ShadowBluegarden
2023
Holy fuck.
Been forever since I played a Remedy Game, and it's been a couple years since my first playthrough of Alan Wake 1 as well. Decided to try this one out to see what I would get and...
Yeah, if there's a high-quality Twin Peaks ripoff out there, this one is absolutely that one. And boy I'm glad it exists, because the concepts and ideas this game has make the first game look so small in contrast.
I love the live action segments and the mixture of visuals, specially when playing as Alan. Saga's gameplay feels closer to how Alan played in the first game, with the very welcoming dodge button and weapon upgrade system to it.
I love how you can just explore the area around Bright Falls too, and the small fetch quests of finding the lunchboxes, nursery rhymes and stashes hidden around the map.
Welp, if I have to deduct half a star over anything... is just how this just won't run on a low-end laptop at ALL. I can see why it doesn't run, this motherfucker has a fuckton of post-processing happening in your face almost 24/7. If this ever releases on game pass or if I get a console in the near future, I am definitely replaying it.
Overall, the madmen at Remedy know how to make a high quality game that's absolutely weird from beginning to end. I am definitely replaying their stuff in the coming weeks as well. :)
Been forever since I played a Remedy Game, and it's been a couple years since my first playthrough of Alan Wake 1 as well. Decided to try this one out to see what I would get and...
Yeah, if there's a high-quality Twin Peaks ripoff out there, this one is absolutely that one. And boy I'm glad it exists, because the concepts and ideas this game has make the first game look so small in contrast.
I love the live action segments and the mixture of visuals, specially when playing as Alan. Saga's gameplay feels closer to how Alan played in the first game, with the very welcoming dodge button and weapon upgrade system to it.
I love how you can just explore the area around Bright Falls too, and the small fetch quests of finding the lunchboxes, nursery rhymes and stashes hidden around the map.
Welp, if I have to deduct half a star over anything... is just how this just won't run on a low-end laptop at ALL. I can see why it doesn't run, this motherfucker has a fuckton of post-processing happening in your face almost 24/7. If this ever releases on game pass or if I get a console in the near future, I am definitely replaying it.
Overall, the madmen at Remedy know how to make a high quality game that's absolutely weird from beginning to end. I am definitely replaying their stuff in the coming weeks as well. :)
2000
MMX5 marks the "ending" of the X series. Or... at least it should have. But weirdly enough this one seems to have less budget than X4, and not only that but Inafune pretty much cleansed his hands of this project and moved to other ones, leaving a secondary team to having to deal with finishing a series that in theory he started.
So, how does it fare?
This game tries to be heavier in lore than any of the previous X games. Since there's no animated cutscenes in this one, what we get instead are a bunch of dialogue boxes and a somewhat annoying sound to acompany the typing. In one hand, the story is quite simple but the way they go around to explain the events is weird to say the very least. What's the reasoning behind Dynamo destroying Eurasia so it causes a total destruction of the Earth if it drops? Who the hell knows. How did Sigma infect the entire planet with a virus by being destroyed on a statue-sized body? Who the hell knows!
Honestly, the idea of this game feels like a custom D&D one-shot session where your party has to figure out a way to stop the end of the world, while the DM says that "Hey, you can use this cannon to try and destroy that. You can shoot it without any upgrades and it will probably miss, OR you can get all the upgrades and still probably miss, but your character will get stronger!" And to be quite frank, I dig the concept of a time limit. What I don't dig is how even if you do everything absolutely right, the Shuttle still has a small chance to just fail and you go to the Bad Ending route, making you lose Zero in the process. 10 year old me figured that one out the worst way possible. Naturally, the exact opposite can happen and you actually destroy the colony with the cannon, basically allowing you to skip 4 stages! Which... also flabbergasted 10 year old me back then.
Replaying this in the Xtreme difficulty made me notice that even without the enemy drops (and increased enemy presence in the stages), this game is still somewhat easy. It took me some good two hours to beat X4, but this one just took one.
Also, while i dig the concept of the Level System for the bosses, in execution it leaves a LOT to be desired. Locking certain upgrades behind not only the level they are (which is connected to the time remaining before the colony collides) is really frustrating, specially since the game doesn't tell you which part you will get by picking more health or more energy for your weapons.
And if I have to talk about the level design for a bit... some of the levels feel like plainly X4 levels that were scrapped or slightly reworked. The one stage where you use the bike and you can just immediately die is so screwed up for instance.
Still... while it feels like I complained a lot, this is still one of my absolutely favorite games of the franchise.
The team truly tried doing a replayable game where you can get multiple routes and outcomes, and while it's a bit janky, it makes for an enjoyable experience, specially seeing the different outcomes. Hell, the dialogue some of the bosses have if you let the world be destroyed is absolutely sad and dark. Alternatively, seeing some of them getting gradually corrupted over their dialogue is also really screwed up. And then there's the bat boss, who just says SQUEAK WHO CARES and I absolutely giggle everytime I see that dialogue.
On one hand, it's a bit sad that the armor system on this one was swapped for the "two armors, but you cannot use them incomplete", but on the other hand doing the stages as normal armor X is one of my favorite things to do, as it makes the game a biiit more harder to play around (unless you are using the parts upgrades, but still).
The soundtrack in this one, while not as great as X4's, still has some amazing tracks (Sigma Stage 2 is CRAZY), and I do like the way the game sounds, too. Using the japanese voices from X4 instead of the english ones is a very deserving upgrade.
Still, while this one is a 5/5 for 10 year old me, current me understands what makes a great game BE great. In my heart this one is still my favorite, but in terms of quality? Not quite, and I wished they worked on this one just a little bit more.
Naturally, if you do want to play this one outside of the Legacy Collections, I cannot reccomend enough the Improvement Mod that fans made for this one. It polishes that game to such a way it becomes one of the better PS1 Mega Man titles.
So, how does it fare?
This game tries to be heavier in lore than any of the previous X games. Since there's no animated cutscenes in this one, what we get instead are a bunch of dialogue boxes and a somewhat annoying sound to acompany the typing. In one hand, the story is quite simple but the way they go around to explain the events is weird to say the very least. What's the reasoning behind Dynamo destroying Eurasia so it causes a total destruction of the Earth if it drops? Who the hell knows. How did Sigma infect the entire planet with a virus by being destroyed on a statue-sized body? Who the hell knows!
Honestly, the idea of this game feels like a custom D&D one-shot session where your party has to figure out a way to stop the end of the world, while the DM says that "Hey, you can use this cannon to try and destroy that. You can shoot it without any upgrades and it will probably miss, OR you can get all the upgrades and still probably miss, but your character will get stronger!" And to be quite frank, I dig the concept of a time limit. What I don't dig is how even if you do everything absolutely right, the Shuttle still has a small chance to just fail and you go to the Bad Ending route, making you lose Zero in the process. 10 year old me figured that one out the worst way possible. Naturally, the exact opposite can happen and you actually destroy the colony with the cannon, basically allowing you to skip 4 stages! Which... also flabbergasted 10 year old me back then.
Replaying this in the Xtreme difficulty made me notice that even without the enemy drops (and increased enemy presence in the stages), this game is still somewhat easy. It took me some good two hours to beat X4, but this one just took one.
Also, while i dig the concept of the Level System for the bosses, in execution it leaves a LOT to be desired. Locking certain upgrades behind not only the level they are (which is connected to the time remaining before the colony collides) is really frustrating, specially since the game doesn't tell you which part you will get by picking more health or more energy for your weapons.
And if I have to talk about the level design for a bit... some of the levels feel like plainly X4 levels that were scrapped or slightly reworked. The one stage where you use the bike and you can just immediately die is so screwed up for instance.
Still... while it feels like I complained a lot, this is still one of my absolutely favorite games of the franchise.
The team truly tried doing a replayable game where you can get multiple routes and outcomes, and while it's a bit janky, it makes for an enjoyable experience, specially seeing the different outcomes. Hell, the dialogue some of the bosses have if you let the world be destroyed is absolutely sad and dark. Alternatively, seeing some of them getting gradually corrupted over their dialogue is also really screwed up. And then there's the bat boss, who just says SQUEAK WHO CARES and I absolutely giggle everytime I see that dialogue.
On one hand, it's a bit sad that the armor system on this one was swapped for the "two armors, but you cannot use them incomplete", but on the other hand doing the stages as normal armor X is one of my favorite things to do, as it makes the game a biiit more harder to play around (unless you are using the parts upgrades, but still).
The soundtrack in this one, while not as great as X4's, still has some amazing tracks (Sigma Stage 2 is CRAZY), and I do like the way the game sounds, too. Using the japanese voices from X4 instead of the english ones is a very deserving upgrade.
Still, while this one is a 5/5 for 10 year old me, current me understands what makes a great game BE great. In my heart this one is still my favorite, but in terms of quality? Not quite, and I wished they worked on this one just a little bit more.
Naturally, if you do want to play this one outside of the Legacy Collections, I cannot reccomend enough the Improvement Mod that fans made for this one. It polishes that game to such a way it becomes one of the better PS1 Mega Man titles.
1996
While not my favorite PS1 Mega Man game, this one was quite a lot of fun to revisit!
The level design isn't as good as previous titles, but the game compensates that a lot with presentation, soundtrack and visuals for the 32-bit console.
Naturally, the biggest issue when it comes to MM at this time is the voice acting. Which is a crying shame, considering how pretty the animations of this period were for both this and X4.
The plot in this one is a bit... out of this world, pun somewhat intended. Are they telling me there's a robot who roams space looking for "Evil Energy" and they just plainly refuse to elaborate on who Duo and what the Evil Energy actually is?
This being said, I really dig Duo's design, and I found the Bass boss fight to be quite enjoyable too!
Also, can't believe I pretty much nailed both of the board stages on first try this time around. The freaking "Jump Jump!" were the bane of my existence some good 20 years ago....
The level design isn't as good as previous titles, but the game compensates that a lot with presentation, soundtrack and visuals for the 32-bit console.
Naturally, the biggest issue when it comes to MM at this time is the voice acting. Which is a crying shame, considering how pretty the animations of this period were for both this and X4.
The plot in this one is a bit... out of this world, pun somewhat intended. Are they telling me there's a robot who roams space looking for "Evil Energy" and they just plainly refuse to elaborate on who Duo and what the Evil Energy actually is?
This being said, I really dig Duo's design, and I found the Bass boss fight to be quite enjoyable too!
Also, can't believe I pretty much nailed both of the board stages on first try this time around. The freaking "Jump Jump!" were the bane of my existence some good 20 years ago....
1996
I finished this in 20 minutes.
Then again, I played this one a LOT in my SNES days. Muscle memory is still pretty much intact, so I could deal with the stages and bosses in the quickest way possible.
Quite honestly, this game is a blast! (No pun intended). There's a lot to do with 2 Players in this. Matter of fact, the story mode almost forces you to have a friend or family member alongside you, so you can get the bonus points and upgrades.
Then again, I played this one a LOT in my SNES days. Muscle memory is still pretty much intact, so I could deal with the stages and bosses in the quickest way possible.
Quite honestly, this game is a blast! (No pun intended). There's a lot to do with 2 Players in this. Matter of fact, the story mode almost forces you to have a friend or family member alongside you, so you can get the bonus points and upgrades.
1993
One of my favorite racing games of the SNES! Would love to come back to this one someday, but the gauntlet of playing 16 countries with 4 stages each can be somewhat tiresome, specially considering this is an old racing game.
1990
The absolute platinum standard when it comes to platforming games. If SMB3 was a step forwards in comparison to SMB1, this one is a gigantic leap when it comes to level design, creativity, sound, difficulty and just overall player liberty.
My fear that nostalgia could be making my memories blurry when it came to how much I loved this one was just that, fear. Replaying this with an open mind and paying attention to what made this game work just made me remember why I stood in front of the tv day in day out playing this one.
It's not a particularly long game, the levels are very interesting and a bunch of them even have branching exits that lead to secrets or shortcuts. Naturally, I went for full completion so I did all the stages and did all possible exits for the ones that have that.
Difficulty wise, this one is a lot more forgiving in a good way. I may have finished the game with 99 Lives, but I lost quite a bunch on the Bowser levels and on the Special Stages (Tubular is still a pain in the butt lmao)
Overall, replaying this was pleasant, couldn't help but just keep a big smile on my face as I listened to the gorgeous soundtrack and saw the beautiful sprite work.
My fear that nostalgia could be making my memories blurry when it came to how much I loved this one was just that, fear. Replaying this with an open mind and paying attention to what made this game work just made me remember why I stood in front of the tv day in day out playing this one.
It's not a particularly long game, the levels are very interesting and a bunch of them even have branching exits that lead to secrets or shortcuts. Naturally, I went for full completion so I did all the stages and did all possible exits for the ones that have that.
Difficulty wise, this one is a lot more forgiving in a good way. I may have finished the game with 99 Lives, but I lost quite a bunch on the Bowser levels and on the Special Stages (Tubular is still a pain in the butt lmao)
Overall, replaying this was pleasant, couldn't help but just keep a big smile on my face as I listened to the gorgeous soundtrack and saw the beautiful sprite work.
1988
While I find SMB1 to be pretty good and Lost Levels/USA to be the standard messy sequel, SMB3 feels like the proper upgrade to the original SMB1 in everything possible.
More upgrades for Mario, tighter level design, one of the most beautiful soundtracks for a game of this time, a bunch of minigames and a ton of freedom for the player to do whatever they want to do.
Maybe my only grasp with this one is the obscene amount of scrollers in this bad boy.... doesn't help that every final stage in the world is pretty much one, too.
The difficulty in some spots can be borderline trial and error, too. Which is fine, the game hands you extra lives like a madman, but I'm not too fond of it. Possibly these two things are what push this game a bit back for me at least.
Still, this game was my absolute childhood, alongside SMW! It's definitely a gold standard when it comes to difficult platform games.
More upgrades for Mario, tighter level design, one of the most beautiful soundtracks for a game of this time, a bunch of minigames and a ton of freedom for the player to do whatever they want to do.
Maybe my only grasp with this one is the obscene amount of scrollers in this bad boy.... doesn't help that every final stage in the world is pretty much one, too.
The difficulty in some spots can be borderline trial and error, too. Which is fine, the game hands you extra lives like a madman, but I'm not too fond of it. Possibly these two things are what push this game a bit back for me at least.
Still, this game was my absolute childhood, alongside SMW! It's definitely a gold standard when it comes to difficult platform games.
2000
@ryuk0tsuki why did you do this to me AMY ROSE DROWNED
2006
There's nothing cooler than killing a boss by throwing a cash register at it while you're wearing the Mega Man X costume with a Servbot mask on.
I was wondering if I should log this here. Played a handful of acts and my general reaction to it was something in the lines of:
- looks ugly
- plays very sluggish
- screen feels too small, even on PC
- soundtrack tries to be Mega Drive, but it doesn't try doing something interesting with the sound chip
Honestly? Just play the crappy Speedy Gonzales Romhack for the SNES that was titled "Sonic The Hedgehog 4". It's as sluggish as this, but at least the "SONIC SONI-" sound makes me giggle.
- looks ugly
- plays very sluggish
- screen feels too small, even on PC
- soundtrack tries to be Mega Drive, but it doesn't try doing something interesting with the sound chip
Honestly? Just play the crappy Speedy Gonzales Romhack for the SNES that was titled "Sonic The Hedgehog 4". It's as sluggish as this, but at least the "SONIC SONI-" sound makes me giggle.
2017
If Sonic CD and 3&K had a son, this would be it. The almost perfect sum of both game's best spots, where aesthetic and music meet the tight level design.
Honestly, this is the true Sonic The Hedgehog 4. If you want to introduce someone to the series, there's no better point than this.
If I had to nitpick something here... it's just that I wish more new and unique levels were added. While it's great to see the original games having a tighter level design and a sound that's closer to Sonic CD.... I don't know, I think I'm just too tired of seeing Green Hill and Chemical plant all over again. Also, doesn't help that they get my least favorite level from Sonic 2 back here (The Oil one) and mix it with concepts from my least favorite level from 3&K (the desert one).
Also, kinda funny how the last stage of this game is the only one where I cannot remember the track that played. Tee Lopes really went so hard on Metallic Madness Act 2 that the droney music that plays on the actual final stage feels weaker in comparison lol
But okay, let me go over positives here, which is a LOT.
God, the character's sprite have so much personality to them. It's the perfect mix of the CD era sprites with the 3&K sprite work. That little animation Sonic does right before chemical plant is SO CUTE.
And while I'm pretty much done with Green Hills and Chemical Plants, seeing Hidrocity, Stardust Speedway, Metallic Madness, Lava Reef coming back with a vengeance was great. And somehow, they made Flying Battery even crazier this time around!!!
And oh my goodness, the new stages. Studiopolis and Press Garden are some of my new favorite stage concepts for the franchise, and I do hope these ones come back in some shape or form in the future.
Honestly, this just makes me wish they gave the dev team a proper budget to make a new game filled with unique levels. Shame it didn't turn out like that and we got Superstars instead...
Also, really funny how this game is a "prequel" to Forces in a way. Does this mean I should play Forces next....? shivers
Honestly, this is the true Sonic The Hedgehog 4. If you want to introduce someone to the series, there's no better point than this.
If I had to nitpick something here... it's just that I wish more new and unique levels were added. While it's great to see the original games having a tighter level design and a sound that's closer to Sonic CD.... I don't know, I think I'm just too tired of seeing Green Hill and Chemical plant all over again. Also, doesn't help that they get my least favorite level from Sonic 2 back here (The Oil one) and mix it with concepts from my least favorite level from 3&K (the desert one).
Also, kinda funny how the last stage of this game is the only one where I cannot remember the track that played. Tee Lopes really went so hard on Metallic Madness Act 2 that the droney music that plays on the actual final stage feels weaker in comparison lol
But okay, let me go over positives here, which is a LOT.
God, the character's sprite have so much personality to them. It's the perfect mix of the CD era sprites with the 3&K sprite work. That little animation Sonic does right before chemical plant is SO CUTE.
And while I'm pretty much done with Green Hills and Chemical Plants, seeing Hidrocity, Stardust Speedway, Metallic Madness, Lava Reef coming back with a vengeance was great. And somehow, they made Flying Battery even crazier this time around!!!
And oh my goodness, the new stages. Studiopolis and Press Garden are some of my new favorite stage concepts for the franchise, and I do hope these ones come back in some shape or form in the future.
Honestly, this just makes me wish they gave the dev team a proper budget to make a new game filled with unique levels. Shame it didn't turn out like that and we got Superstars instead...
Also, really funny how this game is a "prequel" to Forces in a way. Does this mean I should play Forces next....? shivers
The absolute peak of fast-paced platformers.
The level design, sprite work, soundtrack (be it Sega Sound Team or Brad Buxer / Michael Jackson)... It just feels like they learned all the kinks of the previous games, got what made Sonic CD work and improved from there. Making Sonic feel faster and having a lot more power to himself was also a fantastic decision on their part.
Knuckles is a neat addition, and Tails is a LOT more useful this time around.
And honestly, I love the special stages in this. I feel like when I fail, it's generally my fault for being too greedy or not understanding the overall design. It's not as good as CD's, but it does something right.
Revisiting this one after a couple years (and watching a friend play it) just reassured me that this and Sonic Adventure 1 will always fight for that sweet number one spot in my absolute favorite Sonic game.
The level design, sprite work, soundtrack (be it Sega Sound Team or Brad Buxer / Michael Jackson)... It just feels like they learned all the kinks of the previous games, got what made Sonic CD work and improved from there. Making Sonic feel faster and having a lot more power to himself was also a fantastic decision on their part.
Knuckles is a neat addition, and Tails is a LOT more useful this time around.
And honestly, I love the special stages in this. I feel like when I fail, it's generally my fault for being too greedy or not understanding the overall design. It's not as good as CD's, but it does something right.
Revisiting this one after a couple years (and watching a friend play it) just reassured me that this and Sonic Adventure 1 will always fight for that sweet number one spot in my absolute favorite Sonic game.
1992
A huge leap in quality over Sonic 1! Level design is a lot tighter, somewhat trickier fights and.... to be frank, a special stage that's a pain in the ass. It's like they really built this one to be played by two people...
Still, a cool ride nevertheless. A fairly nice starting point if you ever want to check the franchise out.
Still, a cool ride nevertheless. A fairly nice starting point if you ever want to check the franchise out.
1991
Not as bad as I recall, honestly.
The thing with Sonic as a franchise is that it's sold as "BE VERY QUICK DO FAST STUFF SPEED UP ETC" but if you take your time during the stages and explore, there's actually a very fun platforming game behind it. Hell, I even took my own time with the special stages and they didn't feel so jarring this time around.
However... as much as I'll credit these points to the game, it's still somewhat too early on for the franchise, so some enemies are a bit of a slog to deal with, the level design has some rough moments (Labyrinth and Scrap Brain act 3, specially), and I have a severe distate for the amount of bottomless pits in this...
Still, this game does share some nitpicks I have with the first Mega Man game, that thankfully were adressed and improved upon on the following games (specially Sonic CD!)
Not the greatest start to one of my favorite franchises ever... but still, it's only upwards from here on the Mega Drive era!
The thing with Sonic as a franchise is that it's sold as "BE VERY QUICK DO FAST STUFF SPEED UP ETC" but if you take your time during the stages and explore, there's actually a very fun platforming game behind it. Hell, I even took my own time with the special stages and they didn't feel so jarring this time around.
However... as much as I'll credit these points to the game, it's still somewhat too early on for the franchise, so some enemies are a bit of a slog to deal with, the level design has some rough moments (Labyrinth and Scrap Brain act 3, specially), and I have a severe distate for the amount of bottomless pits in this...
Still, this game does share some nitpicks I have with the first Mega Man game, that thankfully were adressed and improved upon on the following games (specially Sonic CD!)
Not the greatest start to one of my favorite franchises ever... but still, it's only upwards from here on the Mega Drive era!
2011
Was watching a friend play this one this week and it just gave me the itch to play it once again.
Honestly, this one just gets better each time I play it. While I do find S3&K to be the gold standard for Sonic games, this one brings so much aesthetic to the franchise, both visually and soundtrack-wise, that it just warms my heart.
Also, the 2011 port is AMAZING. Some really good quality of life changes to the game that make it the best possible way to play this one (unless you own Origins...)
Honestly, this one just gets better each time I play it. While I do find S3&K to be the gold standard for Sonic games, this one brings so much aesthetic to the franchise, both visually and soundtrack-wise, that it just warms my heart.
Also, the 2011 port is AMAZING. Some really good quality of life changes to the game that make it the best possible way to play this one (unless you own Origins...)