This was actually the last mainline DKC game I played. My first was returns, as I said in my DKC1 review. I played 1 and 3 shortly after that and I played Tropical Freeze the day it released. I didn't play 2 until years later in 2018 where an Instagram account I was following was selling a CIB copy for $35. That sounded like a good deal back then, and considering it's almost $90 now it's even better now, so I bought it off them. I really enjoyed my time with it, but it wasn't until replaying it in 2022, where I truly saw it as a masterpiece. Do I still think that now? Look at my score to find out (that means yes).

Let's start with the gameplay changes. The thing you'll notice when you first start the game is you don't play as Donkey Kong anymore. You still play as Diddy Kong but replacing Donkey is newcomer Dixie Kong. The main plot this time is King K Rool is back, he has kidnapped Donkey Kong and you must team-up as Diddy and Dixie to defeat him and save DK. Pretty simple but it works. Anyways, Diddy plays pretty much the same but Dixie is a bit different. Her main gameplay change is the fact that she can glide by using her hair. This is incredibly helpful with certain segments throughout the game and because of this plus being more fun to control, I definitely prefer this duo over the first game's. I still think Diddy feels better to play as since he's still faster here and has a better roll (Dixie's roll sucks if you're trying to roll jump off a cliff) so he was my go to Kong when I had both but Dixie is still very fun to play as here due to her glide. This game did add another new big mechanic that plays a part in a bunch of levels. By pressing the A button, if you have both Kongs, you can perform a Team Up. This basically lets you throw the kong upwards in whatever direction you want, and it lets you get up to high places you normally couldn't get to or collect items up high. It's nice and quick to pull off and just adds that much more depth to the levels.

The levels themselves are better than ever here. The level design is improved, with each level feeling pretty distinct from each other. One moment you'll be riding air balloons over a pit of lava and the next you'll be racing enemies in a haunted amusement park. Levels have gimmicks but they never feel intrusive or annoying to me. The level themes are also way more interesting this time. The mains setting here is pirates and that first world makes great use of it. You had levels where you run on top of a ship, levels where you are swimming inside the ship itself and then levels where you're climbing up the top of a pirate ship. That's all the first world, and even tho it's all pirate themed, they all feel distinct. Besides that, you have typical lava stages tho they're visually appealing in this game, you have these beehive stages where honey stops you dead in your tracks, you have bayou stages..just all the level themes in this game are so much more unique compared to the 1st game. Honestly, the backgrounds used in these levels are better than the 1st game's as well, they made them really clean looking this time around.

As for the collectables, you still collect bananas..and KONG letters. Animal Friend tokens are gone which is nice because they could kinda be annoying at times. Instead of finding a bunch of random bonus rooms to 100% the game, this time you must collect Kremkoins and DK coins. Kremkoins are all found in bonus barrels, or sometimes secret walls. These both lead to the bonus area, which instead of being all lax and random like in DKC1, you have to play a bonus game whether it's collecting all the stars or defeating every enemy or just getting to the coin itself. This is more unified than how it was in DKC1 and I prefer it this way. The DK coins are always only in levels once, and they're usually just in the stages and not in the bonus rooms. Anyways, collecting every Kremcoin and every DK coin, and completing every level, gets you 102% in this game. I much prefer this over the bonus rooms in DKC1. They are much easier to find without a guide, tho I still had to look up some but that's better than almost all of them like in DKC1, and it's better for it.

Animal buddies are back and you have some returning ones plus some new ones. Winky and Expresso are gone but Rambi, Enguarde and Squawks are back. Rambi and Enguarde are exactly the same except they have a charge move you can perform to go super fast and kill any enemies in your path or to open up secret bonus rooms. You can now ride with Squawks and shoot nuts out of his mouth at enemies, so he's changed drastically. There's a new animal buddy called Quawks who is only used in one level and is purple, cannot fly upwards (only glide down) and cannot shoot nuts. He's not worth getting into since it's just a downgrade of Squawks, but the other two animal buddies are. Rattly the rattlesnake, is basically Winky but better. He can jump high, jump on normally dangerous enemies like Winky but you can also charge him up to perform a super jump. The other new animal buddy, Squitter the Spider is awesome and is my favorite buddy in the series. You cannot jump on enemies as him but you can shoot projectile webs out of his mouth and if you press the A button, you can shoot a different type of web and if you press A again..you can create a web platform to jump on. They use this a good amount in some of the stages and this mechanic just makes him super fun and interesting to use. Along with all this, there are also these animal buddy barrels that let you transform into just the animal buddy.

The bosses in this game are also a big improvement from 1. Gone are very easy bosses that feel like a big version of a normal enemy. Every boss in this game feels distinct (besides the zinger fight tho his fight was pretty fun) and aren't piss easy and also aren't super quick. They feel like actual bosses, with the K Rool fight being a standout. Definitely my favorite fight in the trilogy. While not too difficult, he's still really fun.

If you had gotten 15 Kremcoins per world, you could pay them to this fella named Klubba. Once you do, you can access a level from the Lost World, a secret super hard bonus world. These are definitely some of the hardest levels in the game, tho I must brag and say it only took me two tries to beat Animal Antics this time around. Going back to the difficulty, yeah this game can be quite tough. It's not like bullshit hard, just the levels themselves can have some very tough portions and honestly, I welcome it. I still died a bunch in this game but I think the difficulty curve is very nice. It doesn't start off hard at all, it gradually start's getting pretty tough by world 4.

The OST is a big upgrade from the first game I think and is honestly amazing. Some of my favorites were Mining Melancholy, In A Snow-Bound Land, LockJaw's Saga,Hot Head Bop, and Forest Interlude. That is not even mentioning the absolute fucking goated song that is Stickerbush Symphony which is honestly a top 5 song for me from any video game ever. It's that amazing and I've loved it before I even played this game. This is a top tier OST I think and may be the best SNES soundtrack of all time.

If I had any little nitpick about this game, it's the fact you have to use banana coins to save and move to other worlds freely. I forgot to mention this in the collectables section, but you also collect bananas throughout the stages, they're plentiful, but after saving once or using Funky's Flights in a world, you must pay each Kong coins to do either action again. Because coins are super easy to get, this wasn't an issue for me but if you reset the game, you lose all your coins (and lives) so I can see where it would be an annoying mechanic to some people.

This is peak Donkey Kong Country imo. Everything from 1 was perfected in this game and then some, and it easily has the best soundtrack in the entire series, which does play a big part in me loving this game. I have more nostalgia for Super Mario World but I cannot deny the fact that this is the better platformer on the Super Nintendo. Because of this, I do think this is the best SNES game I've played period. It's just a masterpiece through and through. Do yourself a favor and play it!

I'm going to get back to the Kirby marathon now but I do plan on replaying DKC3 in the near future so stay tuned for that whenever I decide to play it!

UH-OH! BIG!
A massive improvement to the first two, and a massive difficulty spike to go along with it. Metal Slug X is a sort of remake of Metal Slug 2, with redone levels and improved performance (hence why I beat this game and not Metal Slug 2). However, I guess SNK was going through a tight spot, cause they apparently needed to get WAY MORE QUARTERS from people playing this game. This game is crazy difficult, stealing $11.25 from me in virtual quarters. However, the game does make it worth it. So much character, new weapons as well as STRONGER WEAPONS, new vehicles, and a strange narrative through out the levels involving an alien invasion. All and all, I loved Metal Slug X but I didn't need the kick to the balls it gave me. (also Fio is so cute omg)

I know I'm late to the party on this but Sand Land took priority and my consoomer gene took over so that Fallout 4 next gen update replay couldn't be stopped which took WAY longer than I thought.

Stellar Blade was something I had A LOT more interest in after playing the demo as opposed to its marketing campaign, which it desperately needed due to them being allergic to showing any non zoomer style fast paced editing that showed little of its combat of as opposed to the "Hot lady, uncensored outfits" focus but more on that later. I am happy to say the potential I saw in the demo was met, Stellar Blade is a fine action game from start to finish. So much so I am on another playthrough as I write this immediately after beating it which isn't something I do often, to get the final ending for the platinum and the new game plus patch helped in that regard.

The game's story, I'll be honest just seemed to exist in order to have a plot. Even the sense of mystery and intrigue the game had the characters would either immediately hint at its truth or outright say in an uninterested manor but that might just be due to the voice which, at least in english, was middle of the road. I thought Eve's (the player character) voice acting was the best and Adam, the second most prominent character, was the worst. Just the way he said so much came off as disinterested or "Reading the lines right off the page", almost was waiting for him to say the emotional tone all "DISSAPOINTED" style. If the naming of characters wasn't already enough of a giveaway, most should be able to piece it together within a few hours. The music was something I liked a lot more than the story though, as it had that somber singular vocal style I tend to enjoy a lot in games. The comparisons to Nier are not unfounded.

In terms of said action gameplay, Stellar Blade does a lot of things right with a lot of the staples I have come to expect of the genre. You have your perfect parries, perfect dodges, special moves, ranged options, variable combos and a skill tree to unlock and improve abilities all which come together to form a mostly cohesive battle system with only a couple of trip ups mostly due to needing to hold down some buttons immediately after some parries which lead me to use abilities instead. The first thing that got me was its variable combos, now it's nothing new to the genre but I still always enjoy a basic attack that's more than 4 lights and a heavy. Splicing heavy attacks into lights for different combos is nothing new but being able to go from Light>Heavy>Light for a completely different combo on top of the basic Light>Light>Light>Heavy>Heavy allowed the combat to stave off staleness in its first 2/3's. The only thing I wish there was more of in terms of basic combat was some more aerial options as there isn't much of a reason to even try fighting mid jump. Most, not all, of Eve's basic attacks could be dodge or parry canceled and it will be one of your most used mechanics. Parrying and Dodging are not only your main defensive options but they both increase your meters for special moves which as the game progressed I found myself using MUCH more as they outclass your basic damage by a large margin which they should as they use a resource. Every enemy as well as Eve has a "Shield" meter which reduces all incoming damage until it is depleted and then full damage is taken. Being able to get rid of it quickly is the main gameplan which reduces any form of damage while it’s active. However if you learn to parry effectively you can exploit the enemies (including bosses), I actually forget what they call it so let's call it poise, meter which is reduced by one every perfect parry. Once it's depleted you get to do a high damaging execution style attack that will kill most early and mid game enemies instantly, just like stealth attacks. However not all enemies have it though so you'll be brute forcing those enemies who are either lowest level fodder or annoying ranged ones. I'm not much of a parry or dodge centric individual, I'm an unga bunga tank kinda guy, but it was satisfying to perfect dodge a full combo or parry an entire combo into a high damage takedown. That being said, combat in the last leg of the game I felt got WAY too tedious and almost felt like it wanted you to tackle every fight with ability and poise meter depletion which just slowed fights to a crawl. Even with the main weapon leveled to its maximum to what available, even when shields were depleted it felt like chip damage. This is why I found myself spamming abilities more often in the late game which, imo, ruined the combat to some extent. The game also gets points off for introducing insta kills on late game bosses. I don't care if they can be stopped and you can just revive should you have an item, it's cheap. I died on the final boss due to not seeing the white on white target but I had the revive so it's whatever. The game made up those points in other ways such as not having many back to back or one life bar per phase boss fights in general though the boss variety could have used some boosting as you'll fight "same boss but different color/effect" several times if you're doing side content.

The side content in the game is the usual game fair at this point, fetch quests, grab these items, fight this enemy etc. Some of these were tied to character stories and as such were the more unique ones and if you want what easily seems to be the "best/canon" ending you best do them all anyway along with getting as many collectables as you can of which there's A LOT. Honestly I think too many, especially when getting around isn't exactly fast or fun. Hope you like deserts cuz two of the largest explorable ones are just that and I think 25 of my 33 hours was spent in them. Eve does run quite fast but she slows down when an enemy aggros and their fields of vision are far and like 330 degrees I swear. They can't hear you running behind them for a stealth kill but if you're not DIRECTLY behind them then they'll know you're coming. The only other way around is via fast travel points such as your camps, where you will respawn upon death, and phones which you unlock by activating, however you're only able to teleport to camps with phones which still makes some long trips between points of interest. It doesn't help that you cannot set a custom waypoint unless it's on some mission objective or other map poi. At the very least most of the other places you'll go are linear to the point they have no map and varied in terms of environment to even out the double desert debuff. How does this game have more desert than Sand Land, a series ABOUT A DESERT?! Can I also just say that I loved there was a platforming puzzle with the playstation button icons that turned into their colors when jumped on? I sure do hope whoever made the ps5 controller has buttons with no color got fired or they release a one with the correct coloration at some point. Oh yeah there's fishing too, and that was a fun few hours getting them all.

I've seen this game be called "Booty Souls", "Gooner Souls'' and "Horny Souls" but I don't see really see a souls comparison here outside of the fact it has specific respawn points at the camps you need to activate and enemies respawn when you sit at them. Is the game difficult? Not really no, at least on normal cuz yes the game has difficulty options but there's no leveling or stat allocation, only skill points, which imo is the main component of what makes a souls game a souls game outside of difficulty. Make no mistake I did die a few times which were mostly due to fall damage as I was awful at timing the negation or getting hit by one of those long telegraphed attacks you're given all the time in the world to avoid. However rarely did a standard encounter ever make me worry, they were more of a nuisance than anything at best even when it was 4 v 1. It's closer to Sekiro which I also don't consider a souls game for the same level related reason. Main difference between that as well is Eve can take 10 times the amount of hits Sekiro man can since he has the defenses of wet 1 ply toilet paper. I'm sure it's much closer to that bullshit while wearing the skinsuit since it disables the shield. It's such a shame that "pretty lady" is what this game will be known for

I guess it's time to address, or rather dress, Eve. Yes she's conventionally attractive, yes her outfits are cover of vogue style or centerfold levels. I had the ability to play this game both patched and unpatched since I still buy discs and I'll install updates when I deem it necessary. I'll be honest, uncensored or not, I didn't really like most of the outfits and I unlocked most if not all of them. Once I got the Full Black Dress outfit I exclusively used it on that first playthrough though on NG+ I considered going with the bear suit for some high octane Naughty Bear action. The censoring on the outfits felt kind of lazily implemented and I'm sorry but with the information that's come out what with the devs and the CEO going "Oh I think they look better this way" and "It was our choice", it begs me to ask why even make them revealing in the first place. It was clearly the main marketing tool well before launch and I do not believe no one ever once said "Nah these aren't good, we gotta change them" with how fast it was implemented. Like fucking Sony let this shit on there, those prudes, so it doens't make sense. Now it just makes this dev look like liars. It's also one thing for a Korean dev to not know that the unfortunate placement of "Hard" graffiti next to a neon "R" sign looks like slang for a racial slur, it's another to design multiple revealing outfits. Also you fuckers make Nikke, you don't have any sort of ground to stand on when it comes to outfit and character designs. That being said, there's more you can customize other than Eve's actual outfits. There's glasses and earrings which I didn't touch either of as I'm not really one for jewelry and I didn't like any of the glasses. You can also change the "base hair", I don't know what to call it but it's the head hair that more than just bangs that isn't the ponytail which the latter can be short or long. I made Eve a redhead cuz if anything I'm consistent though it seemed colors were style locked as the one I really wanted to use didn't have red as an option. It was honestly a missed opportunity to not have the title screen Eve reflect your customization. The supporting characters have outfits too but I only found 2 for each and I do not know if there are more.


There's a fun action game here, for the most part. Satisfying combo, parry and dodging along with variable abilities for that extra OOMPH. The combat does get a little dragged out in the back end unfortunately, the story tries to be interesting but is undermined by its predictable nature and varying voice acting. The actual exploration leaves things to be desired but that can be ignored if one so chooses. I would hope someone on the fence about this game who likes action games can look past the sex appeal cuz you have a good time here in that regard.

Back to back on the PETA attack!

Hey, it beats Super Meat Boy Forever in terms of design! Aaaaand it's still one of the worst games I've ever played. Genuinely. It's not even funny bad. It's just BAD. McCardiarrac Arrest aside, this is absolutely abhorrent. Bad controls, abysmal graphics, terrible level design, I mean, shit! I could at least laugh at Cooking Mama Kills The Animals's graphics, but THIS is just blood and gore shat straight out of someone's ass. I rage quit eventually because the controls were simply THAT awful and unfun. Isn't this designed for kids???

What a joke.

When I played Resident Evil Village for the first time a few years ago I was absolutely enthralled by the insanely fun experience it took me on. It was only on this fourth replay since then that I started to realize some of the flaws in the game. Make no mistake, I still enjoy the game immensely (the 9/10 ain’t for nothing) but this replay and review were by very nature in favor of being more critical of it, and the more I think about it the more critical I get.

To start off with let me just say, the presentation and setting of this game is still excellent and probably my favorite thing about it. One thing admirable thing that Resident Evil has done several times throughout it’s lifespan is reinvent it’s setting and tone, and while it hasn’t always been successful (glares at 5 and 6), 8 continues this theme naturally and spectacularly. The moment when you first enter the Village at sunrise in this game is nothing short of breathtaking, the scope of the incredible looking environment before you and the thought that you’re going to have to comb through all of it to beat the game blend together to make what I believe to be one of the most interesting settings in the series’ history. All of the environments on this game are incredibly atmospheric, from an ancient but well-kept castle, to a lonely and eerie house in the mountains with a waterfall backdrop, to a menacing underground factory, all of it works as really effective environmental storytelling that shows you exactly what has happened in this village and what kind of creatures live here. Speaking of creatures, another thing I really liked about Village was how it adapted the common horror tropes found in other Resident Evil games to fit the setting perfectly. Instead of hoards zombies there are herds of Lycans, instead of evil scientists or corporations as the villains there are gothic horror monsters, and instead of a virus that makes people lose their minds there is the power of ancient evil that the villagers fear. All of this adds up to making what would otherwise seem like a really disconnected game in the series feel like it fits in just perfectly in terms of vibe and atmosphere.

Resident Evil Village is no slouch in terms of gameplay either, adapting the series main formula while also trying some new things that pay off excellently. The gameplay of Village divides itself into two distinct halves, the pure horror half and the action half and while some have taken issue with this system I’ve found no real problem with it, The first half of the game is excellent and clearly more enjoyable in terms of what I play a Resident Evil game for, being the horror. Having the main character enter a completely foreign setting and being powerless to do anything against the lycans and horrific monsters is a perfect way to breed horror in the game and is done excellently in the first few sections of the game. As you progress through the game though you get more weapons in your arsenal and start feeling less powerless and that’s when the action half of the game kicks in. While I enjoyed this half less I still think it’s alright, being able to take on anything and taking on the areas where you were oppressed by monsters in the early game just feels really good and satisfying, and although it comes at the cost of the horror, I still think it adds a lot in and of itself. There’s also a treasure system in this game that’s really fun to utilize to it’s fullest capacity. Throughout the village you’ll find locked up areas that you can return to later with the right item to discover what they have inside, this can range from new weapons or weapon parts to valuable treasures that you can sell to the merchant for tons of money, it’s really satisfying to find how to get these treasures and gives the player great reason to scour and explore the whole village. All of this as well as just the basic RE formula of managing inventory, solving puzzles, and knowing when to conserve ammo and when to fight all adds up to one of the best RE games to date in terms of gameplay.

At last I come to part which I feel is the weakest in Resident Evil Village, the story. On the first few playthroughs of this game I thought the story was passable, nothing groundbreaking or anything, but alright, now I see that I couldn’t have been more wrong there. While I still don’t think the story brings down the amazing gameplay present here, it is absolutely not something I’d call good. While Ethan Winters was not an incredibly likeable character in RE7 he wasn’t unbearable either, he was just a normal guy who got dragged into a messy situation, this is not the case in Village. In Village Ethan Winters is an unbearably annoying character who doesn’t seem relatable in the slightest, he makes increasingly stupid one liners that don’t sound natural from a character like him, asks increasingly stupid questions to other characters (usually along the lines of “What the hell is going on here”) despite things being completely cut and dry, and makes increasingly stupid decisions in every situation he finds himself in. Ethan isn’t the only one who’s dumb here, Chris’ decision to not tell Ethan what was going on when he shot his wife point blank and took his infant daughter at the beginning of the game will never not be confusing and a really stupid inciting incident, and Mother Miranda’s plan to split Rose up into parts and have Ethan go and collect them only to take Rose back instantly after he’d done that rather than just starting her evil ceremony with Rose instantly is a baffling oversight. It’s lazy writing like this that infuriates me that I ever thought this game’s story was decent, still if seen as just a means to end for the incredible gameplay it’s easy enough to ignore and doesn’t take anything away from that.

Resident Evil Village is a really fun game with some serious narrative issues. The incredible atmosphere and really fun gameplay still manage to save the game for me, but the bafflingly awful story annoys me greatly and is gonna make it hard for me to want to replay this game anytime soon.

Are you stray because you're a cat? Or are you a cat because you're stray?

Large investments involving millions of USD, salaries of hundreds of employees trying to complete it within a year, and large marketing costs have indeed made many AAA games try to play "safe". The result is an attempt to attract the attention of mainstream gamers, which results in a lack of innovation and courage to try out gameplay and new concepts. Fortunately, there are always small caliber and indie games that can be relied on to fulfill this desire. One publisher that always facilitates this is of course, Annapurna Interactive that has come up with a variety of creative products, including their heavy hitter that was release in 2022, Stray. A game that ultimately asks us to play the role of a cat with all its uniqueness and mischief. This attraction is then wrapped into a story full of mystery that has a strong image of a dystopian world, rather than being made into humor like most animal games with the name "simulator" behind them. Details and visual beauty are also one of the reasons why Stray was blew up and becoming one of the best selling game in 2022.

As the name it carries, Stray asks you to play the role of a stray cat who is trapped in an unfortunate situation. Because one thing happened, he fell into the depths of the earth. Along with the process of finding a way out, he actually found cities hidden inside. Not a dead city, but a futuristic city full of dystopian atmosphere which is now inhabited by humanoid robots in it. On his journey, this nameless cat was fortunately not alone. He managed to find a companion, a small flying robot called B-12. No one knows where this mysterious robot came to be, but it ended up being filled with so many functions and knowledge. But as predicted, this journey is not easy. During the journey, the cat and B-12 encounter a threat that is unique and deadly at the same time. There is a group of living creatures that hatch from mysterious eggs, in large numbers, and seem to exist to hunt any living creature they encounter. With all of these happening questions beginning to arise as you continue your journey through the depth of the earth.

Stray must be acknowledged as having other attractions. One of them is the presentation side, both from the visual and audio side. From a visual perspective, Stray comes with a lot to praise. Other than a bit of disappointing aspect of the fact that it comes without customization of the cat's appearance, Stray represents a dystopian world full of mysteries and interesting to explore . You will find dirty and worn metal corners, showing how these rusty cities have actually experienced something catastrophic despite the fact that they are aging. This is then combined with dozens of neon lights that decorate the cities you visit, creating a contrast of life that chooses to survive, albeit in another form. This atmosphere and mystery becomes even more alive when you meet the humanoid robots who inhabit it. All of them come with different personalities, functions and work, fashion, and even expressions that are represented through their large monitor heads. Each humanoid robot will have a name and sometimes, a background that is quite intriguing. The combination of city design and the existence of humanoid robots consistently presents you with mysteries about the world of Stray that are interesting to uncover.

So all the charm of these visuals is also enhanced by the audio presentation. Apart from the cat meowing sound that you can trigger whenever you want, Stray has audio quality that deserves appreciation. The humanoid robots usually come with certain sound effects when communicating, the cities you visit usually have certain background music that helps build the atmosphere, even just the silence ends up making everything feel haunted at some points. With all of these combinations, Stray's strength lies not only in its great visual and audio combination, but also in its charming world-building. Almost every area you visit seems to have an interesting background story and mystery to uncover, which is also enriched by the actions and behavior of its inhabitants who are desperately trying to simulate human life.

Of course the main thing that made Stray attractive is you play as a cat, that one animal that doesn't give a single shit about its surrounding. I already mentioned the meowing sound feature but the developer add another things that make the cat feel more 'alive'. Whenever you find a computer, you can just jump on to the keyboard and start walking on it so you can type randomly on the computer. You can scatter someone's kitchen or laundry place. You can ruin a mahjong game between two robots. You can push a paint can so it will fall onto the robot below you. Or maybe you want to scratch a carpet when there is no one around, well guess what you can. The opportunity to carry out the actions of various cats that never have a purpose in real life, but always feel cute and confusing, will slowly but surely start to make you feel like you are playing the role of a cat as it should be. Truly a cat moment of all time.

With all of those attractiveness i mentioned, Stray has a few downside. Apart from the absence of cat customization options which i would say does not reduce the gaming experience, it still leaves the impression that this is actually a potential feature that is too good to miss. Meanwhile from a story perspective, it is difficult not to see the ending it offers as something anti-climactic, especially after the various build-ups that have been built throughout the game. For a game with pacing that deserves praise, this is certainly quite disappointing. And last is the gameplay that is too simple especially when it based around puzzle solving. The puzzles that this game offers don't take long for you to solve. The majority of the various obstacles contained in this game, only need to find a way to jump from one place to reach another place. Apart from that, you also can't jump freely, because the developer only limits you from being able to jump to certain places. This means that there are places that the cat should be able to reach, but you can't reach them in this game.

Now i understand on why Stray is so popular, why most content creators i know play the cat game even winning best indie game in GOTY awards. It always put a smile on my face when an indie title got recognized more and more. It met most of my expectations. Playing the role of a cat which has been executed beautifully by not only ensuring it comes with accurate and realistic animation, but also the opportunity to have fun with the level of their cute and naughty behavior that is often seen in the real world. This is then wrapped in a great world-building that continues to attract you to uncover the mystery. Your enjoyment of playing Stray will really depend on your initial expectations. In the end, with the price level it offers on each release platform, it is still an indie game wrapped in a AAA class presentation. It comes unique, different, beautiful, serious, but on the other hand, it lets you enjoy the role of a cat who doesn't always have to have a goal and purpose in every action. And that is a joy in itself.

Theres really only 2 things I can say about this game, and its the same 2 things everyone else can say about Mosa Lina: its (1) very fun in a kinetic, flow state brain improv kind of way and (2) its very pointless as a game (as a statement). People have a strange and delicate relationship with RNG, and some people might hear “your ability to complete a level is randomized and not at all guaranteed by the games systems” and think “this will straight up piss me off”. More and more lately I personally welcome opportunities to hone my sense of instinct and intuition when it comes to physically playing games I think are interesting and fun to pick apart, to strengthen my connection to “the flow”.

But its just impossible to avoid the feeling of directionless-ness when games dont have intrinsic goals. You could absolutely make the argument that gamers have addled, unimaginative minds that have been spoiled by reward systems and that we are no longer able to just be present with games - but this is also an inevitability in a world where theres just so many games to play. I can do my part and come up with a few extrinsic reasons to play Mosa Lina for more than 30 seconds and once I accomplish those few extrinsic goals I gotta move on unless Mosa Lina wants to sweeten the deal. Sometimes its just a matter of a game providing excuses to continue playing and Mosa Linas all-or-nothing principled stance leaves it hard to engage with as anything other than a very clever toy.

The last of the Mickey Illusion games and I feel the weakest of the four classic titles. Legend of Illusion does the same thing as World of Illusion ditching the fun Ducktales-like gameplay and going for something like a Mega Man game, if Mega Man's buster was limp.

Not following through with the adventure style that Land of Illusion introduced, we are back to straightforward level by level platforming. However everything feels so basic and uninspired this time around.

The level design is the most barebones here and there is no challenge, rhyme or reason. The gameplay itself is not fun as your only method of attack is throwing a weak ass ball that feels like if mega man's pellets were made of Styrofoam. Bossfights aren't very good in this game. Some of them take way too many hits to kill and some of the methods aren't intuitive.

While the game is pretty for a Game Gear game, I will admit, the aesthetics of the game are not my favourite. The theme of the game is medieval Mickey, which is a theme that has been used in Mickey Mouse movies and episodes, so it's kinda like a homage to that. But it's just so uninteresting compared the classical Disney movie inspired settings of the previous titles.

I really didn't enjoy this one too much as compared to the previous 3 titles. Something about it just feels too low budget or made by an inexperienced team. Legend of illusion just sort of lacks the quality and magic the other illusion games had.

If you are a creator of any kind out there, whether it be for games, music, or whatever, growing pains are to be expected down the road for you. These can come in many forms, such as you not being able to come up with something truly great to rock the industry that you are working in, not being able to reach a wide enough audience when it comes to actually selling or promoting the thing that you make, or, in the most common of occurrences, the things that you will make are generally not very good at all. One example I find myself stumbling upon time and time again would be Squaresoft, who even before the days of Final Fantasy, had some trouble exactly finding proper momentum when it came to not just the type of games they made, but also their quality, with some games like Rad Racer being pretty good on their own, but then you have games like King’s Knight, which are so bad and outdated, you wonder how they were even made in the first place. But then, you have those games from them that are just… aggressively stuck in the middle in terms of quality, with there being no better example of this other than The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner.

Like with all of Square’s early titles, I hadn’t played this one before deciding to out of curiosity, but I didn’t have too many high expectations going into it. I had seen this game in action once before, and based on what I saw, I figured it was just a clone of Space Harrier with not much else to show for itself, but at the time, I figured there was something… more to it. So, after yet another embarrassingly long time in-between discovery and gametime, I decided to check it out for myself to see how it is, and now that I have fully beaten it, I can say that it was… ok. It is fun to play for a good while, and this spin on the type of gameplay Space Harrier provided is an effective one, but the cracks start to show soon enough, and you are left begging for it to be over by the point you finish the game.

The story is very simple, where in Solar System #517, the many planets of the solar system are being overrun and taken over by the evil Grax and his race of aliens known as Serpentbeasts, so it is up to a space cowboy by the name of Jack the Worldrunner to step up to the plate and take them all down, which is a fine enough premise on its own, because when you are playing the game for yourself, the story is gonna be the last thing on your mind. The graphics are good, having plenty of simple yet pleasing visuals for the levels and for Jack himself, even if the levels themselves can pretty repetitive by the fact that you will be staring at the floor most of the time, the music has caught a bad case of Simpson Syndrome, where there is only one or two tracks playing throughout the entire game, and while they are good tracks, you will definitely get sick of listening to them after a while, and the gameplay/control is pretty simplistic, and it can be fun to get a handle of at most points in the game, but again, as you keep going, the flaws do start to rear their ugly heads eventually.

The game is a 3D rail shooter platformer, where you take control of Jack the Worldrunner, go through a set of eight worlds, each containing their own set of interconnected levels, run and jump your way through plenty of obstacles while either avoiding or defeating the many enemies that you will come across on your journey, gather plenty of powerups by smacking face-first into the many pillars around you, with the powerups being able to do things such as giving you more hit points, temporary invincibility, and the ability to fire at normal opponents, and take on plenty of bosses in free-flying sections, with the bosses themselves being…….. sigh, well, I’ll get to them in a bit. What we have here is a pretty solid foundation for a game here, one that works well enough on its own to entertain those curious enough to try it out, and one that does put an interesting and fun spin on other similar games like it.

As I have brought up plenty of times in this review already, the game, on its surface level, could be written off as nothing more than a Space Harrier clone and nothing more, but when you actually play it for yourself, you realize that there is a lot more going on here. While that game had its priorities firmly set in you flying around and shooting everything that came your way, Worldrunner changes this up by making it so that, for 90% of the game, you are locked to the ground, with you needing to jump around in order to survive the obstacles that you will be facing. Naturally, like any game with platforming elements, one of the biggest aspects of this platforming gimmick is that you need to exercise proper timing and precision, making sure that you jump from one platform to the next while going at the proper speed, aiming for whatever you could use as a landing point, and since you are constantly moving forward at all times, along with there being a time limit, this makes it so that the game provides a pretty fun and challenging set of obstacles to overcome that fill the player with satisfaction once they manage to make plenty of tight jumps, just barely scraping by death with the skin of your teeth.

This, however, all somewhat falls apart once you reach the last three worlds of the game, where everything starts to fall apart. Once you reach the sixth world, they start incorporating gimmicks that make the entire game a sequence of trial and error, such as with the first level of the sixth world requiring you to hop on top of these pillars in order to cross large gaps, as well as the worlds following that making it so that you are constantly moving at high speeds while jumping and dodging plenty of things. I will admit, some of these changes and gimmicks are clever enough, using what little the game has to challenge the player in new ways, but with some of the gimmicks like the previously mentioned bouncing on pillars, it goes overboard with the difficulty, especially when you are, again, constantly moving at all times.

And then we get to the bosses of the game, which are easily the worst part of the whole journey. All of them behave in the exact same way, with them being long serpent beings that will move from the background to the foreground, and you have to shoot down their bodies as well as the head to properly kill them. This is a fine mechanic and all, but it is repeated for every single boss in the game, and by the time you reach the final boss, you get really sick of constantly having to do the same thing over and over again for the sake of getting a move on. This aspect of the game gets even worse when you have multiple boss fights that require you to take down the enemy MULTIPLE TIMES in order to properly beat it. Nothing about the boss changes whatsoever when it respawns, and it is just meant for you to kill it again in order to pad out the game’s playtime, which not only makes these bosses monotonous, but also extremely frustrating when you die to the 5th copy of one boss, and have to fight all copies over again.

Overall, despite having a fun twist on the 3D rail shooter type of gameplay, the game is ultimately brought down by its insanely specific gimmicks seen in later levels that require perfection above all else, repetitive bosses that take way too long to take down, and its general unforgiving nature that makes it so that I can’t really say it is worth playing all the way through whatsoever. I would recommend it only to try out, not to necessarily try to play all the way through, and I would also recommend it for those who were big fans of similar games like Space Harrier, because while this isn’t too different from something like that, it does things differently enough to where you can have a good time with it and appreciate what it does for the genre……. before falling apart in the latter half. Also, like with Rad Racer, this game also has that stupid-ass 3D mode that Square just loved putting in their games for some reason. I mean, at least it makes more sense here, given the fact that the game is literally called 3D Worldrunner, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Game #592

Genesis Ver Review:
Perhaps the first notable Mickey platformer. I mean back in the day, when you had to make a platformer of any existing IP, Mickey would be a no brainer.

In Castle of Illusion, Sega really uses the concept of Disney magic and applies it very well to the aesthetic of their first Mickey platformer. The game is beautiful on the Genesis and the background and sprite work really feels like something out of a 60s Disney movie. Each level feels like some sort of concept Disney has used in the past, from enchanted forests, to haunted castles, you really do feel the magic and this game is just something great to look at.

Gameplay-wise, It is a very solid platformer that does not do anything outstanding to innovate in the genre, but it works well. It takes aspects from both Ducktales with his butt-stomping cane-like bounce, and Aladdin with the apple projectile throwing. This is something anyone can pick up and play, and it's really fun.
Levels work like most platformers in the day, where you usually get through a series of stages followed by a boss at the end. Each boss feels unique and has their own way of strategy needed to defeat them. Bosses are some of the most amazing sprites in the game feeling like they came straight out of Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.

A very standard, but well done platformer that takes advantage of the IP and uses the Disney aesthetic to bring us a nostalgic setting with great vibes. Really enjoyed this one.