Right away, what caught my attention was the super stylish look of this game, which seems to be a pattern of Terri Vellmann's games, like High Life and Heavy Bullets. Devolver Digital chooses very well the games they'll publish and they end up creating a pattern of stylish and bizarre games that are almost immediately associated with them.

The incredible character design and the industrial/corporate landscape full of colorful and creative graffiti tags really make this game especially stylish. Not to mention the menu that mimics a computer desktop, where you can tweak your settings, install apps you find throughout the game, and even play games within the game itself.

Though one thing that bothers me about the visuals is the VHS filter and the twisting of the screen while you browse the menus, but it is something that can be easily disabled.

The gameplay is super simple, although being a little clunky in the movement of your character. But I loved the mix of parkour (simple as it may be) to get to high places with the goal of leaving your tag in a prominent place. It gets even more satisfying when two graffiti artists get together and make a combo.

I certainly missed a more elaborate story, quests, character development, 'cause I wanted to see so much more of this bizarre world and its grumpy characters.

There's not really any game like Wonderful 101. When it works, the combat can be really fun and satisfying. Though there are a lot of times when it doesn't as the game tends to throw new and one-off mechanics at you without decently explaining how any of it works. So it's best to first look at a guide before playing the game. The game just works better when replaying it as a result as well.

The plot isn't really all that interesting, but it continually ups the stakes in a way that's a lot of fun. It's probably got the most ridiculous self-indulgent over the top stuff I've seen happen in a video game. The characters and dialogue are often obnoxious though.

This was the first bad game i played in my life. I was 3 or 4. I made it steps as jekyll, then suddeny died as hyde. over a decade later, discovering emulation, I tried again. It was a save-scumming slog. Children hitting me with rocks, random bombers, bird droppings the size (and shape) of a bulldog's. And for what? to go through the same stages as Hyde to get the true ending.
It was not worth it. having to sit though ear-grating music, looking at okay graphics (that i at one point adapted into a personal sprite comic) and equipped with a cane that did next-to-nothing.
If you are really curious about the game, we have youtube. Just watch a longplay.

Similar to the first one, but with a bit more polish. There's a wider variety of stage aesthetics too. While you have your mainstays like grass starting level, and snow level, you also get some more unique choices. I think Music Plant is one of my favourite 2D Sonic stages now. Techno Base is also a really interesting zone, but I can't decide how I feel about it because it's so overly bright and flashy that I love it, but it also hurts to look at so I hate it.

There is a MASSIVE increase in boss difficulty here. It's obvious from the first boss, but the second boss honestly presented a legit challenge and I'm ashamed to say how much I died to it. They're also some of the most inventive bosses I've seen in a 2D Sonic game. For the challenge, it's never really to a point of being frustrating (except the Knuckles boss, fuck him), but this game loses a quality of life feature from the first, where you could restart any zone from either act. Now zones must be restarted from the first act, so it's much harder to try and actually get used to the patterns of the tougher bosses, leading to more frustrating defeats as you have to go through 2 stages again.

Difficulty in stages themselves was great up until the last zone. Egg Utopia is just full of unfair bottomless pits, blocks that can crush you etc.

My biggest complaint is the Chaos Emerald system in this one. First of all they don't share between characters like last time, so to get the true final ending you need to get them all as Sonic. But actually getting to a special zone now requires you to find 7 collectables in a stage rather than just one secret spring. And they don't save between playthroughs so you need to get them all in a single go. Way too much hassle, I honestly never even saw a special stage because I couldn't be bothered going through that. They could have easily made it more tolerable in many ways, like maybe having the requirement being 7 rings across both acts, this would still allow players who get all rings to have an advantage since they'd get 2 chances per special zone instead of 1. Maybe have the rings save between playthroughs. Have Chaos Emeralds shared. So many ways it could have been better.

I actually kinda like Cream as an addition though. I only tested her out in the first stage, but she doesn't have the handicap of not having spin attacks like Amy in the last game, and using a Chao as an attack is pretty fun.

For the majority of this game I loved it, my only complaint was the chaos emerald system. But as I neared the end, some extremely frustrating boss and stage designs put me off, especially when coupled with the changes to quality of life regarding level selecting. I'd still say it's an overall better game than the first, but by the time I ended, I'd say only just, whereas if I was asked after the first half an hour of playing I'd have claimed this one was far superior.

Overall, a fantastic package, with one of the games being among my top 5 favourite of all time.

Symphony Of The Night is a great here as the PSX version, with some changes here and there, most notably different voice acting - which while technically better in terms of delivery, lacks the charm of the original, cheesy one.

A big addition is the option to play as Maria once you finish the game once.

The fantastic OST, expansive castle and fluid gameplay still shine.