The characters being quite two-dimensional is very frustrating, as I mentioned previously, but in a work where comedy is prioritized this almost goes unnoticed.

What I like about Muv-Luv Extra is its main theme about change and how it ends up resonating with the series from that, even if the theme branches out into the subplots of each route, what encapsulates this entry is the lesson of not being afraid of change and that change makes us grow as people, even if changes can be negative or ruinous, you must face them and go through them, because you never know tomorrow, even if our time is scarce, the future can hold for us wonderful things and you are the one who decides that, with your own hands. I'm not made for romance, much less generic romcom, but Muv-Luv gave me a new perspective on romance in an extremely positive way, people who risked an entire relationship for the partner they want. As if they enter a battlefield ready and determined to give their lives for what I believe in, it's surprising that I've never looked at things that way, it's very chuuni and I like that perspective lol.

As for Unlimited, we see on Extra how Muv-luv wants to talk about life, how things are fleeting and everything ends. This is the great core of the entire Extra, after all, as long as they are the small relationships, the happy and ephemeral moments, but even with the adversities of the extra, many details were problems that hidden behind the facade an era of peace and sociability, combined with a lot of comedy.

But in Unlimited, because of this peace, because this scenario around us ceases to exist, we know the true face of humanity, how humans are when stripped of all the values and weights that surround us, all the categories in which we place ourselves. And with that he asks the question why live? Essentially, this world is no different from our world full of war and suffering, but why do we continue to live? If we are just existing listlessly until the day we die, because we keep striving endlessly and suffering in the process. The world of Unlimited is nothing more than a naked reflection of the world of Extra that serves as a reflection of our own world. Questions of why we live, why we want to survive, what we are willing to sacrifice and what we really want to protect. I will never forget chapter 9 whose lesson is: "Do you want to protect human life or the human heart? Exist or Live." Unlimited leaves several questions in mind, considering the open ending, but mainly the feeling of emptiness and the sadness of defeat at the end of the work.