This review will mainly focus on the new additions that were brought to Final Mix.

But first, a quick feeling about my overall thoughts on the base game. It's grand.

Okay, with II Final Mix, like in Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix, the enemies have gotten their color palettes changed, but you do get used to it after a few playthroughs, so it isn't a huge deal.

Some minor additions first up are additional cutscenes, you get to fight Roxas in The World That Never Was, some unnoticeable things behind the hood, like Drive Form gauge regeneration speed, some time limit changes, etc.

One of the major additions for Final Mix is a new group of Heartless called the Mushroom XIII, which are the mushroom enemies within the first game. These enemies give you certain criteria to beat them. If you get below that threshold, you do have a chance to get helpful items from them, but still its not the thing that would get them to be finished. These offer nice strategy mixups for each one, and you do get good rewards as well from them, and after doing them all.

Another major addition for Final Mix was a new area in Radiant Garden added called the Cavern of Remembrance. This adds a great deal of challenge to the game with new stronger versions of enemies you've faced before and new traversal challenges, which do require you to essentially, have all of your Drive Forms maxed out to unlock all of those abilities to get further into the Cavern. At the end of this area, you unlock rematches with each Organization XIII member. They are now stronger, add additional attacks to their arsenal, and new strategies as well. These are great because of the added challenge, but you can also do them in any order, which helps you out if you're having trouble with one of the bosses you can just go to another boss.

But, they aren't all unlocked if you haven't done a handful of fights before, called the Absent Silhouette battles, another addition for Final Mix. These fights are the Organization members who perished in Chain of Memories and are a good ease to the rematches as they are challenging, but not too bad if you're at a good level.

One of the last major additions is one boss called the Lingering Will. This boss fight is popularly one of the toughest boss fights in the entire series, but it also ties so freaking well to the overall story coming up in the series.

Gameplay additions include a new Drive Form and a new difficulty mode.

You do get a new Drive Form as well which ties into the first game, the Limit Form. This form allows you to use various attack abilities from the first game like Ars Arcanum, Strike Raid, Sonic Blade, etc. Sora's clothes also change to reference the first game too which is a nice hint. This is a great addition since it gives you some more Drive Form variety, and this one does not use any Party Members. Helpful!

The difficulty mode is the infamous Critical Mode. Lots of pain and struggle if you want that extra challenge. A nice little addition to the game if you so desire!

So, overall Final Mix adds some great new challenges to the base game, great new boss battles, but also some great additional context around certain characters too. This is the definitive version of Kingdom Hearts II.

Played on a 3DS
Difficulty: Proud Mode
Replay, but I haven't played it since it came out

358/2 Days has a great story of friendship with the three main characters: Roxas, Axel, and Xion. The interactions of the three with the organization members are interesting and tense. Some members gel well in the beginning, but eventually start to cross each other with varying hopes and goals. The added context of have played Kingdom Hearts 3 makes some of these moments even that more heart-wrenching and emotional, in good and sad ways.

The game does a great job at setting stuff up for Kingdom Hearts 2, but also gives some great context for Chain of Memories and the relationship that Xigbar and Ven have in Birth by Sleep.

The only issue is with gameplay being okay. You slash with your keyblade and the bosses are a cool spectacle, but some of them can just be beaten with the strategy of hit, dodge or block, and hit some more. This gets better during the ending stretch of the game, but at that point you're almost done with the game that you wish they had some better bosses sprinkled in.

The enemies in general are nice color palette swaps of enemies, but are pretty lackluster in general. Nothing too special about them. You have some that shoot at you to transport you to their spot, or if you hit them in a certain spot, they disappear and spawn a short distance away. But nothing too crazy overall.

The Panel system of the game is an interesting concept to figure out what to focus on in your playstyle. It makes you choose specific things and eventually introduces skills that take up multiple panels to make them stronger, or you can just keep the one panel for that skill. A nice balance I would say in that regard.

Proud Mode feels like a good balance of difficulty for the game. A nice balance of challenging at the spots that are supposed to be, but good enough to survive the other parts.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, is a solid entry in the series! It makes you really, really care about the trio of this game. Definitely could be better in gameplay, but the bosses were fun to gaze upon.

When Kingdom Hearts Re:coded came out, I was in the latter peak in my Kingdom Hearts high school fandom. It was a bit waning, but I still wanted to play each entry. I remember playing Re:coded in a newly moved into house with fond memories still today. This series has meant a lot to me as I age throughout years, no matter how many spurts of a break I have had.

First off, the story does make sense in the grand scheme of things if you try to understand it in a simpler way. A book is corrupted leaving mysterious messages and Sora needs to go fix it. Through that lens, the game's story mixed in with a loose retelling of Kingdom Hearts 1, is mostly a breeze of sorts.

BUT! When you get to Castle Oblivion, the story culminates in some good thematic questions posed to this digital version of Sora. Even if he is just a digital incarnation of Sora. Would Sora be willing to carry a substantial amount of a hurt in his heart? Which, connects well to the original corrupted message. "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it." Sets up some grand moments in the future of the series.

The story can be confusing at some points, but it is a decent story to setup the series moving forward. Now, that could also be a negative. This spin-off is just a story that can be glossed over since some could assume that Sora would be willing to do anything for people he's connected with, but this added context for Mickey and Sora is really grand!

Unlike 358/2 Days, the gameplay is good too! Though to get this out of the way, performance does get framey when there are lots of enemies in one area at once. The Stat Matrix is a grand mix of strategy since you can adjust what difficulty you play on in a breeze, you can adjust enemy item drop rates but at the cost of Sora's health, and a few others in here, while still leveling up and getting stronger. This entire circuit board motif makes you choose where you put certain chips you obtain, so that if they are connected by two Main CPU-like things, that certain chip's effect will double! It's a great type of puzzle-reward building!

Another gameplay element is the Command Matrix which is spun-off from Birth by Sleep. I do really love this style of commands compared to 358/2 Days direction. You get more experimentation with varying abilities making you try out different things you normally wouldn't try.

Overall gameplay does have some of the same feelings of 358/2 Days: hit, dodge, block, and fight some more. But at least in Re:coded, the developers did experiment with different genres in the game like 2D platforming, turn-based RPG, and some stealth inspired portions as well. So that is definitely a welcome addition! But really, who doesn't love hitting things with a Keyblade?!

The worlds are essentially all taken from Kingdom Hearts 1, minus Castle Oblivion. Which in this case, would be the fourth time playing some of these exact areas. So that isn't great at all. Some of them do offer different things compared to previous games, but it still is roughly the same area that you explored. In 358/2 Days, Neverland's trip is based off the surrounding Isles and not just Captain Hook's ship. However, in Re:coded there isn't much like that this time around. So that is a knock against that area of the game.

As a whole, Re:coded is a good time. The story isn't as substantial as 358/2 Days, or Chain of Memories, but it still offers some nice context. The gameplay is quite good, especially for a DS game! I do wish the worlds were more diverse from the series' history, but it does make sense in regards to being in Jiminy's Journal from the first game. If you are a new Kingdom Hearts fan, I'm not sure if this would be for you at first, but I do recommend it!

This game has lived rent-free in my head for the past week as I have been going through it, and, having finished, I hope it never leaves. A lot of people have already written about what makes this game a masterpiece, so I’m just gonna bullet point random thoughts about why this game is one of my favorite games of all time:

I got the “In Water” ending, and I would have been satisfied if the game stopped after 3 different scenes. I’m so glad it continued until the very end. Maybe the best final hour in any game.

As someone who has been dealing with death and terminal illness hands on for the past 3+ months, I think this is the best interpretation I’ve seen about the grief held by loved ones (especially those choosing hospice or acting as patient surrogate in DNR decision making).

Actually a well-written examination of abuse that in (brief) instances empowers the victim while also remaining true to the ramifications of the act. Idk how so many games since have continued to fail in this regard.

The voice acting could not have been more perfect for this game, and I won’t have anyone tell me otherwise.

My favorite video game score of all time.

Some of the best sound design of any game I have ever played.

The fog.

Captive in a dark cabin;
No death, no chance to escape
Until I turned the tables
On my sadistic captor I learned to hate.

Yet, that world crumbled away,
And I began to see truth.
Passion for playing the game -
T'was showmanship all along, and not abuse.

Surprised by how much I grew
to love this game, front to end,
narrative truly grabbed me,
as once loathed opponents transformed into friends.

"The Dynamics of Design, Verisimilitude, and Anachronism in the Video Game 'Hollow Knight': A critical examination of Cacophony and Sanctimony in Achieving Narrative Dynamism."

ABSTRACT
Hollow knight is a badass game. It didn’t just pull me out of my gaming slump, it pulled me by the collar and threw me onto the subway tracks. But the subway tracks were abandoned so I explored the tunnels and it turns out there’s a whole area down here behind a hidden wall I only found by shooting a fireball at a bee and hitting behind it. This is all metaphorical. The research methodology used in this study is a qualitative analysis of the selected media forms, including critical textual analysis and thematic analysis.

Lost your attention? Sorry I’ll stop doing the fancy word essay gimmick. I know you’re not here for that. Let's be real; I’m the realest reviewer on backloggd. That’s why you always come to me. That’s why you read my reviews. That’s why every time I meet a fan in public and they ask me for my autograph, they also tell me I am the reviewer they wait for until they play a game. It’s been 6 years since Hollow Knight came out and unfortunately I’ve been keeping my fans waiting for way too long. But worry no longer, Elksters. You can finally stop telling people that you haven’t played hollow knight because you’re waiting for the Elkmane review. It’s here. And I permit you to play it. Go ahead! If you haven’t already. But you probably haven’t, cause you all listened to me when I said don’t play games I haven’t tested and approved, right? You know why I do what I do? I taste test these games and warn of poison. You elksters are the kings and queens and rulers and I am the poison tester jester. You haven’t played it yet? Good! But I hope you finish it soon because I’m gonna go in depth and there's gonna be some spoilers.

So … it’s been a while since I've done a proper ass review. Hm. I guess we can start with how every good thing in the universe starts.

A lot of people ask me… stupid fucking questions. A lot of people think that … what I say in a review. Or what I talk about in a review. That I actually… do in real life. Or that I believe in it. Or if I say that… I wish that fangirl bug you rescue and bring to Dirtmouth had a more indepth romance path… I actually want them to do it, or that I believe in it. Well shit. If you believe that… then I’ll kill you. You know why? Because I freaking love the gameplay! I love the gameplay!

The gameplay is very nice. It’s 2D and you can move around and attack and stuff. Yada yada. But every action game is made or broken with its healing system. That's why Dark Souls is the GOAT and Skyrim sucks dicks. What do I think of hollow knight’s healing system? I think it’s good. It’s a little forgiving, especially with certain charms equipped like the shape of Unn and quick soul or whatever it’s called but it’s fine because some bosses can be very unforgiving. The whole battle can be trying to not get hit until you stagger or get them to do the one move you need so you have enough time to get off 1 heart of healing. It’s a super cool system that is also balanced by the magic system which draws off the same soul. I do think there's a problem with the extra soul canisters taking a second to reload and go into your main, usable soul canister. There’s also a second of input delay after you finish healing so it’s hard to pull off last millisecond jumps. But that’s probably all about balance. If they took it out it would probably be unbalanced. Who knows.

The nail combat is also great. It feels nice and some charms can make your nail faster or longer. But overall it’s basic. Nothing wrong with it I guess. It’s like urinating. It’s simple and you get used to it so you never realize how practical and easy to pick up and use it is. There’s a parry system that sometimes makes me feel super cool. I also got into some areas early by hitting the nail downward on an object and getting height. Nail arts though. Those kinda feel tacked on and I barely used them. But the real appeal of the combat isn’t really mastering parry timing or some shit. It’s no sekiro. You don’t really need physical reaction time mastery much. You just need to know the enemies and their moves and how to move in the air. And the more upgrades you get the easier the combat gets, but man the enemies get harder too don’t they? Some of the top tier bosses are so hard and you literally die within seconds. Then you keep practicing and doing it over and over til you know all the moves and how to dodge em so it's just a matter of doing the right dodges at the right time and hitting when they’re open. So much variation and so many different moves for these dudes it’s very fun and sometimes catches me off guard in new areas seeing new enemies.

I’m always on my guard while exploring but at the same time exploring can be a relaxing time cause you can get soul and heal up. Doin some cool traversal. The platforming aint bad for the most part considering platforming is the worst part of any game it’s in. Except the white castle place I could reasonably do any of the platforming without issue. Jumping and dashing and super dashing and shit. Made even funner by hitting your sword downwards. There were some creative platforming areas, like hitting the long metal worms to stay afloat etc. I loved how there was never a time in the game when I was lost because I could just go in one direction absentmindedly and just explore shit cause there's always gonna be something in that direction. And then as you keep getting more and more shit like more jumps and stuff in normal metroidvania fashion but there's so much cool stuff that u find by backtracking.


Now, I wanna take a quick detour to discuss something. The song Music Box by Eminem on relapse is a beautiful track. And yet, oxymoronically, the lyrics are gruesome and describe various murders and cannibalistic acts as well as name-dropping JonBenét Ramsey. Yet it’s hauntingly beautiful. It invokes a sense of familiarity, of love, of nostalgia, and it can clearly be seen within the eerie yet comforting chorus. If I may; it goes a little something like this; “when the lights are off, i see the girls asleep, I hear my music box playing a song for me, though we’re worlds apart, you mean the world to me, so when you call i will answer” Punctuated repeatedly with Marshall repeating the title of the song over the chorus at haphazard intervals. Look closely at the imagery presented within the verse. “Lights are off, girls asleep” Evokes thoughts of seeing your daughter and/or wife asleep, late at night. Which could be seen in that way or, geniusly, perhaps through the eyes of a serial killer. And it follows with “music box i hear it calling me” A music box could be a sentimental or melancholy gift. Often associated with love and family. This song’s genius use of contrast helps so well with the horror atmosphere. And it follows; “though we’re worlds apart, you mean the world to me” fully going in on the love aspect. Everyone’s had a long distance relationship and everyone knows how it feels to want to hug the person you love so much but the best you can do is send a gif with a cartoon bear that says “SENDING VIRTUAL HUG” which isn’t nearly as nice for either party. “So when you call I will answer” and he finishes out the chorus by reminding his long distance girlfriend that he will accept the discord call instantly whenever she calls. But another interpretation could be that the music box and the girl calling are two opposing forces: if we look at it through an eminemian lens, the music box could be metaphysically symbolizing the music industry. The girls could symbolize the 38 daughters that guy has. So much meaning, symbolism, interpretation, and thought packed into one single tiny little chorus on a bonus track most will miss. Why? Because he’s the greatest musical artist of all time. Pusha T’s up there too but Eminem is awesomer IMO.


Now, how can we apply this lens to Hollow Knight? We cannot. Thank you for reading.









BIBLIOGRAPHY:


Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, March 10). Eminem. Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem

just a little bit too much "smashing head in2 wall" stuff and id be happy if i never fought no eyes again but overall its a hype and fun experience. The new bosses were really really hype and the boss refight hall is a great idea. Theres no way im doing that pantheon with every boss in the game back to back. I already theoretically beat it just out of order and one at a time during the course of the rest of my playthru

im gonna rereview hollow knight with all the completion and secret ending stuff and give it the thorough, overwritten 50 page review that the game truly deserves. Keep an eye out for that!!!!!!!!

One of the most criminally underrated and underappreciated gaming gems of the 6th generation of video games. Level 5's magnum opus that deserved all the adulation and praise that Ni No Kuni received... if you look up the term: "pure fun", it should display a picture of this game.

There were so many different gameplay systems that were expanded and improved upon from the first game. And they didn't stop there! Introducing an incredible array of new, ambitious ideas and additions to the gameplay variety, such as: improved dungeon exploration, weapon upgrades - with a tighter focus with there being only 1 melee/1 range weapon for the 2 main characters: Max and Monica, Ridepod customization, monster collection, town-building (and jumping back and forth in time to see what your town becomes in the future), recruiting townspeople to move into the places you build, Spheda (golf mini-game), fishing, fish raising/racing, and the photography/invention mechanic.

This game constantly keeps things fresh by having no shortage of things to do. With the absolutely gorgeous and timeless cel-shaded graphics, it all comes together perfectly. Level-5 put their entire heart and soul into making this masterpiece.

I'll always look back on this game with great memories, whether it be playing it for hours by myself back in middle school, or introducing it to my cousin when he was younger and us passing the controller back and forth. The only thing that saddens me when thinking back to this game, is that we never were given a Dark Cloud 3... after 20+ long years, and 3 console generations, I would have loved to see this franchise continue to grow and evolve from here. Alas, we shall never see it happen.. :(

Compared to the previous two sonic kart racers from sumo digital, this game is a step back in almost every direction. I had very high expectations for this game, coming from the masterpiece that is sonic and all stars racing transformed, and while the only-sonic approach had me initially concerned, I realized that the sonic IP is definitely vast enough to have enough interesting locales and characters to base an entire kart racer off of. As long as the tracks were solid and the mechanics were fun, that's all this game needed to be a winner.

As you can tell by the review score though, they didn't quite execute with that. There are like 4 or 5 different course themes with a few tracks per theme, and all of them have been done to death before with sonic games. Oh boy, we got seaside hill, rooftop run, and planet wisp back! We haven't seen those levels a million times already! The new themes of sandopolis and holoska are just generic desert and ice levels which don't really have a lot to look at imo. To me personally, having interesting track themes and designs is crucial to making a great kart racing game, and this game drops the ball heavily. The roster is also super weird too. Cream got replaced with a bunch of chao...? Charmy bee is nowhere to be seen...? Zavok is here again...? I think the roster is weird because of the story mode they got going on which is aight but a lil unneccessary imo. The mechanics are all team based this time around which means you better hope you have friends to play this with otherwise you are gonna be in for a bad time. You can use your teammates for a boost or pass items around between each other which is cool, but if one or both of your teammates places low it could screw over your entire team so thats awesome. The soundtrack bangs tho ngl. The game was just a little disappointing. just a little

I won’t mince my words here: the last month has been a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some solid titles that I finally got to finish and everything’s been interesting enough to where I still wrote about it, but nothing’s quite blown my mind recently. Flywrench might have set the bar a bit too high, for better or for worse. So, it looks like it’s time for another nostalgia reset; what better way to get myself back in gear than to go back to the source? Consider this write-up a follow up to my original Donkey Kong Country piece; since I think I’ve fleshed out obstacle escalation theory a ton by this point, I’ll focus more on differences between the two games this time around.

There’s an old Eurogamer review round-up that sort of laments the lack of differences between the original DKC and Diddy’s Kong Quest, referring to the sequel as a victim of “lack of ambition.” I honestly don’t agree with this assessment; Donkey Kong Country 2 preserves much of the original design philosophy for sure, but the game’s levels are often structured so differently with so many new ideas that I find it quite baffling to describe the sequel as “not terribly imaginative.” If anything, there were so many new ideas that many of them led to a lot of dissonance regarding expectations of flow and functionality between the two games. I’ll try to go over as many of the outstanding features as I can, but first, we should address the change in scope that seems to have thrown off so many of us, myself included.

In a retrospective Retro Gamer interview, lead designer Gregg Mayles describes this best: “If we had made it speed runs again then there wouldn’t have been much scope for us to go anywhere different with it.” The focus then, shifted from a speedrunning-friendly momentum-based platformer to a platformer that emphasized exploration, all while still emphasizing fluidity through interchangeable moving parts. Mayles later adds, “[they] wanted to maintain the same ‘go first’ gameplay where all the barrels and baddies were set up so if you went first time – or got the timing right – then the levels were very fluid, but I also wanted to add something new to it. So the first one was very linear, and the second one introduced exploration.”

This is perhaps the most pronounced improvement from the original to the sequel: secret finding and completion now feels significantly more intuitive and fulfilling. While I never personally had much of an issue with exploration in the original, I have to admit that there isn’t much of an incentive trying to find bonus rooms outside of collectibles that all lead to extra lives and the thrill of stumbling upon treasure troves through tougher maneuvers. Diddy’s Kong Quest, however, shows far more focus: the usual spelling and slot minigames alongside treasure troves have been replaced with timed challenges that actively test players’ abilities as par the level’s themes: for example, the bonus area in the first half of Screech’s Sprint requires players to switch between characters to balance out cartwheel jumps and hovering, a bonus area in the windy Gusty Glade requires players to time jumps across dragonflies while being boosted by a current, and so on so forth. Moreover, secret entrances and bonus barrels are more clearly marked with elements such as stray bananas, enemy clusters guarding paths, platforms that are just off-screen, and even banana arrows redirecting players to areas of interest or spelling out button prompts to supercharge animal buddies/team throw. One particularly clever example comes in the level “Target Terror”, where an enemy throwing barrels at you in the car ahead drops to a track below the main track if you decide to make the jump, signifying for future runs that there’s probably something hidden below.

Another improvement towards secret finding comes in the form of cannonballs that have to be carried across segments of the level to activate a cannon into potential bonus sections; it’s a welcome change since it pools the difficulty into the task of ferrying the cannonball while grappling/avoiding enemies inbetween, instead of attempting to create difficulty via obscuring the bonus area entrance. Finally, the reward is also greatly enhanced: instead of more lives to throw into the fray, you receive Kremcoins that can be used to unlock guarded golden barrels by Klubba and access tougher levels in the Lost World to achieve that true ending and snag that sweet, sweet 102% completion. Again, I never found the original limited exploration in DKC to be much of a detriment, but I nevertheless believe that the exploration loop feels much more fleshed out and substantial this time around.

This layer of calculation behind the mechanics translates to practically every single one of the mechanics in the sequel, starting with the characters themselves. It’d be easy to write off Dixie Kong as a Diddy Kong clone, considering that their weight and physics are about the same and Dixie was originally created by iterating upon Diddy’s design in the first place. However, let’s consider Donkey Kong’s value as a controllable character in the original; outside of being a heavier character to one hit KO Armys, Krushas, and Klumps by jumping (Diddy must generally use barrels and cartwheels to defeat these enemies, or in the case of Krushas, often outright avoid them), as well as the abilities to hand slap the ground (not really useful in the original outside of collecting some stray items with no hints and defeating stunned Rock Krocs in one level) and holding the barrel directly above his head, Donkey Kong mostly serves as the character you play when you don’t feel like risking the more agile Diddy Kong to potential death. Diddy’s quicker cartwheel and faster jump means that he is the weapon of choice for most of the platforming in the long expanses of the original DKC, and Donkey Kong is often there just as a “back-up” second life.

In Diddy’s Kong Quest, Dixie and Diddy are stratified enough to where your second character is more than just a representation that you can take a second hit. Diddy is of course, still a pleasure to control thanks to his quick cartwheel jump providing a “low and long” form of movement, and holding the barrel directly in front gives Diddy a quick form of defense for approaching enemies. Dixie, on the other hand, snags Donkey Kong’s utility of holding the barrel directly above the character’s head and utilizing overhead throws with a bit extra. All of her moves involve her long blonde ponytail, including her ability to hover in mid air by holding down Y to slow her descent and reach dangling collectibles while more carefully maneuvering past flying obstacles. As a result, it might be easier to think of Diddy as the better character for the classic speedy platforming experience, while Dixie is not quite as agile but is extremely helpful for spanning larger gaps and taking your time while ascending/descending vertically.

Moreover, the sequel also places additional emphasis upon having both characters available to you at once. Most of this comes in the form of the team-throw: you can pick up your partner at any time and angle the throw to reach collectibles and platforms/hooks that would normally be impossible to jump to. Additionally, since Diddy and Dixie are both lightweights, Krunchas can only be defeated with the team-throw outside of barrel usage and animal buddies, since jumping onto Krunchas will just result in Diddy/Dixie bouncing off. Finally, certain barrel cannons are marked with either Diddy or Dixie’s face, meaning that you will need to either be using that particular character or throwing that particular character into the cannon to be launched. Having both characters on your screen has an inherently deeper meaning than just possessing another hit; not only will you need to pick the correct character for the best approach, you must often have both on-hand to maximize opportunities with the team-throw and be allowed access to character-coded barrels.

Regarding character control, animal buddies have also been greatly buffed. The original was admittingly a bit more wishy-washy towards usage of animal buddies; while they were intended as a power-up, levels had to nevertheless be designed without explicit usage of them, resulting in many situations where animal buddies at best felt like extraneous helpers that could sometimes help unlock secret areas and provided another hit point of health, and at worst feeling like an active detriment (ex: Rambi’s awkward size and maneuverability in Manic Mincers, or Espresso’s inconsistency safely walking over Klap Traps in Orangutan Gang). As seen previously, animal buddies like Rambi and Engarde can throw out attack hitboxes to break fake walls for secrets, but Diddy’s Kong Quest goes beyond that and often sculpts entire playgrounds for animal buddy abilities, going as far as to include animal buddy transformation barrels for particular sections.

Toxic Tower is a great example of this in action: you start with a very open and wide section that requires very high and lengthy jumps, often on Zingers, to scale the initial heights, as per Rattly the Snake’s speciality with the charged superjump. Then, the stage transitions to a more enclosed series of chambers and tight passageways, with tons of vertical navigation and roaming enemies that require Squawk’s flight and egg shots to clear. Finally, the stage’s final stretch is a straight shot up to the exit, forcing the player to rely upon Squitter the Spider to quickly create temporary web platforms to scale up the chute while pursued by the ever-rising toxic waste. As an addendum to maintaining composure with the animal buddy, “No Animal Signs” will force the Kongs to abandon that particular playstyle while often rewarding players that manage to get that far with their animal buddy intact with a reward, such as banana bunches, extra lives, or in some cases, barrels that can be used (and only appear in that particular fashion) to open up yet another secret area. The end result is yet another design tool that’s been pushed to its furthest extents so far for more varied level structures, broadly increasing the DKC toolkit while maintaining the same core principles.

On that note, Donkey Kong Country 2’s most defining experimental level design trend is perhaps its enthusiasm to dabble with verticality. While the original only had one primarily vertical level in Slip Slide Ride, the sequel happily mingles with scaling heights every other level or so, with some levels that resemble a spiraling zig-zag with interspersed horizontal platforming like Windy Well while others commit hard to a full scalar climb such as the aforementioned Toxic Tower. It seems antithetical at first to design so many vertical levels in a game that’s practically mastered its horizontal traversal with the fast cartwheel jump for maintaining momentum, but in my opinion, it’s simply a different language of platforming that builds off the same organic obstacle escalation and fluid movement, and with that different language comes a different set of tools to express the language more fluently. Skyhooks, barrel cannons, animal buddy abilities such as Rattly’s superjump and Squitter’s temporary web platforms, climbable ropes and chains, and even certain water levels that experiment with the changing height of the liquid and interspersing dry land platforms are just some of the many level elements that are utilized to aid ascending player movement, alongside the usual hazards to spur players into action such as the aforementioned rising toxic goo in Toxic Tower and the bramble walls encountered while flapping about with Squawks. Even within this new territory, DKC 2 subverts its own set expectations with two levels that force players to travel downwards, in the form of Parrot Chute Panic (which has players slowly descend a Zinger infested hive with the help of purple budget Squawks) and Black Ice Blitz (which as a foil to Parrot Chute Panic, goads players into quickly descending a slippery icy chasm to avoid being swarmed by grounded foes). Though it is easy to criticize the sequel for taking such a seemingly drastically different approach to level design, I do believe that Diddy’s Kong Quest deserves to stand on its own merits and absolutely presents a more calculated and methodical, yet just as focused platforming experience.

What stands out to me as this game’s greatest strength is that no idea is ever repeated verbatim, both within the game and with respect to the original DKC. A great way to illustrate these wrinkles that are used to diversify level navigation is through examination of the three minecart levels, which have now been rethemed as roller coasters. Target Terror has Diddy and Dixie leaping between skull cars to hit green checkmark barrels while avoiding red X barrels to open up closed gates and avoid closing already open ones. Meanwhile, Rickety Race recontextualizes the roller coaster ride as a straight up competition, incentivizing players to defeat and bypass enemy skull cars to eventually stomp the goon in first place and snag the level’s DK coin. Finally, Haunted Hall introduces the timer into the equation, and requires the player to collide into + barrels while avoiding – barrels to maintain timer longevity and avoid certain doom from the pursuing Kackles. At the end of the day, all of these examples are horizontal auto-scrollers, but thanks to the varied level objectives defining how traversal must be accomplished, the levels still feel distinct without any single one bleeding into another.

I could go on and on about the sheer amount of fresh level elements introduced in DKC 2 and just how many of them remain memorable to me, from the air draft balloons in Red Hot Ride to the rolling giant tires of Jungle Jinx to the usage of Clapper seals in Lava Lagoon purifying the lava into water and creating this mad scramble to make it in one piece to the other side before the liquid heats up again, and so on so forth. Sure, most of these elements are only present in one or two levels and could be written off as “gimmicks,” but that doesn’t take away from their value. Rare’s willingness to throw realism out the window and tinker with so many different kinds of mechanisms may seem at first quite unfocused, but by embracing experimentation that’s all designed to keep the player moving, that eagerness actually points to a deeper level of commitment that few platformers manage to effectively achieve.

Of course, there’s another piece to the puzzle that stops the game from ever feeling too stale, and that’s the theming itself. Again, Rare’s abandonment of realism is a key motivation; while the original DKC was often limited to natural landscapes and caves outside of Kremkroc Industries, Diddy’s Kong Quest commits fully to the absurdity of fighting alligator pirates in an unfamiliar land and as a result, greatly diversifies its various settings from the decks and sails of the Gangplank Galleon (a fitting beginning, considering that the previous adventure ended here), to the glowing infernal pits of Crocodile Cauldron, to the abandoned urban amusement wasteland of Krazy Kremland that nature has begun reclaiming with brambles and overgrown beehives. You don’t need me to tell you that this is one of the most richly textured games on the SNES, with plenty of corresponding level elements such as the sticky honey walls of Hornet Hole and the eerie disappearing ropes of Ghostly Grove to further sell the exoticism and accentuate the level of detail presented in each environment.

I’d be remiss though, to not spend a paragraph gushing about the soundtrack, something that I’d consider a formality at this point while praising the game. If the original Donkey Kong Country OST was a 10, then this is an 11. Not only are there practically no wasted tracks within the repertoire, but also every notable track ends up being a standout. I’m led to believe that David Wise was in a class of his own, because even to this day, the diverse and richly layered instrumentation is like no other. The whistling wind of Jib Jig, the bubbling lava of Hot Head Bop, the screams of excitement from Disco Train: the sheer attention to detail to embed all these different environmental SFX into the tracks themselves so that the effects never break your attention away from the task of platforming is incredible. It’s the cherry on top of this whole package; sure there’s a part of me that might get a little annoyed falling several stories in yet another mine shaft level, but at least I get to do it while the steel hammer samples in Mining Melancholy go for another run.

I’ll quickly address the lingering complaint that I had from the first game as well; I had previously lamented that bosses in Donkey Kong Country seemed to be a one and done affair, though the sequel does a great job substantially increasing their interactivity. Some are still a bit simple but at least have some extra steps to them: these include the first Krow fight, which you can clear by jumping on egg projectiles and then waiting for Krow to run into the held egg (though it is at least justified by being the first boss fight) and Kudgel, whose boss fight becomes a case of “jump when he lands to avoid getting stunlocked” and then ramming TNT barrels into him when appropriate. Fortunately, the highlights leave these fights in the dust. The clear standout for me here is the fight against Kleever, this giant possessed cutlass that slashes at you relentlessly while you jump to and fro between skyhooks dodging fireballs and waiting for the cannonball to respawn to get your hit in. There’s also a boss fight vs yet another giant bee, but unlike the fight vs Queen B in DKC, this King Zing fight lets you play as Squawks and shoot eggs at the giant bee’s stinger, alternating with an invincible phase where you have to dodge spikes in the closest thing resembling a bullet hell in the series and then segueing into a quickfire second phase where Squawks has to defeat an outer circle of respawning normal sized Zingers before landing the final hit.

Even the final fights vs K Rool (sorry, Kaptain K Rool) have been juiced up, with plenty more jumping and rolling to be done to dodge scores of spiked cannon balls as well as some colorful gas clouds that can mess with your control scheme or movement speed if you’re not careful. The first fight is a bit longer than previous boss fights since it serves as the final boss gauntlet, but there's at least some wiggle room since a Buddy Barrel is given to you at the start of each new phase if you've taken a hit. While the true final boss fight in Krocodile Kore more or less uses the same types of attacks as the first encounter, I appreciate that they’ve at least upped the ante with some new attack patterns and scaling everything they have to throw at you in one “phase” before letting you plug up his blunderbuss with a cannonball for good. All in all, it’s improvements across the board for bosses, and while some of them are still a bit lame, it’s a vast jump up from the one-dimensional and often palette swapped fights of the original game.

So, with all the welcome changes out of the way, do I really have any outstanding major complaints to spill? I’ll admit, I often struggle to find any substantial errs in Diddy’s Kong Quest. It’s a more difficult game for sure, but I also find it surprisingly fair: the game gives you plenty of leeway with all the bananas, KONG letters, and hidden balloons and coins to win more lives at Swanky’s Bonus Bonanza, assuming you’re playing competently enough and exploring levels to their greatest extent. Moreover, most levels are pretty condensed and usually don’t take more than several minutes to clear when carefully approached, with plenty of Buddy Barrels and the Star Barrel halfway through the level as fail-safes if you end up taking a hit or two. I’ve also found during my experience that the obstacle escalation theory continues to holds true, and that dangerous moments are often greeted with plenty of warning prior and enough time to react and adapt accordingly, with instances where I’m confronted with something that I’m genuinely not prepared for few and far between. With that said, there are a few exceptions:

- Web Woods is often cited as one of the most notorious levels in the game: the majority of this stage is spent playing as Squitter, with large stretches of abyss that have to be crossed with disposable web platforms while sniping any Zingers and Mini Nectys in the way. Upon my replay, I don’t think it’s as hard as others make it out to be, but it definitely feels a bit longer because Web Woods forces either extremely careful movement and web shots when going fast ( see Mike Kanis’ recording for an example ) or for casual playthroughs, steady and often strenuous platforming across daunting gaps while juggling enemies at the same time. I’ll concede that the level could probably be improved upon with a few smaller gaps and removing the extraneous introductory Kongs platforming section, but otherwise, I think this level serves its purpose well and just takes a bit of time to get used to. Though, I do think that putting the DK coin in the end-of-level target is pretty lazy and evil considering that the coin flashes in the display for less than half a second and you'll have to replay the whole level again if you were just a hair off.

- Screech’s Sprint is probably the most significant difficulty spike present in DKC 2 in my opinion (which is saying something considering Toxic Tower is the level right before this), and as the final level before the first K Rool fight, is unfortunately a bit of a slog and probably my least favorite level in the game. The first half of the level is solid end-game platforming through the brambles and isn’t too bad, but the second half of the level is an extremely tight race as Squawks against his goth counterpart Screech, that has to be played close to perfectly if you’re not aware beforehand of the many shortcuts hidden in the brambles since second place will result in instant death. That’s not even bringing into account the KONG letters that are all present in the race segment, or the hidden DK coin (that can at least be collected in a throwaway run). Needless to say, it’s a cool concept, but there’s not much time given for the player to scale up and adapt to the sudden rush of precision required for the race or to discover all the ins and outs of the course, so if any level in the game feels like throwing away lives and banging your head against the wall, I’d wager that it would probably be this one. Also, it overrides Stickerbush Symphony with its own theme... which isn’t a bad track, but it's automatically my least favorite track in the OST because anything that takes away from the GOAT of VGM is an instant con in my book.

- Animal Antics is generally the final level tackled by most players who are going for the true final boss fight (as the final level in the Lost World), and while I hesitate to call any single level gimmicky, I suppose this is the one that comes closest to the definition. It’s a marathon that involves the usage of all five animal buddies, which already sounds like quite an exhausting affair. However, it’s exacerbated by the fact that the first two animal buddy segments (Rambi and Engarde) are pretty straightforward by this point, but the next two right after the Star Barrel in the form of Squitter and Squawks generally take up a lot more time, especially because the Squawks segment requires you to navigate yet another bramble maze while a mercurial wind current keeps blowing you left and right and forces you to alternate between fighting the wind or fighting the controls to avoid being blown astray by the wind. The final segment with Rattly is not particularly difficult, but it sure is intimidating as hell since there are no Buddy Barrels to be found there and you’ve probably already taken a hit as Squawks, turning what should be the victory lap of a marathon into a one of the most nerve-wracking level finishers, since dying here means getting sent back to the Star Barrel and having to do Squitter, Squawks, and Rattly all over again. It probably doesn’t help that Toxic Tower utilizes the animal buddy swap formula more succinctly either, with a smoother difficulty curve to boot.

Besides these three levels though, I can’t really say that the difficulty in Diddy’s Kong Quest ever felt discouraging to me. If anything, I found my second full playthrough even more fulfilling this time around; while I was still in the process of mastering the controls during my first run, I really got the chance to flesh out my understanding of the levels during my replay and spend more time adapting and figuring out how all the different moving parts and hazardous elements fit together in different ways. With so many new combinations to consider, I could honestly keep at this for days, even weeks upon end putting my skills to the test; more depth via tighter execution barriers from tougher obstacle courses with even more secrets to explore results in a higher skill ceiling after all. It’s really quite rewarding to figure out game-plans for each level and grind out the specific inputs necessary; as Gregg Mayles put it, the fluidity and momentum is still there, just a tad bit more difficult to grasp, and that makes actually achieving it all that much sweeter.

While the jump from the original Donkey Kong Country to Diddy’s Kong Quest came with mostly scores of improvements (even if most of the improvements were over features that never genuinely bothered me in the first place), there is one quality of life issue that does weigh on my mind as an obvious area of improvement. Aside from the tracked Kremcoins and optional DK coins, a third type of collectible in the form of banana coins is also present. However, just like the lives and banana count, the banana coin count is reset whenever the system is turned off since it’s not tracked, which becomes a bit obnoxious because banana coins are mandatory whenever requesting services from the other Kongs, from asking Cranky for hints and Funky for flights to other worlds, to even saving the game itself. It’s at least slightly mitigated since banana coins are plentiful within levels and are respawned every time you revisit, and the first time visiting Wrinkly and Funky for saving and flights respectively in each area will always be free. Nevertheless, I concede that this is a bit of a barrier for newer players who feel the need to save more often or for players who don’t have as much time on their hands to commit to longer sessions to build up lives and banana coin stocks, and Rare did seem to learn from this since paying to save is limited to just Diddy’s Kong Quest in the original trilogy.

All in all, I’m not sure if I have any far-reaching takeaways to present here or if there were really any lessons to be learned in the first place, but I’m glad I finally found the time and the opportunity to come back to really flesh out my understanding of a title that once frustrated the hell out of me as a kid. Sure, I could join the never-ending debate of which title has the greater legacy or “aged better,” but at the end of the day, I don’t think I necessary prefer Diddy’s Kong Quest over the original Donkey Kong Country or vice versa; I simply think that they’re different appeals for different moods. If I want to feel good about myself and just dash through levels in my comfort zone, I’ll pick up the original and spend a couple of hours speedrunning Blackout Basement or Loopy Lights. However, if I want make my hands sweat a bit more and really put my execution to the test, then DKC 2 will be my weapon of choice and I’ll get to feel overwhelmed while the woozy arpeggios of Forest Interlude roll over me once more. Whichever one I pick, I think I’d have a pretty damn good day.

As it stands, I’m not quite ready to put Donkey Kong Country 2 on a pedestal as my favorite 2D momentum-based platformer of all time. That said, I’ll call it an “honorable draw” as Gregg Mayles stated five years ago, and it’s about time that I started being more open with myself regarding my appreciation for what Diddy’s Kong Quest brought to the table. Hopefully, all this musing about will encourage some more to do the same. Thanks for reading, everyone.

Playtime: 12 Hours
Score: 7/10

Really fun game! I remember me and my dad finding this game at a Music/DVD shop for an insanely low price, so my dad got me this and Fallout: New Vegas. Honestly one of the best video game hauls I ever got!

One thing I love about this game was how much it offered for its single player. You got 3 campaigns playing as each of the three races, which most game didn't offer at the time. My favorite being the marine campaign which felt the most claustrophobic and like the films. The guns you picked up were cool, though the pulse rifle felt really underpowered. The lighting as well is fantastic even to this day and makes the game still decent to look at over a decade later. Story is serviceable but nothing amazing. The Alien and Predator campaigns were fun too.

Some of the negatives are I wish the Alien and Predator campaigns were in third person, as it would make playing them a lot easier. Playing as the Alien for example would give me a lot of motion sickness with all the wall climbing. There's also just some downright terrible platforming sections that can be really annoying to do in first person, with both the Alien and Predator. I didn't end up finishing those two campaigns because it just got too frustrating to deal with. All three campaigns also use the exact same levels which can come across as lazy. Another thing is the collectables are cool with the marines since you pick up audio diaries that you can listen to and piece together the backstory of Weyland Bishop and the company. With the Predator you just collect generic looking belts that all look the same and the Alien you smash jelly containers. Ya pretty lame. I much prefer collectables in games that have a practical use.

Overall though, this is still a solid game from this IP. And it offers the best single player content alongside Alien Isolation.

All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/

The folks at Infogrames managed to strike cartoon gold when they made Wacky Races, a fun and entertaining racer that had the cartoon's sheer madness down pat and a couple of months later it was Bugs Bunny and co's turn to take to the racing field - twice in fact. One on the PlayStation where they raced in regular karts and the second on Dreamcast where they had their asses hauled to outer God Damn space.

It's a strange idea at first but it manages to all come together to form an entertaining racer that happens to be just as good as Wacky Races was with it's similar cel-shaded art style and an array of crazy gags to deal with such as falling pianos, exploding bombs and even pink elephants because why the hell not?

This title even made it's way onto the PS2 as well in 2002 (although unlike the Wacky Races port which only came out in Europe, this did see a North American release as well) and hot dang, the music in this is fan freaking tastic. They didn't need to go all out for a game featuring a bunch of Warner Bros characters racing for the finish line but this has some catchy as hell tunes that still sticks in my mind today.

It seemed when it came to Warner licensed titles, Infogrames really had it good especially on the racing front.

What if Overwatch was the same game but with wildly predatory microtransactions, overpriced skins, and no progression system. You've just made Overwatch 2.

Here we are again with another F2P game that learns zero lessons from Fortnite. Put premium currency in your pass and make it easy to level up! Encourage people to play your game because it's fun to progress. Don't encourage them to play under the threat of falling behind.

Biggest bummer about all this is that the game itself is actually fun as heck. After the server issues were resolved, I hopped on for a few hours and had a blast. I loved Overwatch and sank dozens of hours into it back in the day. I would love to play more Overwatch... it just sucks that the new hook Blizzard wants you to chomp down on basically requires you to spend money.

+ More Overwatch

- It's just more Overwatch
- Terrible microtransaztions