Disclaimer: FUCK JKR - TRANS LIVES MATTER

This game fulfilled many dreams of what an open world game set in the world of Harry Potter would be. Of course it's not perfect, but all the different spells, the combat(!), the graphics, music, and general gameplay were very gratifying and had me excited to play every time I stepped away from the game. The story / characters weren't amazing and the inability to fully role play and choose my characters personality was frustrating considering you're given some differing choices, however your character would then revert back to their polite kind selves if no choice was given 1 minute later.
Overall I had a lot of fun and it's definitely up there with the must play open world games of this generation.

I'd been meaning to play this game for almost 15 years, and finally I got my way through it.
This game is everything you hear it is: high fantasy, heavily role playing, and buggy of course
In terms of bugginess, the game crashing every hour on average was very frustrating. It meant that by the end I was saving every 2 minutes - not fun.
The game itself I felt had a curve of "fun". At the beginning you have the excitedness of creating a new character (I went with Breton Battlemage), then you can start exploring the world but with a lack of understanding of how everything works. Then you start hitting a low point when you realise that you picked half your major skills wrong, meaning you won't level fast. However from here things start to go upwards as you know how to level efficiently with what you've got, suddenly you're a lot more powerful. Then the game becomes a wave of very similar enemies over and over with little to no actual puzzles (which when they appear are very cool!). Towards the end I got bored and rushed the final few missions which took about 2 hours in total, pretty lacklustre.

However this game has a magic to it that is undeniable. The side quests are fun and encourage you to explore the world, the music is beautifully composed, the characters are unintentionally the funniest people ever. You can really choose what kind of character you're role playing, having choices from several factions whether you're a heroic do-gooder or a mischievous vampire thief or somewhere in between, there are many options for you!

Would recommend this to any big fans of RPGs, however I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to any casual audience - I would probably recommend Skyrim instead.

This game is definitely an upgrade to the original, but not by much. You become overpowered if you do the tiniest amount of "grinding" - eg doing a job and then being able to afford the best items quickly.
The sense of humour holds this game up from being totally terrible as it contains some great British talent, like Steven Fry.
The story feels thrown together - with limited options with how you can actually effect the story other than "do good thing" or "do bad thing".
The menu system is really bad, along with a pretty much non existent map makes the world hard to feel immersed in.
The combat becomes very repetitive and pointless after a few hours.
We had to force ourselves through the last few hours of the game.
The cut scenes were pretty cool though.
Not as much charm as the original Fable but updated mechanics made it feel a bit nicer to play. Hoping Fable 3 is better

Played Co-op with a friend.
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this except a gritty shooter. And that's pretty much what I got.
For 2006 this game is pretty impressive and holds up OK.
As with a lot of games, the final boss was kind of underwhelming and with the added bonus of being unclear what you're really meant to do.
However despite all this, we had a lot of fun and the weapons + combat system in general are satisfying and only slightly annoying at times. There weren't any parts of the game that felt ridiculously hard or braindead easy, so that balance is great for consistent enjoyment throughout.
My last criticism is just that what the hell you're actually doing in the campaign is a bit of a mystery as almost nothing is explained, almost feels like we were playing a sequel.

I can't remember the last time I sat down with 3-5 of my friends and completed an entire game's campaign, let alone doing it in person.

This game was so much fun, and while it lacks a bit in character, the gameplay is very well refined and still looks good by today's standards.

Would recommend this game as a co-op for any group of 4+ players who want something fun to play

Played on Switch

It's obvious after playing this game why Mario Kart became such a hit. It's also pretty amazing how similar this game has stayed in it's 31 years of iterations, a testament to how solid the idea+execution was in the first place.

The music, art, gameplay are all very fun and especially unique in the SNES era. This is one of the best uses of the Mode 7 graphics system to simulate a pseudo-3D experience.

After all these years though, there are some parts of the game that are truly frustrating. The CPUs are essentially their own beast in this game who often have TAS level responses when it comes to dodging obstacles, paired with an unlimited supply of items that makes racing them truly a nightmare on some maps. The sound of the kart engines racing near/past you are grinding on the ears (luckily not included in 2P). And the game is just generally pretty difficult to control, especially with the lack of a brake/reverse button. Also while the Mode 7 graphics are great for it's time, most obstacles are essentially 2D and only really visible within a couple seconds of running into them, which can be pretty annoying.

Overall I was pleased with the first entry into this incredible series, but I'm certainly glad I can move onto something a bit more modern.

A vibrant, fun remake of a Playstation classic.

The gameplay, while simple, is a good challenge in some parts, but randomly extremely easy in others. I could tear through 3-4 levels and then be stuck on 1 part of 1 for ages.
My main gripe with this game is the lack of a need for full 3d for many levels, partial 3d would have worked much better and having it be full didn't add anything but confusion for some. Also the hit/hurtboxes were very odd.

Other than that, the colours, music, sound design, voice acting, animations and art style made this game a pleasure to play, as a must play for platformer fans.