Speedy
2022
Sonic Frontiers is Sonic’s next foray into a new era that will set the template for the Sonic games for the foreseeable future but is it any good? Bottom line, Yes & No, as a person who has played all 3D Sonic Games and a fan of this wonderfully flawed series, Frontiers is very and I mean very flawed I can’t deny there’s a good no, great foundation to plot an amazing game but Frontiers is not that game and that’s okay, especially since it feels the team who made this game really want it to succeed and be that formula for success, so much so they delayed the game from it’s initial Holiday 2021 release and really listened to player and fan feedback, so while I don’t love this game a whole lot, I feel I can appreciate it’s scale and ambition for what it wants to set out to do.
First the plot of this game, without spoiling details I find the plot to be… good, not great but a solid romp and return to the more shonen styled Sonic stories. It follows Sonic, Tails and Amy investigating the disappearance of the Chaos Emeralds, they find that it’s on the mysterious Starfall Islands, after they get sucked into a wormhole, Sonic is quickly enwrapped in a Race against time to save his friends and collect the emeralds while a mysterious new girl, named Sage tries to warn him to leave the islands. The plot is good mostly due to the character interactions, I think that’s mostly what Ian Flynn is great at it’s just fun to see these characters interact, again I gotta keep it a bit vague here but I love while Sonic doesn’t go through a major arc, he’s just a static character, his personality inspires those around him in a positive light, in turns it also sorta fixes some of the character issues in the Mainline games that are sorta inFamous in the Sonic community now, I do have a few gripes with the story however, for one i think it relies a bit to much on references in my opinion, like there’s a few lines in the game that sorta caught me off guard (in a good kind of way) that sorta did shape the world of the game and series upside down but I feel others come off as a bit unnecessary and shoe horned in. My other gripe is that I feel like the twists and such don’t really work and feel a bit anticlimactic, again gonna be a little vague here but while the stuff with the “ancients” and Koco where well done, I didn’t really found Sage to be a terribly interesting character and the pay off to her is pretty underwhelming despite there being a solid idea, it just feels rushed, plus it gets so insanely melodramatic at points even for Sonic standards, though the ending itself is well written enough. Overall I found the story while not the best in the series as I think the Adventure Games, Battle, Rush Adventure, both versions of Colours and maybe Black Knight edges out, is a fun time with likeable character that are some of the best in the series, great dialogue and overall a great tone that says prevalent throughout the game, if the twists were better, a bit more well paced, had better voice acting and maybe dialled back a bit on the references and the just talking scenes, I think this could be one of the best in series, but as it is it’s a solid enough story and better than anything in the past decade, so I’m content with it.
As in terms of Presentation of Frontiers, this is unfortunately where my more mixed thoughts on the game start to pop up, literally i mean because the pop in in this game is absurd, i don’t know if this was an [REDACTED] issue or my issues with the presentation can be linked to this but the point is, the Pop in in this game go beyond the standard Open world affair but rather something that is insanely common that it hinders gameplay. I also found the artstyle to be bland and boring, while it looks perfectly fine and i can sorta see what they’re going for especially with those enemy designs but the actual open zone looks so forgettable and bland for a Sonic game though does look fine in the grand scheme of things, i much prefer how Cyberspace looks, despite the inane reuse of these stage themes i have to admit they haven’t looked better before, they look really beautiful especially in the night. One aspect of the game that is a bit mediocre is the voice acting, while i dig Roger’s more serious direction as Sonic (which is literally Crane from Dying Light) other actors sound incredibly bored especially Sage and Eggman, The music is pretty strong, I’m Here & the Titan Bosses aren’t very good songs in my opinion but Vandalize and One way Dream are incredible tracks, Cyberspace music is great as well though the Open Zone music is a bit forgettable.
But I know what y’all here for, the gameplay and… it functions? Frontiers is essentially Sonic Forces but in an Open World, not really a bad thing but i wouldn’t say it’s a huge improvement from Forces apart from Controls which feel really nice to play around with especially using the Cyloop, just speeding through these fast lands at rocket speeds, platforming around the world in these weird sprawling sandboxes filled with Sonic iconography while using the drop dash and boosting feels so good. Sonic can use most of his arsenal from the Boost games along with the drop dash from Sonic Mania and the lightspeed dash, Sonic can also level up his speed, defence, ring capacity and power by either collecting fruit or Koco (very slowly might i add), Throughout the Islands you need to collect Memory Tokens to free your friends or talk to them, Portal Gears to Unlock Cyberspace levels, short bitesize 3D or 2D linear stages from previous games and Vault Keys to unlock the 7 Chaos Emeralds as well as Egg Memos, optional Voice recorded notes created by Eggman that expand on the lore of the series. This formula works in my opinion but the issue is, there’s not much variation, you’re mostly doing the same thing over and over again without much challenge for at least 11 Hours as a hardcore Sonic Fan, especially with the fact that the Islands don’t have much variety apart from aesthetics, There’s a fishing minigame and a casino gimmick at night and for a few missions there’s a few timed challenges, but it isn’t enough in my opinion and sometimes feel like variety for the sake of variety.
Supposedly the combat and puzzles was supposed to be the big solution to this however while fun, i think both are way too simple and the challenge is essentially nonexistent, especially in terms of combat with by light speed dashing rings or infinitely Cylopping Rings with no penalty, Combat feels it puts above all else spectacle rather than practicality which is shame, because with more challenge and less button mashy gameplay this could very be the best combat in the series, standing next to Heroes, however as it is it’s sorta just… there.
Cyberspace is one of the aspects of the game that I feel the most mixed on. While I grew to “like” cyberspace, whenever I was liking the stages, they ended just like Sonic Forces. There’s a few lengthy ones sure but they mostly value replay value with getting multiple keys by doing challenges, it’s just the controls are really bad in Cyberspace plus the 4 themes that are reused over and over for all 5 Islands again with level design from better games with better controls and aesthetics makes Cyberspace such a weird aspect for me, they serve as neat little peacebreakers at most and at worst, Sonic Forces 2.
Speaking of the 5 Islands, while i won’t spoil details i found the 4th and 5th Islands to be incredibly disappointing, one of them is insanely short and is basically a story beat island while one is a full fledged island but still has that disappoint aspect, it sorta ruined the game for me since it shows that Sonic games are still falling in the same traps over and over again. This is no more apparent in the polish of the game, the game feels unfinished at points, i already talked about the Pop-In but there’s a layer of jank in this game despite a delay and 5 year development cycle, animations and textures being incredibly inconsistent, 2D Sections in the Open World feel so jarring and janky whenever they happen, especially in Chaos Island, easily the worst and most janky island in the game and the camera in both Cyberspace and the Open World is awful, i know cameras in 3D Sonic games aren’t the best but this is absurdly bad even for those standards, it regularly clips on objects and is way too zoomed out.
I feel the camera issues are at it’s worst with the titan bosses, the minibosses are probably the best part of the game since they’re challenging while providing a bit of variety to the game, but the Titans while in terms spectacle go so hard with it’s music and designs, functional they feel really jank and way too easy, the final boss is just a shitty QTE, even if you play on hard which i did, it’s still the easiest boss in the game and it really soured the sorta solid ending the game has.
Overall Sonic Frontiers is good, and not much else? You might a 6/10 is a bit too high in your opinion with this mostly negative but that’s because, this game shows an insane amount promise and when it works, the game is a blast but as i progressed through the game it was doing the same thing over and over again and especially with the 4th and 5th Islands being so disappointing, I can’t bring myself to say i love Frontiers, nor i can’t say i hate it, it’s just okay. This is the type of game where some people might like it but hate a lot of aspects, and some people might hate this game but like a lot aspects and i think i lie on a middle, though the fact is, despite any opinions on it, everyone agrees there’s a potential for a great follow up or even for some great DLC, i really hope that the average reviews doesn’t mean the game’s will be scrapped but rather improved upon for a great new sequel, i may seem alone on my stance of this game but i feel Frontiers is comparable to Sonic 1, Sonic Rush or Colours Wii where it’s the exact game we needed at the time and while very, very flawed, the foundation is there for a great sequel. All i can hope is that these new Frontiers, won’t be forgotten.
First the plot of this game, without spoiling details I find the plot to be… good, not great but a solid romp and return to the more shonen styled Sonic stories. It follows Sonic, Tails and Amy investigating the disappearance of the Chaos Emeralds, they find that it’s on the mysterious Starfall Islands, after they get sucked into a wormhole, Sonic is quickly enwrapped in a Race against time to save his friends and collect the emeralds while a mysterious new girl, named Sage tries to warn him to leave the islands. The plot is good mostly due to the character interactions, I think that’s mostly what Ian Flynn is great at it’s just fun to see these characters interact, again I gotta keep it a bit vague here but I love while Sonic doesn’t go through a major arc, he’s just a static character, his personality inspires those around him in a positive light, in turns it also sorta fixes some of the character issues in the Mainline games that are sorta inFamous in the Sonic community now, I do have a few gripes with the story however, for one i think it relies a bit to much on references in my opinion, like there’s a few lines in the game that sorta caught me off guard (in a good kind of way) that sorta did shape the world of the game and series upside down but I feel others come off as a bit unnecessary and shoe horned in. My other gripe is that I feel like the twists and such don’t really work and feel a bit anticlimactic, again gonna be a little vague here but while the stuff with the “ancients” and Koco where well done, I didn’t really found Sage to be a terribly interesting character and the pay off to her is pretty underwhelming despite there being a solid idea, it just feels rushed, plus it gets so insanely melodramatic at points even for Sonic standards, though the ending itself is well written enough. Overall I found the story while not the best in the series as I think the Adventure Games, Battle, Rush Adventure, both versions of Colours and maybe Black Knight edges out, is a fun time with likeable character that are some of the best in the series, great dialogue and overall a great tone that says prevalent throughout the game, if the twists were better, a bit more well paced, had better voice acting and maybe dialled back a bit on the references and the just talking scenes, I think this could be one of the best in series, but as it is it’s a solid enough story and better than anything in the past decade, so I’m content with it.
As in terms of Presentation of Frontiers, this is unfortunately where my more mixed thoughts on the game start to pop up, literally i mean because the pop in in this game is absurd, i don’t know if this was an [REDACTED] issue or my issues with the presentation can be linked to this but the point is, the Pop in in this game go beyond the standard Open world affair but rather something that is insanely common that it hinders gameplay. I also found the artstyle to be bland and boring, while it looks perfectly fine and i can sorta see what they’re going for especially with those enemy designs but the actual open zone looks so forgettable and bland for a Sonic game though does look fine in the grand scheme of things, i much prefer how Cyberspace looks, despite the inane reuse of these stage themes i have to admit they haven’t looked better before, they look really beautiful especially in the night. One aspect of the game that is a bit mediocre is the voice acting, while i dig Roger’s more serious direction as Sonic (which is literally Crane from Dying Light) other actors sound incredibly bored especially Sage and Eggman, The music is pretty strong, I’m Here & the Titan Bosses aren’t very good songs in my opinion but Vandalize and One way Dream are incredible tracks, Cyberspace music is great as well though the Open Zone music is a bit forgettable.
But I know what y’all here for, the gameplay and… it functions? Frontiers is essentially Sonic Forces but in an Open World, not really a bad thing but i wouldn’t say it’s a huge improvement from Forces apart from Controls which feel really nice to play around with especially using the Cyloop, just speeding through these fast lands at rocket speeds, platforming around the world in these weird sprawling sandboxes filled with Sonic iconography while using the drop dash and boosting feels so good. Sonic can use most of his arsenal from the Boost games along with the drop dash from Sonic Mania and the lightspeed dash, Sonic can also level up his speed, defence, ring capacity and power by either collecting fruit or Koco (very slowly might i add), Throughout the Islands you need to collect Memory Tokens to free your friends or talk to them, Portal Gears to Unlock Cyberspace levels, short bitesize 3D or 2D linear stages from previous games and Vault Keys to unlock the 7 Chaos Emeralds as well as Egg Memos, optional Voice recorded notes created by Eggman that expand on the lore of the series. This formula works in my opinion but the issue is, there’s not much variation, you’re mostly doing the same thing over and over again without much challenge for at least 11 Hours as a hardcore Sonic Fan, especially with the fact that the Islands don’t have much variety apart from aesthetics, There’s a fishing minigame and a casino gimmick at night and for a few missions there’s a few timed challenges, but it isn’t enough in my opinion and sometimes feel like variety for the sake of variety.
Supposedly the combat and puzzles was supposed to be the big solution to this however while fun, i think both are way too simple and the challenge is essentially nonexistent, especially in terms of combat with by light speed dashing rings or infinitely Cylopping Rings with no penalty, Combat feels it puts above all else spectacle rather than practicality which is shame, because with more challenge and less button mashy gameplay this could very be the best combat in the series, standing next to Heroes, however as it is it’s sorta just… there.
Cyberspace is one of the aspects of the game that I feel the most mixed on. While I grew to “like” cyberspace, whenever I was liking the stages, they ended just like Sonic Forces. There’s a few lengthy ones sure but they mostly value replay value with getting multiple keys by doing challenges, it’s just the controls are really bad in Cyberspace plus the 4 themes that are reused over and over for all 5 Islands again with level design from better games with better controls and aesthetics makes Cyberspace such a weird aspect for me, they serve as neat little peacebreakers at most and at worst, Sonic Forces 2.
Speaking of the 5 Islands, while i won’t spoil details i found the 4th and 5th Islands to be incredibly disappointing, one of them is insanely short and is basically a story beat island while one is a full fledged island but still has that disappoint aspect, it sorta ruined the game for me since it shows that Sonic games are still falling in the same traps over and over again. This is no more apparent in the polish of the game, the game feels unfinished at points, i already talked about the Pop-In but there’s a layer of jank in this game despite a delay and 5 year development cycle, animations and textures being incredibly inconsistent, 2D Sections in the Open World feel so jarring and janky whenever they happen, especially in Chaos Island, easily the worst and most janky island in the game and the camera in both Cyberspace and the Open World is awful, i know cameras in 3D Sonic games aren’t the best but this is absurdly bad even for those standards, it regularly clips on objects and is way too zoomed out.
I feel the camera issues are at it’s worst with the titan bosses, the minibosses are probably the best part of the game since they’re challenging while providing a bit of variety to the game, but the Titans while in terms spectacle go so hard with it’s music and designs, functional they feel really jank and way too easy, the final boss is just a shitty QTE, even if you play on hard which i did, it’s still the easiest boss in the game and it really soured the sorta solid ending the game has.
Overall Sonic Frontiers is good, and not much else? You might a 6/10 is a bit too high in your opinion with this mostly negative but that’s because, this game shows an insane amount promise and when it works, the game is a blast but as i progressed through the game it was doing the same thing over and over again and especially with the 4th and 5th Islands being so disappointing, I can’t bring myself to say i love Frontiers, nor i can’t say i hate it, it’s just okay. This is the type of game where some people might like it but hate a lot of aspects, and some people might hate this game but like a lot aspects and i think i lie on a middle, though the fact is, despite any opinions on it, everyone agrees there’s a potential for a great follow up or even for some great DLC, i really hope that the average reviews doesn’t mean the game’s will be scrapped but rather improved upon for a great new sequel, i may seem alone on my stance of this game but i feel Frontiers is comparable to Sonic 1, Sonic Rush or Colours Wii where it’s the exact game we needed at the time and while very, very flawed, the foundation is there for a great sequel. All i can hope is that these new Frontiers, won’t be forgotten.
Listen i love Avatar as much as the next guy but please, make an actual good game with them because good lord this was not it
2021
Sega are these the men you want to hire?
Look I just don't even know where to begin, Sonic Omens is awful like i normally want to be somewhat positive and give a game the benefit of the doubt but no man, this game is bad, like shockingly so, it's genuinely baffling to me how any game releases as this, and I'm gonna talk about it today.
This review is gonna be split in two, talking about the devs and the game itself so strap in folks because this is gonna be wild.
The Dodgy Development
Okay let's get this over with, the developers are poopy shitheads, if you want more on their wacky antics check this doc here but in short, they sexualised a minor, had beta builds hidden behind a paywall subscription on Patreon, stole the How to Train Your Dragon IP as their own, have ads on Game Jolt with an insane amount of Traffic, alleged stealing from Cars 2: The Video Game (the most evil thing here, seriously of all games to steal music from why the tie-in game to a bad film) and passing it as their own and Bolt/Joh being asshats and causing drama on Twitter, devs and fans bullying people who worked on the game, plus a plethora of other heinous stuff, so if you don't want to play this (I don't know why you would) then look here, I'm not focusing on it as i feel the game itself is more important to me but i cannot ignore the development of this game since it gives context to my experience with this game plus Midrulean already went somewhat in depth with the development so go check out his review if you haven't already.
Sonic Omens and the Cost of Ambition
Being Ambitious means you have to live up to people's justifiably high expectations, if you don't deliver you have big bag of wasted potential, many games do this but none so much as Sonic Omens, this game is awful, it's trying to be something it clearly can't be due to the humongous scope and clueless people working on it and yet it's so desperately trying be something it can't, a good game. But seriously, everything around this game can be seen through how ambitious it is, wanting to be a modern 2000s styled Sonic Adventure that serves as competition to Sonic's next Open-Zone game, and it fails spectacularly, what started as a ambitious quaint little fangame in 2020 that while flawed showed some promise made out of passion has ended up becoming show detested, reviled and contropassion finished out of spite.
I haven't heard many people talk about the story but wow it is messy despite a more simple premise, it's trying to be a surrogate game to the 2000s but doesn't work, like it's essentially comes to referencing it and not making an interesting story around it's concepts, it weirdly has some X stuff involved which is funny since they want me to care about X in a Mainline setting and a whole heap of forced references to make the meta era haters go "Awooga this game is great!" like the story has a super sonic final boss, The Metarex, Gaia Temples, Song cues from X and other games, Chip and Chris stuff, Shadaw, Maria, Rouge, Knuckles, the Tornado from X, Big cameos, G.U.N, music from Shadow and so much more. It's admirable i guess but is absolutely shattered by the Voice Acting, I can at least admire the people trying they're hardest since you can very much tell they aren't native english speakers but wow they couldn't have hired some other people? Delivery feels stiff and wooden and are trying so hard to replicate the 4kids cast but fail so hard, mostly with Shadow and Eggman. The dialogue also feels pretty clunky which isn't helped by the awkard delivery since you can barely understand what they're saying sometimes. One thing this game's plot attempts to do is explain why the Chaos Emeralds aren't used in mainline entires plot wise, placing this between after Unleashed and before Lost World… Did they even play the games? Barring Gens using the emeralds as the driving force of the plots they never really had a reason to use them in the plot because it'll boil down to a boring played out macguffin hunt which this game kinda is, so overall i don't see why the plot played this angle if they don't do anything interesting or compelling with it but the mediocre story is the least of our worries.
Presentation wise, Omens is very admirable though still not all that great when it comes to this, one thing I can't complain about is the Music because it's really great, using a lot of stuff in the 2000s, it isn't original but good nonetheless, i also like the character animation despite some stiff moments but it's very expressive for the most part especially with Sonic, but that's where a lot of my postives end with this game for me, the game for one is very glitchy and poorly optimized, frequent pop-in, clipping into objects, floating in the air, camera getting stuck on stuff, respawn not working, collision issues, game freezes/crashes and no sfx playing at one point but the visuals while do look decent some original characters and environments don't look very sonic like and seem like they're plopped fron radically different game plus the framerate isn't very smooth, it isn't my PC since the one i played on is pretty strong so i feel this is on the developers part.
But yeah I know, I've been trying to avoid but Sonic Omens has got to be one of the worst gameplay experiences I've ever had, this game is trying to be more like Unleashed and maybe a bit of Generations in terms of mechanics but feels like Forces 2 in this regard. Sonic controls way too slippery and his jump is too limiting making platform into a chore, he has a lot of moves from the previous games like the bonuce which was welcome, light speed dash, stomp and the boost with a screen nuke and a grappling hook plus a plethora of Chaos abilities for Shadow but they aren't put to good use, i feel the lack of a drift function hurts this game even more than Forces since they're some very sharp turns that you sure as hell can't pull with the base movement, the boost meter depletes too quickly leading to moments where you a searching for rings and boost orbs.
This wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for the god awful level design (I mean if the game tells you that you need to respawn frequently then you're in for a treat), Disney's Bolt and his team decide too pull a Balan Wonderworld and use 2 completely near incompatible gameplay styles into one, this is time with Boost and Adventure level design, what you have are the most inexplicably open, spectacle relient and boring stages ever concived in a Sonic game, It's laughable how confusing the levels are, I don't know where I'm going most of the time only to have a giant arrow pointing to where I am, toppped with the controls, the levels utterly become both frustrating, confusing and boring all at once, death zones don't even make sense at points, when the game tries to pull force combat it takes way too long, Shadow's stages are way worse given how the destroy the pace of each stage using chaos powers and you can even get softlocked at points just again you can tell they wanted to do so many things with this game but it utterly falls flat on it's entire body, I was gonna do an episode by episode review of this game but what's the point? I'd be blabbering saying the exact same stuff about the levels since the marginally get better, the low point of the levels are the latter half of Episode 3 where they focus on the water parts, and now there's a very good reason why most sonic games don't have 3d water levels, You're scalling up this big tree and this was one of the breaking points for me, you have to be very precise with the platforming, almost too precise with the general structure of the tree just being annoying and monotonous especially with the water, switch and aforementioned control issues, when i lost nearly 30 Minutes of progress by a mistaken homing attack i just gave up and used a save file, this game does not respect your time and I won't either so i wanted to see if it got any better and it did, barely, the 3rd Episode as whole isn't great especially with the water escape sequence, good lord that was horrible especially with the amount of near unavoidable death zones you have in this, making you really wonder if they properly playtested this game and fixed the issues many people already had but no they barely did. But i mean when a lot of the unfair BS is over with Omens is as good as Forces worst moments so that's something i guess, I'd say Episode 1 is solid enough and Area 99 (nice X reference) is too but they have their fair share of BS and what i like to call OH WOW LOOK AT DA BLOOM AND THE SPECTACLE WOW THIS GAME IS GOOD like seriously it's in every level and I don't get why.
But i mean i would have rated this game a 3 maybe even 4/10 if it was just the levels… Then the Bosses and Tornado sections come in, seriously every single Boss is awful especially the final boss, way too long, the camera doesn't focus on them, bullshit insta kill moves, awful pacing, severe lack of rings in them and overall just not a fun time, I don't feel like i overcame a good challenge i feel relived that i don't have to undergo a painful experience.
And finally the crown shit jewel of this game, the Tornado sections. Just what the hell happened? The Tornado moves way too slow especially in reverse and moving upwards, the blaster does some pitful damage, the missles while can do some damage don't go far, Boosting has a risk reward system where you move faster but when you hit something you get damaged even more which is piled by the horrendous design which is the shining example of everything this game gets wrong, confusing because of how the world design and controls, boring because of how the Tornado feels and frustrating because of how the enemies have the giant near unavoidable laser and the entire 2nd Act of the Escape sequence due to the worm, truly one of the worst experiences I've ever had the pleasure of playing in a video game, I must apologize to Balan Wonderworld because at least that game was consistent in it's awfulness and never came close to this.
Conclusion
This game is awful, i put this game in my least favourite games list but removed it but i think Apollo Justice will be execused (for now) but i could just conclude saying "game bad bye bye now" but going back to the start of this review, the cost of ambition pays a heavy toll, every issue this game faces is linked due to ambition, the 2000s esque story, the next-gen presentation, advancing and expanding the boost gameplay, the Bosses and Tornado being more elaborate and in-depth than ever before, all linked due to the ambition this game wants to do and it would be if the developers weren't assholes and the game wasn't this horrible, like yeah it's somewhat impressive to have a near 3d sonic console game made by fans but Sonic GT beat them to it and is way better, so i don't think i even need to say why you shouldn't waste 14GB on this game and play many other Sonic fangames, mainly the Spark Trilogy and Sonic GT, that being said:
Game bad bye bye now
Look I just don't even know where to begin, Sonic Omens is awful like i normally want to be somewhat positive and give a game the benefit of the doubt but no man, this game is bad, like shockingly so, it's genuinely baffling to me how any game releases as this, and I'm gonna talk about it today.
This review is gonna be split in two, talking about the devs and the game itself so strap in folks because this is gonna be wild.
The Dodgy Development
Okay let's get this over with, the developers are poopy shitheads, if you want more on their wacky antics check this doc here but in short, they sexualised a minor, had beta builds hidden behind a paywall subscription on Patreon, stole the How to Train Your Dragon IP as their own, have ads on Game Jolt with an insane amount of Traffic, alleged stealing from Cars 2: The Video Game (the most evil thing here, seriously of all games to steal music from why the tie-in game to a bad film) and passing it as their own and Bolt/Joh being asshats and causing drama on Twitter, devs and fans bullying people who worked on the game, plus a plethora of other heinous stuff, so if you don't want to play this (I don't know why you would) then look here, I'm not focusing on it as i feel the game itself is more important to me but i cannot ignore the development of this game since it gives context to my experience with this game plus Midrulean already went somewhat in depth with the development so go check out his review if you haven't already.
Sonic Omens and the Cost of Ambition
Being Ambitious means you have to live up to people's justifiably high expectations, if you don't deliver you have big bag of wasted potential, many games do this but none so much as Sonic Omens, this game is awful, it's trying to be something it clearly can't be due to the humongous scope and clueless people working on it and yet it's so desperately trying be something it can't, a good game. But seriously, everything around this game can be seen through how ambitious it is, wanting to be a modern 2000s styled Sonic Adventure that serves as competition to Sonic's next Open-Zone game, and it fails spectacularly, what started as a ambitious quaint little fangame in 2020 that while flawed showed some promise made out of passion has ended up becoming show detested, reviled and contropassion finished out of spite.
I haven't heard many people talk about the story but wow it is messy despite a more simple premise, it's trying to be a surrogate game to the 2000s but doesn't work, like it's essentially comes to referencing it and not making an interesting story around it's concepts, it weirdly has some X stuff involved which is funny since they want me to care about X in a Mainline setting and a whole heap of forced references to make the meta era haters go "Awooga this game is great!" like the story has a super sonic final boss, The Metarex, Gaia Temples, Song cues from X and other games, Chip and Chris stuff, Shadaw, Maria, Rouge, Knuckles, the Tornado from X, Big cameos, G.U.N, music from Shadow and so much more. It's admirable i guess but is absolutely shattered by the Voice Acting, I can at least admire the people trying they're hardest since you can very much tell they aren't native english speakers but wow they couldn't have hired some other people? Delivery feels stiff and wooden and are trying so hard to replicate the 4kids cast but fail so hard, mostly with Shadow and Eggman. The dialogue also feels pretty clunky which isn't helped by the awkard delivery since you can barely understand what they're saying sometimes. One thing this game's plot attempts to do is explain why the Chaos Emeralds aren't used in mainline entires plot wise, placing this between after Unleashed and before Lost World… Did they even play the games? Barring Gens using the emeralds as the driving force of the plots they never really had a reason to use them in the plot because it'll boil down to a boring played out macguffin hunt which this game kinda is, so overall i don't see why the plot played this angle if they don't do anything interesting or compelling with it but the mediocre story is the least of our worries.
Presentation wise, Omens is very admirable though still not all that great when it comes to this, one thing I can't complain about is the Music because it's really great, using a lot of stuff in the 2000s, it isn't original but good nonetheless, i also like the character animation despite some stiff moments but it's very expressive for the most part especially with Sonic, but that's where a lot of my postives end with this game for me, the game for one is very glitchy and poorly optimized, frequent pop-in, clipping into objects, floating in the air, camera getting stuck on stuff, respawn not working, collision issues, game freezes/crashes and no sfx playing at one point but the visuals while do look decent some original characters and environments don't look very sonic like and seem like they're plopped fron radically different game plus the framerate isn't very smooth, it isn't my PC since the one i played on is pretty strong so i feel this is on the developers part.
But yeah I know, I've been trying to avoid but Sonic Omens has got to be one of the worst gameplay experiences I've ever had, this game is trying to be more like Unleashed and maybe a bit of Generations in terms of mechanics but feels like Forces 2 in this regard. Sonic controls way too slippery and his jump is too limiting making platform into a chore, he has a lot of moves from the previous games like the bonuce which was welcome, light speed dash, stomp and the boost with a screen nuke and a grappling hook plus a plethora of Chaos abilities for Shadow but they aren't put to good use, i feel the lack of a drift function hurts this game even more than Forces since they're some very sharp turns that you sure as hell can't pull with the base movement, the boost meter depletes too quickly leading to moments where you a searching for rings and boost orbs.
This wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for the god awful level design (I mean if the game tells you that you need to respawn frequently then you're in for a treat), Disney's Bolt and his team decide too pull a Balan Wonderworld and use 2 completely near incompatible gameplay styles into one, this is time with Boost and Adventure level design, what you have are the most inexplicably open, spectacle relient and boring stages ever concived in a Sonic game, It's laughable how confusing the levels are, I don't know where I'm going most of the time only to have a giant arrow pointing to where I am, toppped with the controls, the levels utterly become both frustrating, confusing and boring all at once, death zones don't even make sense at points, when the game tries to pull force combat it takes way too long, Shadow's stages are way worse given how the destroy the pace of each stage using chaos powers and you can even get softlocked at points just again you can tell they wanted to do so many things with this game but it utterly falls flat on it's entire body, I was gonna do an episode by episode review of this game but what's the point? I'd be blabbering saying the exact same stuff about the levels since the marginally get better, the low point of the levels are the latter half of Episode 3 where they focus on the water parts, and now there's a very good reason why most sonic games don't have 3d water levels, You're scalling up this big tree and this was one of the breaking points for me, you have to be very precise with the platforming, almost too precise with the general structure of the tree just being annoying and monotonous especially with the water, switch and aforementioned control issues, when i lost nearly 30 Minutes of progress by a mistaken homing attack i just gave up and used a save file, this game does not respect your time and I won't either so i wanted to see if it got any better and it did, barely, the 3rd Episode as whole isn't great especially with the water escape sequence, good lord that was horrible especially with the amount of near unavoidable death zones you have in this, making you really wonder if they properly playtested this game and fixed the issues many people already had but no they barely did. But i mean when a lot of the unfair BS is over with Omens is as good as Forces worst moments so that's something i guess, I'd say Episode 1 is solid enough and Area 99 (nice X reference) is too but they have their fair share of BS and what i like to call OH WOW LOOK AT DA BLOOM AND THE SPECTACLE WOW THIS GAME IS GOOD like seriously it's in every level and I don't get why.
But i mean i would have rated this game a 3 maybe even 4/10 if it was just the levels… Then the Bosses and Tornado sections come in, seriously every single Boss is awful especially the final boss, way too long, the camera doesn't focus on them, bullshit insta kill moves, awful pacing, severe lack of rings in them and overall just not a fun time, I don't feel like i overcame a good challenge i feel relived that i don't have to undergo a painful experience.
And finally the crown shit jewel of this game, the Tornado sections. Just what the hell happened? The Tornado moves way too slow especially in reverse and moving upwards, the blaster does some pitful damage, the missles while can do some damage don't go far, Boosting has a risk reward system where you move faster but when you hit something you get damaged even more which is piled by the horrendous design which is the shining example of everything this game gets wrong, confusing because of how the world design and controls, boring because of how the Tornado feels and frustrating because of how the enemies have the giant near unavoidable laser and the entire 2nd Act of the Escape sequence due to the worm, truly one of the worst experiences I've ever had the pleasure of playing in a video game, I must apologize to Balan Wonderworld because at least that game was consistent in it's awfulness and never came close to this.
Conclusion
This game is awful, i put this game in my least favourite games list but removed it but i think Apollo Justice will be execused (for now) but i could just conclude saying "game bad bye bye now" but going back to the start of this review, the cost of ambition pays a heavy toll, every issue this game faces is linked due to ambition, the 2000s esque story, the next-gen presentation, advancing and expanding the boost gameplay, the Bosses and Tornado being more elaborate and in-depth than ever before, all linked due to the ambition this game wants to do and it would be if the developers weren't assholes and the game wasn't this horrible, like yeah it's somewhat impressive to have a near 3d sonic console game made by fans but Sonic GT beat them to it and is way better, so i don't think i even need to say why you shouldn't waste 14GB on this game and play many other Sonic fangames, mainly the Spark Trilogy and Sonic GT, that being said:
Game bad bye bye now
2022
Pac-Man's limited run of platformers or "Pac-formers" as i like to call them has been very hit or miss, the only one that I'd say is up to par with other Platformers is possibly Pac Man World 2 without 100% the game, World 1 is decent albeit poorly aged and World 3 is a classic 2000 mess despite it's writing being surprisingly funny and the Ghostly Adventures games while serrviceable, feel generic and don't use Pac Man's character to his strengths and also have awful production values.
This is where Pac Man World: Repac comes in, a remake of the first world game now modernized for modern consoles, the game showed a lot of promise when first shown but i did have some reservations after the Klonoa remasters had some backlash along with other recent remakes.
I'm glad to report this remake not only improves on an original game but is a pretty decent time like the first. There are some issues but i feel Repac shows an insane amount of promise if this is way that the world games can be ported.
Going on a tangent here, the original Pac Man World games with maybe the exeception of Pac Man World 2 can't be ported due to using Ms Pac Man which has some weird legal jargon, and now is replace with Pac-Mum which i gotta be honest, isn't a good design but is a small price to pay to have these games on modern consoles.
In terms of being a remake, this game looks and feels great! What surprised me is that the game actually has a performance mode on switch that runs at a lower resolution but runs at 60fps so that's nice, but the remake's artstyle is really good, I love a lot of the new designs except Pac-Mum, it's bright and colorful while also staying true to the original game, they did redesign Pac's Family and some Bosses along with changing cutscenes/level environments but a lot of them are for the better, like for example, if you don't save all his family members which are now optional to save, the original ending plays of Pac Man eating Orson which is now framed as the bad ending, the new ending follows the new cutscene where they celebrate the party but now the ghosts are there, wholesome.
Despite how good of a remake it is, there are some issues, they removed the fake bloopers as a 100% reward, they changed the power pellet ability so now Pac-Man grows big for some reason and the bonus mazes are still annoyning, however i think the good outweighs the bad such as the new hover power-up, new cutscenes with Toc-Man introducing the bosses, better and smoother controls, songs remain faithful to the original game while also improving on the sound design of the game as a whole and the best change, Bosses are now a lot more fair, gone is the one hit BS from Toc-Man'a final Boss and the annoying Anubis feels fun to fight due to the new platforms on ground, hell they even added some pinch modes to some other unremarkable Bosses in the game, making them more memorable, as far as remakes go this is good as it's gets.
The game however is decent enough, it follows Pac Man as he journeys through Ghost Island from an robotic imposter (Toc Man) as he saves his family after they're captured from his surpise Birthday. What makes Pac Man World great is Pac's movement, collecting items such as the fruits or PACMAN letters and level design, they use his design to it's fullest potential, though not to the extent of Pac Man World 2, Pac can butt bounce, roll and throw pellets he can collect. You also have Mazes which can be unlocked by collecting a certain fruit in a stage, the mazes aren't really that fun unfortunately, they rely way too heavily on gimmicks which hurst them heavily since they're pretty unprediactable most of the time.
Level design wise, this game is decent enough, it's not going to shake up the genre but is servicable enough and uses Pac-Man's abilities very well, it throws enough gimmicks such as racing, revving and using some of the power-ups in the game such the totally not stolen from Mario power-up the metal pellet, used for water sections.
This would be the part of the review where I'd listed some flaws but since the remake fixes most of them, i don't have many! In the original game some Bosses had some pretty unfair moments and the controls and camera (especially in the Racing sections) feeling off but a lot of these are thankfully fixed.
Overall, Pac Man World Repac is a great remake of an already solid game, it shows what a remake should do and does have some the pitfalls of some remakes such as unneeded fluff/changes but more than makes up for the fixes it does do and having a great artstyle, the Pac is actually back and I couldn't be happier.
This is where Pac Man World: Repac comes in, a remake of the first world game now modernized for modern consoles, the game showed a lot of promise when first shown but i did have some reservations after the Klonoa remasters had some backlash along with other recent remakes.
I'm glad to report this remake not only improves on an original game but is a pretty decent time like the first. There are some issues but i feel Repac shows an insane amount of promise if this is way that the world games can be ported.
Going on a tangent here, the original Pac Man World games with maybe the exeception of Pac Man World 2 can't be ported due to using Ms Pac Man which has some weird legal jargon, and now is replace with Pac-Mum which i gotta be honest, isn't a good design but is a small price to pay to have these games on modern consoles.
In terms of being a remake, this game looks and feels great! What surprised me is that the game actually has a performance mode on switch that runs at a lower resolution but runs at 60fps so that's nice, but the remake's artstyle is really good, I love a lot of the new designs except Pac-Mum, it's bright and colorful while also staying true to the original game, they did redesign Pac's Family and some Bosses along with changing cutscenes/level environments but a lot of them are for the better, like for example, if you don't save all his family members which are now optional to save, the original ending plays of Pac Man eating Orson which is now framed as the bad ending, the new ending follows the new cutscene where they celebrate the party but now the ghosts are there, wholesome.
Despite how good of a remake it is, there are some issues, they removed the fake bloopers as a 100% reward, they changed the power pellet ability so now Pac-Man grows big for some reason and the bonus mazes are still annoyning, however i think the good outweighs the bad such as the new hover power-up, new cutscenes with Toc-Man introducing the bosses, better and smoother controls, songs remain faithful to the original game while also improving on the sound design of the game as a whole and the best change, Bosses are now a lot more fair, gone is the one hit BS from Toc-Man'a final Boss and the annoying Anubis feels fun to fight due to the new platforms on ground, hell they even added some pinch modes to some other unremarkable Bosses in the game, making them more memorable, as far as remakes go this is good as it's gets.
The game however is decent enough, it follows Pac Man as he journeys through Ghost Island from an robotic imposter (Toc Man) as he saves his family after they're captured from his surpise Birthday. What makes Pac Man World great is Pac's movement, collecting items such as the fruits or PACMAN letters and level design, they use his design to it's fullest potential, though not to the extent of Pac Man World 2, Pac can butt bounce, roll and throw pellets he can collect. You also have Mazes which can be unlocked by collecting a certain fruit in a stage, the mazes aren't really that fun unfortunately, they rely way too heavily on gimmicks which hurst them heavily since they're pretty unprediactable most of the time.
Level design wise, this game is decent enough, it's not going to shake up the genre but is servicable enough and uses Pac-Man's abilities very well, it throws enough gimmicks such as racing, revving and using some of the power-ups in the game such the totally not stolen from Mario power-up the metal pellet, used for water sections.
This would be the part of the review where I'd listed some flaws but since the remake fixes most of them, i don't have many! In the original game some Bosses had some pretty unfair moments and the controls and camera (especially in the Racing sections) feeling off but a lot of these are thankfully fixed.
Overall, Pac Man World Repac is a great remake of an already solid game, it shows what a remake should do and does have some the pitfalls of some remakes such as unneeded fluff/changes but more than makes up for the fixes it does do and having a great artstyle, the Pac is actually back and I couldn't be happier.
2023
Mario and Sonic: Wonderstars: Part 1 A Mid Miracle
Finally, after a decade, Sega releases a new Episode in the Sonic 4 saga! Easily the best episode in the game!
Sonic Superstars is a game that exists, it is a game that I played and consumed. But honestly? I am kinda disappointed. From my last review I was tired of the franchise as a whole, I wanted to take a long sleep/break from new content of the franchise and blissfully reminisce about the better past. If was tired then I have insomnia now.
I am sorry people, as a person who has reviewed all the major Classic Sonic games on my account and as a Sonic fan, this game was mid sadly. This is the bare minimum, we are in was is possibly one of the most packed months in gaming with the Plumber launching his new wonderful game in a few days and Insomiac dropping the first PS5 game meanwhile Sonic is just, slacking. I knew it wasn’t gonna match up to those but I at least expected something as least as good as Mania, and I got the most game of all time.
I wasn’t really hyped for Superstars when it was announced, Naota Oshima being back was a nice surprise I suppose but the company (Arzest) wasn’t making me impressed at all with any of the new things they cooked in this game, it all felt like slob to me. Nothing I can say is PEAK nor I can i see is bad which is what most sonic is blah blah blah we get the point I’m old and out of touch and Sonic bad we get it, but in truth, Superstars isn’t bad, it’s not good either.
When the game leaked and people started playing it myself including, I was completely baffled by both sides of the debate, the mindless Twitter drones yelling “PEAK PEAK” and getting pissed at 7/10’s, fine scores for this game, meanwhile the other crowd calling the game one of the worst Sonic games. And yet at the same time, I sorta understood, it was weird but Superstars to me, is what Sonic 4 Episode 2 is. A game that I played and exists.
I don’t want to do a Super in depth look like I did with previous games where I go through all the zones and shit for reasons I’ll get into, but Superstars is exactly what you expect when “New 2.5D Classic Sonic game” comes into you’re head, maybe in 2013 that would be somewhat cool, but we are in 2023. We’ve seen this done so many times and a lot better, it’s not far off from Mega Man 11 but 11 is one of the best entires in the series with tight design despite the double gear system being similar to what this game introduces, but Superstars doesn’t really do anything more worthy both good and bad, it’s kinda just meh.
I really don’t know what to start with this game, there’s no real strong positives or things that really stick out for me as genuinely awful. Superstars is competent but doesn’t aspire to be anything more.
The story is fine, but they drop everything it sets up so abruptly it’s kinda funny. The level design, is fine but then it nose dives into quality so hard. There were no levels that made go “FUCK YEAH THIS SHIT WAS FIRE 🔥 🔥🔥” or “HOLY SHIT THIS WAS GARBAGE 💩💩💩” the themes are fine, they are not great by any means but they look colourful and vibrant enough, it’s enough to be new but not enough to be great. And the gimmicks range from fine to midly annoying and aren’t as fun as anything from the original games. Stages don’t have a clear philosophy or goal like other games and feel cobbled together, especially with how secrets are handled especially since there’s no Elemental shields. A lot of them are just, out in the open, there’s no challenge to find the special stage rings. Speaking of, the Special Stages in this game are fine, they feel kinda weird, in a game where the physics are on point but here they feel stilted and awkward, they’re all the same level of challenge, kinda annoying.
The music is both PEAK and MID, they’re really inconsistent, as they use different sound fonts. The steller Mania and the poundshop Sonia 4 sound font are both used, the compositions are not bad and there are some bangers, but there are just some tracks that do not sound good at all.
The characters, play fantastic, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles all play like they did in Mania and feels so fun to play and Amy while they’re still having trouble to finding her footing as the 4th member of Team Sonic is fun in this game, and Trip (I’m not even gonna bother spoiling this review it’s not worth it) is a worthwhile wild card addition to the game.
The Emerald Powers are awful, they feel either overpowered or superfluous and don’t add much to the game, which is bad because this is the big thing about the game, the big selling point and it’s just kinda meh. This isn’t like the Wisps, Wonder flower or the Double Gear system where it fundamentally changes the game and how you approach it thus enhancing it, it’s kinda just there but thank god some of them are insanely over powered because good lord the bosses.
This is the one of the only things that does Superstars poorly. the bosses are so abysmally bad and boring that it’s insulting, too much waiting, stop and go and don’t feel satisfying to fight or even cheese with the Emerald Powers, the final few bosses especially pissed me the fuck off.
As I near to this ramble ass review about an old 17 year old boy ranting about a blue hedgehog game I really wonder to myself, Sonic Superstars has nothing apart from supposedly mediocre Co-op and is laughably priced as much as Tears if the Kingdom here (£70!). Everything it attempts has been done better by other better games, a retro revival with new fun twists? Mania has you covered, A game with fun Co-op? the Rivals games and the new SA1 Online mod , 2.5D Graphics? Generations runs literal circles around it with how it’s uses it and aesthetically. A game that has a new twist and enhances the experience? Advance 3. All of these games aren’t perfect to varying degrees, but all of them have something, Superstars doesn’t. It’s a game hindered by it’s gimmicks such as with multiplayer that it leads to a worse experience. But in spite it all, it’s game that I don’t really hate? I had some fun with it but it’s really not a game that I want to go back to, the only 2D games that is worse than this in my opinion is Chaotix, Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Advance 2.
Say what you want about the series, but the series 2D offerings are some of the best in the business, right up there with Mario and Mega Man. They are consistent, fun, exciting, thrilling, exhilarating and always offer something new, to the point where the surpass Mario and Mega Man in some cases due to their series stagnation at points, each 2D game evolved the formula in a natural and compelling way, even games I don’t love as much like CD, Mania and Colours DS at least have that special sauce that made those games, special! CD has its incredible aesthetics, Mania had that nostalgia and twist factor and DS has the Wisps and such. Superstars only aspires to be an unambitious 2D Sonic game, the same games that Mario and Mega Man ran into and have over come and I hope Sonic does to, unless, safe to say my fail safe for the widely inconsistent franchise, will cease. Anyway, I am still tired, I desperately want to go to sleep, but my insomnia is still present, a shame…
Finally, after a decade, Sega releases a new Episode in the Sonic 4 saga! Easily the best episode in the game!
Sonic Superstars is a game that exists, it is a game that I played and consumed. But honestly? I am kinda disappointed. From my last review I was tired of the franchise as a whole, I wanted to take a long sleep/break from new content of the franchise and blissfully reminisce about the better past. If was tired then I have insomnia now.
I am sorry people, as a person who has reviewed all the major Classic Sonic games on my account and as a Sonic fan, this game was mid sadly. This is the bare minimum, we are in was is possibly one of the most packed months in gaming with the Plumber launching his new wonderful game in a few days and Insomiac dropping the first PS5 game meanwhile Sonic is just, slacking. I knew it wasn’t gonna match up to those but I at least expected something as least as good as Mania, and I got the most game of all time.
I wasn’t really hyped for Superstars when it was announced, Naota Oshima being back was a nice surprise I suppose but the company (Arzest) wasn’t making me impressed at all with any of the new things they cooked in this game, it all felt like slob to me. Nothing I can say is PEAK nor I can i see is bad which is what most sonic is blah blah blah we get the point I’m old and out of touch and Sonic bad we get it, but in truth, Superstars isn’t bad, it’s not good either.
When the game leaked and people started playing it myself including, I was completely baffled by both sides of the debate, the mindless Twitter drones yelling “PEAK PEAK” and getting pissed at 7/10’s, fine scores for this game, meanwhile the other crowd calling the game one of the worst Sonic games. And yet at the same time, I sorta understood, it was weird but Superstars to me, is what Sonic 4 Episode 2 is. A game that I played and exists.
I don’t want to do a Super in depth look like I did with previous games where I go through all the zones and shit for reasons I’ll get into, but Superstars is exactly what you expect when “New 2.5D Classic Sonic game” comes into you’re head, maybe in 2013 that would be somewhat cool, but we are in 2023. We’ve seen this done so many times and a lot better, it’s not far off from Mega Man 11 but 11 is one of the best entires in the series with tight design despite the double gear system being similar to what this game introduces, but Superstars doesn’t really do anything more worthy both good and bad, it’s kinda just meh.
I really don’t know what to start with this game, there’s no real strong positives or things that really stick out for me as genuinely awful. Superstars is competent but doesn’t aspire to be anything more.
The story is fine, but they drop everything it sets up so abruptly it’s kinda funny. The level design, is fine but then it nose dives into quality so hard. There were no levels that made go “FUCK YEAH THIS SHIT WAS FIRE 🔥 🔥🔥” or “HOLY SHIT THIS WAS GARBAGE 💩💩💩” the themes are fine, they are not great by any means but they look colourful and vibrant enough, it’s enough to be new but not enough to be great. And the gimmicks range from fine to midly annoying and aren’t as fun as anything from the original games. Stages don’t have a clear philosophy or goal like other games and feel cobbled together, especially with how secrets are handled especially since there’s no Elemental shields. A lot of them are just, out in the open, there’s no challenge to find the special stage rings. Speaking of, the Special Stages in this game are fine, they feel kinda weird, in a game where the physics are on point but here they feel stilted and awkward, they’re all the same level of challenge, kinda annoying.
The music is both PEAK and MID, they’re really inconsistent, as they use different sound fonts. The steller Mania and the poundshop Sonia 4 sound font are both used, the compositions are not bad and there are some bangers, but there are just some tracks that do not sound good at all.
The characters, play fantastic, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles all play like they did in Mania and feels so fun to play and Amy while they’re still having trouble to finding her footing as the 4th member of Team Sonic is fun in this game, and Trip (I’m not even gonna bother spoiling this review it’s not worth it) is a worthwhile wild card addition to the game.
The Emerald Powers are awful, they feel either overpowered or superfluous and don’t add much to the game, which is bad because this is the big thing about the game, the big selling point and it’s just kinda meh. This isn’t like the Wisps, Wonder flower or the Double Gear system where it fundamentally changes the game and how you approach it thus enhancing it, it’s kinda just there but thank god some of them are insanely over powered because good lord the bosses.
This is the one of the only things that does Superstars poorly. the bosses are so abysmally bad and boring that it’s insulting, too much waiting, stop and go and don’t feel satisfying to fight or even cheese with the Emerald Powers, the final few bosses especially pissed me the fuck off.
As I near to this ramble ass review about an old 17 year old boy ranting about a blue hedgehog game I really wonder to myself, Sonic Superstars has nothing apart from supposedly mediocre Co-op and is laughably priced as much as Tears if the Kingdom here (£70!). Everything it attempts has been done better by other better games, a retro revival with new fun twists? Mania has you covered, A game with fun Co-op? the Rivals games and the new SA1 Online mod , 2.5D Graphics? Generations runs literal circles around it with how it’s uses it and aesthetically. A game that has a new twist and enhances the experience? Advance 3. All of these games aren’t perfect to varying degrees, but all of them have something, Superstars doesn’t. It’s a game hindered by it’s gimmicks such as with multiplayer that it leads to a worse experience. But in spite it all, it’s game that I don’t really hate? I had some fun with it but it’s really not a game that I want to go back to, the only 2D games that is worse than this in my opinion is Chaotix, Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Advance 2.
Say what you want about the series, but the series 2D offerings are some of the best in the business, right up there with Mario and Mega Man. They are consistent, fun, exciting, thrilling, exhilarating and always offer something new, to the point where the surpass Mario and Mega Man in some cases due to their series stagnation at points, each 2D game evolved the formula in a natural and compelling way, even games I don’t love as much like CD, Mania and Colours DS at least have that special sauce that made those games, special! CD has its incredible aesthetics, Mania had that nostalgia and twist factor and DS has the Wisps and such. Superstars only aspires to be an unambitious 2D Sonic game, the same games that Mario and Mega Man ran into and have over come and I hope Sonic does to, unless, safe to say my fail safe for the widely inconsistent franchise, will cease. Anyway, I am still tired, I desperately want to go to sleep, but my insomnia is still present, a shame…
2023
You see the rating and status for the game and I think it’s expected but in reality, to me I’m kinda disappointed at how I had to give this rating, let me explain
I usually don’t like giving games the “Abandoned” status, It’s usually for rereleases or for special cases for game that I can get roughly the same experience with, that semi regins true here, I really wanted to say this game proved mine and everyone’s expectations of this game that we saw pop up every now and again wrong, but no, It was even worse than I and many others expected.
Everyone knows it’s so easy to compare this to Cuphead and it wouldn’t even hold a flicker of a candle, It’s so easy to do and I will try not to do that, but as you see so with this brief review as to why this is hard to do.
Enchanted Portals has been enrolled in controversy every since it was revealed back in 2019 for being a Cuphead clone, and then some controversy about Native Americans and then it vanished. Everyone who even thought about this game after the controversy thought it’d disappear like a lot of indie projects, but like the other half, it sure did release. 3 Months ago it got a new teaser trailer and then recently got its final trailer, revealing it was releasing soon. All of this leading to overwhelming negatively reviews, what are my thoughts?
This is probably one of the most miserable games I’ve played in my life.
Sorry for my scattershot texts here but there’s so much to dissect in why and how this game fails in basic simple game design, when the default Unreal engine icon was used for the game, I knew I was in for a treat. I don’t think I can even do my simple stick, It’s just that messy, so instead I’m just gonna bullet point stuff because there’s no other way to get my thoughts as cohesively as possible without doing this, so here we go!
-The Story wasn’t interesting, I knew I wasn’t gonna get a good story here but this arguably has more story than Cuphead because there’s full motion cutscenes rather than the static ones, not at all a dig to Cuphead they are rewarded with those especially with that animation, but here everything goes so quickly without and rime or reason to what you’re doing. I think you’re chasing a book or something? And you’re wizards? I don’t know. You feel dropped in without any good context
-The game looks awful, in terms of the sprites and backgrounds they look great! But in terms of movement, It’s stiff and feels cheap. I didn’t need Cuphead level animation but something passable at least. The Title screen looks like one of those porn animated ads, there’s just this dirty vibe to it where it just feels off, where you can’t discernible put your finger on it but no there is just something off about it. There’s some good ideas at play such as changing the art style mid fight, but in terms of transitions it feels empty and doesn’t feel satisfying both going into a new phase and defeating the boss because the animation quality isn’t there, if they were gonna do a game like this, then they needed to have a quality that matches it.
-The Music is fine, but the sound design is awful because it just doesn’t exist! And when sounds do happen they either just, to loud, too quiet, low quality or stock sounding
-The main focus of the game isn’t the bosses like Cuphead but rather Run and Gun stages, I actually like the Run and Gun stages in Cuphead and I wish there were more but in this game, yikes 😬
-Characters feel way too floaty, they don’t have enough weight to them and overall don’t feel fun to control especially when dashing, the shooting mechanics which are sightly different while functional, doesn’t have that punch, power or impact as it should have. Jumping as well feels unresponsive and the controls have this weird delay to them, which in a game about quick thinking isn’t very ideal
-Apart from the tutorial, levels are randomly generated, every stage has a different obstacle, length and difficulty depending on when you restart, which includes getting a Game Over. I like random generator games if they’re done right and can give a fair and fun experience, but for a game like this it doesn’t work, this game is inherently about trial and error and learning to get better at the game by replaying it over and over again, and that reigns true for the bosses but here making it randomly generated doesn’t give that satisfying gameplay loop that made the Run n gun levels and Mega Man so fun
-Enemies (At least on Normal) take way too many hits to kill, especially big enemies (which by the way are just lower res upscale versions of smaller enemies). Additionally, you can be bombarded with enemies all at once if you don’t take them out in time, which for a normal game that might be fine but here since they take too many hits, I just rather brute forced my way through these rather than play by the games rules since it was so monotonous
-Levels don’t feel dynamic at all possibly due to the aforementioned randomly generated aspect, A lot of them are straight lines to the finish that overstay their welcome to the point where Super Mario Bros on the NES is more involved and dynamic, You’d think the 50% marker the game taunts would be a checkpoint but nope, once you die you gotta start over again!
-Bosses are easily the “best” part of the game and even these are heavily flawed, they have good designs and even some good patterns but unfortunately, they feel just cobbled together with tape and glue, boss transitions as I mentioned aren’t fluid, cohesive or so unsubtle. A lot of them either feel like bullet sponges or glass structures, there’s no in between, which reflects the whole entire game I guess but it’s still not very fun or memorable.
Enchanted Portals is overall a mess, figures when you try and copy a game that was made for so an elongated amount of time and was brewed to perfection and then try to make it as fast as possible, it come out like this. This game was just absolutely miserable to play, it’s not even funny bad, just play Cuphead steer fair way from this.
I usually don’t like giving games the “Abandoned” status, It’s usually for rereleases or for special cases for game that I can get roughly the same experience with, that semi regins true here, I really wanted to say this game proved mine and everyone’s expectations of this game that we saw pop up every now and again wrong, but no, It was even worse than I and many others expected.
Everyone knows it’s so easy to compare this to Cuphead and it wouldn’t even hold a flicker of a candle, It’s so easy to do and I will try not to do that, but as you see so with this brief review as to why this is hard to do.
Enchanted Portals has been enrolled in controversy every since it was revealed back in 2019 for being a Cuphead clone, and then some controversy about Native Americans and then it vanished. Everyone who even thought about this game after the controversy thought it’d disappear like a lot of indie projects, but like the other half, it sure did release. 3 Months ago it got a new teaser trailer and then recently got its final trailer, revealing it was releasing soon. All of this leading to overwhelming negatively reviews, what are my thoughts?
This is probably one of the most miserable games I’ve played in my life.
Sorry for my scattershot texts here but there’s so much to dissect in why and how this game fails in basic simple game design, when the default Unreal engine icon was used for the game, I knew I was in for a treat. I don’t think I can even do my simple stick, It’s just that messy, so instead I’m just gonna bullet point stuff because there’s no other way to get my thoughts as cohesively as possible without doing this, so here we go!
-The Story wasn’t interesting, I knew I wasn’t gonna get a good story here but this arguably has more story than Cuphead because there’s full motion cutscenes rather than the static ones, not at all a dig to Cuphead they are rewarded with those especially with that animation, but here everything goes so quickly without and rime or reason to what you’re doing. I think you’re chasing a book or something? And you’re wizards? I don’t know. You feel dropped in without any good context
-The game looks awful, in terms of the sprites and backgrounds they look great! But in terms of movement, It’s stiff and feels cheap. I didn’t need Cuphead level animation but something passable at least. The Title screen looks like one of those porn animated ads, there’s just this dirty vibe to it where it just feels off, where you can’t discernible put your finger on it but no there is just something off about it. There’s some good ideas at play such as changing the art style mid fight, but in terms of transitions it feels empty and doesn’t feel satisfying both going into a new phase and defeating the boss because the animation quality isn’t there, if they were gonna do a game like this, then they needed to have a quality that matches it.
-The Music is fine, but the sound design is awful because it just doesn’t exist! And when sounds do happen they either just, to loud, too quiet, low quality or stock sounding
-The main focus of the game isn’t the bosses like Cuphead but rather Run and Gun stages, I actually like the Run and Gun stages in Cuphead and I wish there were more but in this game, yikes 😬
-Characters feel way too floaty, they don’t have enough weight to them and overall don’t feel fun to control especially when dashing, the shooting mechanics which are sightly different while functional, doesn’t have that punch, power or impact as it should have. Jumping as well feels unresponsive and the controls have this weird delay to them, which in a game about quick thinking isn’t very ideal
-Apart from the tutorial, levels are randomly generated, every stage has a different obstacle, length and difficulty depending on when you restart, which includes getting a Game Over. I like random generator games if they’re done right and can give a fair and fun experience, but for a game like this it doesn’t work, this game is inherently about trial and error and learning to get better at the game by replaying it over and over again, and that reigns true for the bosses but here making it randomly generated doesn’t give that satisfying gameplay loop that made the Run n gun levels and Mega Man so fun
-Enemies (At least on Normal) take way too many hits to kill, especially big enemies (which by the way are just lower res upscale versions of smaller enemies). Additionally, you can be bombarded with enemies all at once if you don’t take them out in time, which for a normal game that might be fine but here since they take too many hits, I just rather brute forced my way through these rather than play by the games rules since it was so monotonous
-Levels don’t feel dynamic at all possibly due to the aforementioned randomly generated aspect, A lot of them are straight lines to the finish that overstay their welcome to the point where Super Mario Bros on the NES is more involved and dynamic, You’d think the 50% marker the game taunts would be a checkpoint but nope, once you die you gotta start over again!
-Bosses are easily the “best” part of the game and even these are heavily flawed, they have good designs and even some good patterns but unfortunately, they feel just cobbled together with tape and glue, boss transitions as I mentioned aren’t fluid, cohesive or so unsubtle. A lot of them either feel like bullet sponges or glass structures, there’s no in between, which reflects the whole entire game I guess but it’s still not very fun or memorable.
Enchanted Portals is overall a mess, figures when you try and copy a game that was made for so an elongated amount of time and was brewed to perfection and then try to make it as fast as possible, it come out like this. This game was just absolutely miserable to play, it’s not even funny bad, just play Cuphead steer fair way from this.
2022
This review was written before the game released
Holy Shit the PAC is actually back
This review contains spoilers
This is it, the Big 40th Review and home to probably one of my favourite stories ever crafted in a Video game, Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves, Sly 2 is almost a masterpiece, it’s almost right there but unfortunately there’s so many factors keeping it from to be that great, but it’s still pretty fucking great and i would dare to call it a perfect sequel, that takes elements from the first game while doing it's own thing to cohesively make this banger of a game, but where to begin? Well I guess from the beginning. Oh by the way i’m gonna be fully spoiling this game, i normally don’t put a spoiler warning on a game unless it’s game that’s story is it’s entire identity like Ace Attorney or a recent game but here i really want to you to play this game by any means necessary or at least experience it’s story so with the warning out of the way, let’s begin.
Part 1: Crafting An Great Continuation
Despite its pretty lukewarm commercial sales compared to its contemporaries, Sucker Punch knew there was something greater to this quaint little series and so instantly began development on Sly 2 after Sly 1’s completion. To make a gaming sequel now you’ve gotta ask, First: Is it necessary and second (around this time) is there a target audience? For Sly 2 both of these factors in my opinion were going against this game pretty hard, Sly 1 was a pretty open & shut game, there wasn't much left to continue apart from a pretty weak sequel hook of the return of Clockwerk but nothing too major (This will be important later in the series) but would have cool nonetheless to see these characters again, especially with how the romance with Carmelita ended, and the fast changing landscape of gaming after Grand Theft Auto 3 changed gaming forever, for better or for worse but that's a story for another time, for now the game changed a lot about my favourite genre along with another game, God of War. A lot of developers that weren’t Nintendo (I mean even then there wasn’t many major 1st party platformers after Super Mario Sunshine) didn’t know how to suite this change, some suck to their roots while expanding on the predecessor’s gameplay like Ratchet & Clank 2 Locked & Loaded, Pac Man World 2, Rayman 3 & Ty 2: Bush Rescue which did well while others mainly Crash & Spyro struggled to change with the times while others got overly edgy and missed the point of what made the games so great like Prince of Persia Warrior Within and uh, Jak 2 (I do not like Jak 2: Renegade) both of these games just feel off to play as they’re clearly trend chasing but don’t make the gameplay any better, just worse but again for another time. Sly 2 did the impossible and managed to do both things masterfully, right in the hotspot of Grand Theft’s Auto’s magnum opus, San Andreas. It told a deeper, darker & and more mature story naturally with the same cartoony charm of the first game while also having a new gameplay formula that instead feels like a natural evolution of Sly 1 and not trying to disregard everything that the first game did while also being a pretty fun in it’s own right and suiting the rapidly changing times, all of this is masterfully communicated by the prologue sequence.
The prologue sequence in the first game was already decent but this one just steals the show, first of all, gameplay wise it shows the new formula used in this game pretty well, it’s not an open world yet but the area you play is much more open than any level area from the first game, it shows the new health system & how it’ll be utilised, the multiple playable characters and what they’re gonna do and Sly’s moves, but more importantly story wise. In this game it not only perfectly justified its existence but also serves as a decent enough introduction to people who didn’t play the first game, our goal is set pretty clear, get da Clocktwerk perts, it’s not overly convoluted or doesn’t make sense in terms of the established world, it also serves as good enough driving force for Sly and the boys to stop the evil plan by the new group of villains as they have seen the horror that Clockwerk has done firsthand and know that these people are easily dealing with more that they can handle, speaking off you are given a scarily first impression by the Klaww Gang, they managed to steal all the parts without a trace, making them already a more competent force than the Fiendish Five. We’re also introduced to a mysterious new ally and character to bounce off to Carmelita, Constable Neyla who gives us the clue to the Klaww Gang, look I’m not gonna pretend she’s a twist villain in this game but it’s serviable enough twist until the end but since we’re far off that yet, she’s a decent enough new character. But easily, this prologue excels at reintroducing previous characters, Sly’s just a good as the first game but a lot more mature, he’s always has his head on the mission at hand while can also tell a joke, the biggest difference in his friends where he always backs them up and believes in them no matter what, speaking of the Cooper Gang has shown a greater amount of competence than anything from the first game, Bentely shows a great amount of courage being on his first time on the field and has is just as great as the first game and Murray, he’s almost a different character and in a good way he’s fully transitioned into the muscle of the group instead of the dumb fat character, his more booming vocal direction is great, his new design is great and the comedy that the tell with this character is great, making him like an over the top wrestling character was possibly one of oddest yet greatest choice you could make for the character, Carmelita is also there i guess don’t really have much to say, Zenigata but it’s a girl and a fox i guess that’s all your getting lol. This is all amalgamated in the chase at the end, showing the characters and new gameplay with the music that has been built up throughout the prologue, it’s flawless and we’re just getting started, Sly 2s greatness in terms of story, gameplay and presentation is masterfully exhibited, so I'm gonna go in depth with each subject in each part, first the gameplay, then presentation and finally the story so without further ado let's get this show on the road.
Part 2: Advancing and Reinventing Platforming Gameplay
Sly 2’s gameplay is both radically different and insanely amazing improvement to Sly 1, the idea of the series going Open World sounds like dumb trend chasing but it works gloariously, it feels natural seeing that this isn’t a simple Hub World, but rather a entire sandbox for you to play and tinker around with masterful level design that complements the character's physics and stealth elements along with fun and varied missions that follow a airtight structure along with a few new improvements such as a health system and removal of lives which makes the slight more in-depth combat system a lot more bearable, Sly feels a lot more agile with way more moves you can achieve making him really fun to play as now, a run button which has a pretty good risk reward system, You get a burst of speed but at the risk of alerting guards, speaking off Sly 2 ups the stealth element tenfold as the enemies in this game aren't a one and done thing, You've got Light Guards which have automatic guns when you're on their light and smaller guards that can jump or throw dirt at you, in return you can also pickpocket guards to get coins or items you can sell in Thief.net which can gain you new power-ups in the Gadget-Grid, some of them are necessary to complete the game but some are completely optional and even expand the combat or movement options, highlights being the Stealth Slide, Hang-glider and Jackpack with a fair trade off with them being a separate meter that depletes when you use them but your wondering what I mean by a Jackpack? Sly doesn't have a Jackpack? Well that's when Sly & his titular Band of Thieves come in.
Part 3: Minigame & Mission Mayhem!
Yes I know the multiple playable characters aren't a minigame but bare with me, Most platformers at this time that had multiple playable characters didn't do them very well, SA2 being a prime and InFamous example where each character is a different gameplay style and another one being Donkey Kong 64 where character balance is non-existent but Sly 2 manages to do Multiple playable characters amazingly, the ratio of playable characters is great, 50% Sly and other 50% being dedicated to the other characters (though i would say 30% Bentley and 20% Murray) so you'll play as the other characters not as often as Sly but still pop up every once in a whole but more importantly they don't stray away from a main gameplay style (plus they're fun to play)
Bentley is a lot less agile and instead is more focused on long ranged combat with his Bow and Bombs, he's probably least favourite character to play given how he leads to the minigame which I'll get into later plus he's a bit weak and slow without his Adrenaline Burst Gadget or other Gadgets but I still think playing as Bentley is decent enough due to how he's used in terms of the game as your never forced to fight enemies extensively, but playing as Murray is so damn good, he just there to wail on guards and I'm not complaining, not being able to jump and run while carrying things and he isn't as agile as Sly but it's just fun to smash things especially with his gadgets, like the Juggernaut throw were the enemy explodes on impact and his inferno moves, and the Guttural Charge all being elements of destruction when playing as him, so overall we've established that Sly 2 has great character gameplay but what about the missions and returning minigames? Well each Mission and Chapter for that matter has a clear structure that eventually follow into the Heists, some of these are great mainly ones that focus around platforming, smaller rooms that have self contained challenges, switching between different characters and the camera recons but some missions are absolutely awful, mainly the ones in the Chapter 4 & 5 most the missions that don’t involve character team-ups in Chapter 8, a lot of them in Chapter 4 & 5 focus on the verticality of the stage so for a lot of them you’re just awkwardly jumping around, plus as we’ll get to soon, the variety in them is not very good and Chapter 8 isn’t fun to traverse through even with Sly, it only gets fun when you get the Mega-Jump but for most of it feels way too big for its own good, the catalyst of this is the TNT run where you have traversal through this giant stage, but on the whole i’d say the missions in Sly 2 manage to keep my attention throughout it’s missions, the game does have a inconsistent difficulty problem and repetitive structure but i think the game throws enough at you to make each mission at least unique, for better or worse.
It’s time for the 3D Platformer Minigame round-up, Sly 2’s minigames are both a huge improvement and a huge step-down from the first game, some of are horrible, mainly the tank, it controls so awkwardly and doesn’t feel rewarding when destroying the other enemies, the hacking minigames are fun but there’s way too many of them, half of Bentleys missions revolve around them and it just becomes boring after a while, the Parappa Minigame was cool though i feel doing them at different times is a bit weird, protecting yourself from enemies using traps, and using helicopters/planes in Chapter 2, 5, 7 and 8 while cool gets a bit mindless after a while and finally you’ve got the 2000s Platformer classic: The boring and mindless Turret sections, but i feel Sly 2’s variety comes more so in the form of of giving the player unique challenges and places to traverse through a long with some fun yet pretty mindless combat sections which are mainly shown in the bosses rather than relying on the minigames as a crux of content like the previous did and it shows, Sly 2 clocks around 10-12 Hours and maybe an additionally 13-15 Hours 100% the game, speaking of i really enjoyed 100% this game, i liked finding all the clue bottles and buying all the power-ups since they gave me some fun skills to mess around with but i do wish they could at least shown like the last few when you’re done to mitigate the last crate syndrome seen in game’s like this, maybe with an upgrade you could purchase, but unfortunately, Sly 2 has basically no replay value once doing all of that, the only thing that come close are Treasures which are a nice distraction but once doing all Treasure runs, there’s nothing else, This is the moment where i wished there was a New Game Plus Mode where you could play the game again (maybe with skippable cutscenes) while also retaining your old moves and maybe upgrading them, along with just being harder, also wish you could replay individual missions and try to beat them as fast as possible, calling back to the time trials from Sly 1 like come on even Jak 2 did this, but it’s nothing to stress or hold the game over. So overall in terms of Gameplay, Sly 2 definitely hits it’s mark, Chapter 4, 5 and 8 are kinda weak compared to the rest of the game especially Chapter 8, the level design just sucks, it’s too spacious, big and not fun to traverse around , but still it is such a great game due to its strong level design, characters and missions, it may be a bit on the easy and long side (The Bug mission especially) but it can’t take away from what is easily one of the highlights from this era, and we’re not even done yet.
Part 4: Presentation!
The game doubles down on the Toon-shading aspects of Sly 1, making it a pretty cool game to look at, locations are mostly unique and are brimming with life throughout the game, though one compliant i have is that after Chapter 3, Contessa and Jean Biasons Act 2’s just look the same to me, Contessa's especially, with Jean you could say that one’s more ice themed while the other is more snow themed but maybe with the Contessa ones a mental asylum and the other is a castle? But they don’t really differentiate much honestly, one thing i noticed while playing both versions is that the PS2 Version is much darker, plus the excess motion blur and inconsistent 30fps return which are all fixed in the PS3 along with a higher resolution and framerate and uh, fading in and out audio clips, widescreen assets not fitting unless in overscan mode, removed bonus content like great making off documentary and the commercials, which is a bad emission in my opinion but alright.
There’s also another weird difference in that Sly’s Colours are made more accurate in the PS3 Version to his cutscene look which is cool i suppose but the definitive way is to play this with emulation mostly due to mods but that’s a discussion for another day, though one thing if i don’t know if is a result of the port is that the game is pretty glitchy, clipping through the floor, some cutscenes not working, dialogue cutting out and needing a restart were all problems i faced during the game, it’s certainly more than the first game despite me thinking that game was more unpolished, but two things that is a huge boost in quality is the music/sound design and voice acting. Nearly every track in the game is so good, emphasising the sneaky theme the sly games are known for along with each world having a varied and distinct themes throughout, i don’t have any stage highlights but one thing in-particular i like is how when the menu theme gets more elaborate and sinister as the game progresses, that’s a pretty cool detail, i also really love the sound design, especially when you hit an enemy with that Batman and Robin Sound effect, really making it feel like a comic book/TV Series that came to life, this is further shown through the new artstyle used in this and Sly 3, it looks a lot better to me, it feels less cheap imo (also the artstyle in the first game is used in a bonus video, Sly Cooper: The Second Season and was used in a demo so that’s nice)
But easily, in terms of Voice Acting, Sly 2 is the best in terms of improving the presentation set from Sly 1, returning VA’s like Kevin Miller and Matt Olsen return with a much better direction, sounding less stiff and more alive, Chris Murphy sounds like a completely new character, turning into a deep macho wrestler instead of a Gay Barney the Dinosaur which is cool given how he may have been replace but sometimes his voice can sound a bit jarring with the deeper voice but overall an massive improvement, and then you got the newcomers, Sergeant Johnson i mean David Scully does a great job as both the comedic Dimitri and the threaten/imposing Rajan, the late Gloria Manon did an great job at playing the Conteassa and Ross Douglas and Sam Mowry do a decent/serviceable job at doing their performances as Jean Biason and Apperggio respectively. The only one i’m quite mixed about is Alésia Glidewell, while her performance as Neyla is good both managing to balance threatening and gentle with a decent british accent her role to voicing Carmelita is a bit boring, the first game’s VA wasn’t amazing but with the right direction could have been up there with the returning VA’s but why recast? They also decided to remove her latina accent in favour of an American (?) accent, she’s just not a very good replacement overall, she sounds bored most of the time and says the same lines with the exact same tone and emotion which can happen with the other characters along with some instances of overacting but it’s especially the case with Carmelita but on the whole i really dig the cast, but are they given good material, well i mean you know the answer already.
Part 5: Sly 2’s Subversive and amazing story
There’s no way of cutting it, Sly 2’s story is almost amazing and it really only shits the bed at the end of the game but that’s for later, for now let me ask you this question; What makes a good video game story? Not a good story in a game but a good story that uses the medium of Video Games through it’s story, where it doesn’t have to sacrifice Gameplay for story exposition and tells the a story that can only be used in Video Games, A game like Far Cry 3 or Ace Attorney do this incredibly well while others such as most Modern Sony games while tell a good compelling story mostly do it at the expense of Gameplay, Obviously you need cutscenes to tell your story but in cases were you’re just walking in a straight line while a character tells you shit possibly masked as a loading screen isn’t that great in my opinion. But Sly 2 while doesn’t do it as well as those 2 still makes your actions in the story tied to the gameplay such as a mission structure, which can make playing the game being a bit repetitive but without further ado, let’s start from beginning, ah your already asking didn’t i already do the beginning and to that i say, Yes, Yes i did but there’s another beginning i haven't talked about, the prequel comic. Unlike Sly 3 where it explains plot details left out of Sly 3 this one is more of a brevity comic which brings back the Monaco chapter cut from Sly 2, the comic is more there to shed light on Sly's relationship with other people such as his father, The Cooper gang and Carmelita, Overall it's a very cute comic despite their being a bit of a contradiction with Murray's character but still, I really like Sly applying his father's philosophies to a heist in Monaco, Sly bonding with the Cooper gang as kids in the orphanage that they grew up in whilst doing a heist and my favourite, Sly and Carmelita meeting for the first time with different and exaggerated versions of the events of the comic, so overall a pretty fun comic with some fun dialogue, nothing necessary but you go give a read if your a fan of series, now back to the story.
As established I've already talked about the prologue, so in Sly 2 you start in familiar territory, France as you take down Dimitri, one thing you'll notice is that the villains aren't just your normal monster of the week archetype seen in Sly 1 and most platformers, each of the Klaww Gang are one cog in a spice machine, Dimitri being the distributor in the club's of Paris, Rajan being the Spice Producer, The Contessa being the hypnotist, Jean Biason being the transporter, Arpeggio being the leader/chief inventor and Neyla being the protege (also fun fact, Neyla was suppose to be related to Rajan but was removed due to “simplicity”, would have cool to see) all of the villains are part of a connected organisation that feels like you’re taking down a Band of Thieves at one time, Sly 1’s villains were good but Sly 2’s are on a whole nother level, each one being more sinister and competent than the last (until the end), and on the whole, the characters of Sly 2 are incredibly well-written, Sly is just as great as the first game, now being more mature and appreciative of his friends, Bentley and especially Murray have now have the screentime they desperately need and deserve, like the first game, the characters have a drive for their actions and damn well-witten arc mainly Bentley and Murray though Sly has a good mini arc at the end of the game, releasing that his friends can’t match up to him no matter what, leading to his characterisation in Sly 3, Bentely also grows from being a somewhat small, quiet kept person who is pretty much scared of everything in the outside world becomes the key to stopping the Klaww Gang and fighting Jean Biason, the biggest character in the game, using per-wit, Murray has probably my favourite character moments in terms of pure comedy and brilliance, can you tell i love this character? He goes from the dumb fat guy who you like but know is a bit incapable to a strong, courageous, fearless and badass hippo who his still a bit incapable (like he gets distracted with food all the time in this game like wtf) but is still a very good friend and even ally to have, Murray’s the heart of the team, staying optimistic in the worse of situations and when he’s given it, you know your in for deep shit. Murray’s is probably one of the best strong yet dumb characters i’ve seen in any media barring maybe Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddy, I wouldn’t even call him that dumb in most cases just unaware of his surroundings and doesn’t having much knowledge as say Bentely or even Sly, and it’s so heart-wrenching to see their new found confidence absolutely crippled (physically with Bentely), both of them hit an all time low in their mental state but still decide to help Sly get away despite him knowingly turning himself in for a good a while, completlingly their character’s arcs, Sly realising that his friends can prove themselves even unexpectedly despite them already doing that in the previous chapters removing the doubt he always had with them and the Cooper Gang growing more confidence despite the drastic ending, Carmelita is there too i guess, she’s a character that’s good but i don’t really have much too say much about, i like how she realises not all thieves are bad at the end of the game and sometimes in Chapter 6 & 7 but i don’t have much to say about her and finally Neyla, i think i’ll save her for later.
Sly 2 is essentially a story of building the confidence you’ve never knew you had in you, there may be times you’ll doubt your confidence but it’ll come back even stronger than before, along with strengthening your relationships with your friends and enemies, leaving the past behind/keep moving forward and taking things seriously when you need too, it’s a masterfully written story that is elevated by insanely well-written dialogue with any character, being both smart, witty, charming and funny at points, i love how it foreshadows future events such as Bentely not being able to drive stick, Murray’s fate with the contessa, Neyla’s true intentions and Carmelita’s feelings about Sly all are foreshadowed in the past events. But i’ve already hammered in why this Story is so amazing but what about it being subversive? Well let me take you through the story of this game, Chapter 1 is pretty simple, you’re greeted with the same Carmelita sting operation you’ve grown oh so familiar with in this game, even if you haven’t played this game your established a full success, in Chapter 2 your given the same affairs as last time both gameplay wise and story wise, Sly and gang pulling of scheme after scheme eventually leading to the heist that is until you realise Rajan escaped, the game pulls a fast one on you and subverts your expectations, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to how Sly 1’s villains fared, it’s the reason why having Monaco cut was such a great decision overall as it allows both old and new players to grow accustomed to how things will be run but here it’s completely turned on its head, especially how most games at the time with these types of villains are handle so in Chapter 3 you’re more on edge seeing how Rajan escaped again who knows what will happen next? That’s when Neyla comes in and helps you recover the heart piece while also beating Rajan with Murray’s newfound confidence, this is where you think you’d escape with the help of Neyla right? And that’s where the twist comes in, the game perfectly subverts your expectations once again with Neyla, this is the time were i talk about Neyla as a twist villain, i’ll admit, while i do love the idea of it the execution could be better though it’s not terrible, i do like the red-herring in the beginning of the game and her as character is great, especially in chapter 6 were she doesn’t decide to give up for anything and that’s where in my opinion she should have been killed off but that’s unfortunately not case but that’s until a little awhile, from the twist Sly and Murray captured leading to Bentley being the narrator for 3 cutscenes and the main star of Chapter 4, emphasising how this adventure will focus on the Cooper Gang not just Sly, this is where the subversive bit of the game ends, it’s mostly is pretty straight forward, this game doesn’t have the most mind blowing twists but it still delivers on a pretty great story, in Chapter 5 especially the game really wants you to believe you’ll fail again but in this operation you’ll really have to fight for the the Clockwerk parts in it, then in Chapter 6 you get all 3 Clockwerk parts making you at the height of your confidence, continuing through most of Chapter 7 until Rajan raids your safehouse and gets all the Clockwerk, leading to a high octane chase ensuing (which happens with all 3 characters by the way) as you stow away into the bunker and ride off to Arpeggio Airships, and then Chapter 8 shits the bed really hard.
Okay, it’s time Chapter 8’s gameplay and story is really weak I’ve already talked about that but story wise? It’s sucks, we’re introduced Arpeggio a villain who has a decent back story, we go do the photo recon then, Clock-La for some reason instead of doing something that makes sense, they do Clock-La, you see instead of wanting to fly like all birds for Arpeggio he wants to be immortal, but Neyla does as well and yeah this needed another draft, like i said earlier i think Neyla should have been done with Chapter 6 and have Arpeggio steal the show and not make him into a joke, like in my opinion Arpeggio should have been the main villain of this chapter and awakened Clockwerk, not as a vehicle like the original does but have him return, raising the stakes even higher, (i guess Arpeggio could die again, i don’t know) and the game essentially continues as normal but now Clockwerk takes stage.
That’s just way better than Clock-La in my opinion since it ties into the themes of this game and could lead to some great dialogue, don’t get me wrong it doesn’t make the other scenes and ending aren’t hampered by Clock-la but could have been a lot better (along with the whole of Chapter 8) but man the ending it’s kinda dark, the only game that apparently has a darker ending is Klonoa but that’s for another time, the team is in disarray as 2 of the members are heavily injured one mentally and physically as the team aren’t ready for any elaborate scheme this time, this leads to a great interaction with Sly and Carmalita how they have more in common with Carmelita realising that not all thieves are bad, unbeknownst to them,to the Cooper Gang help Sly escape as Carmelita vows to find him once again while Sly escapes on the hang glider, ending Sly 2 (except not as there’s post credit stuff with what the Klaww members are doing now plus the game tells you to touch grass so that’s nice) but i think I’ve stretched the story analysis enough, overall Sly 2’s story is awesome, it blends great and charming dialogue with a deep and mature story that naturally follows the first game and manages to subvert your expectations, while it doesn’t stick the landing all the time, it manages to still stay enjoyable through it’s characters, but anyway let’s wrap things up shall i?
Conclusion and Thank You
Yeah this game is very good, like holy shit it’s way better than any right it needs to be, it takes a completely new direction that is respectful to the original game both in terms of story and gameplay topped with presentation that makes you feel like your in a comic book, you can tell the developers really tried to make this game as great as it could be since they didn’t know that if Sly was a feasible series to continue with, i mean Rocket was a failure and at the time, Sly 1 was underperformed so the future of the company and series was up in the air, and it paid-off, over 2 Million Units sold and received critical acclaim both at release and retrospect, so i think to say Sucker Punch needed to deliver but would they, find out after i 100% Sly 3 i guess, this is where i would end the review except something unexpected while i was making this review i managed to hit over 50 followers, and i just wanted to say thank you, never did i imagine to reach this amount of people (especially this soon) when joining this site or if people would like the reviews but i’m glad my anixties are put to rest so i apolgise for the wait for this review but i hope it delivered (or it’s a horribly bloated mess, though i hope that’s not the case) but anyway yeah man you’ve probably been reading this for a while go outside.
I’ll be seeing you soon, Ringtail
Part 1: Crafting An Great Continuation
Despite its pretty lukewarm commercial sales compared to its contemporaries, Sucker Punch knew there was something greater to this quaint little series and so instantly began development on Sly 2 after Sly 1’s completion. To make a gaming sequel now you’ve gotta ask, First: Is it necessary and second (around this time) is there a target audience? For Sly 2 both of these factors in my opinion were going against this game pretty hard, Sly 1 was a pretty open & shut game, there wasn't much left to continue apart from a pretty weak sequel hook of the return of Clockwerk but nothing too major (This will be important later in the series) but would have cool nonetheless to see these characters again, especially with how the romance with Carmelita ended, and the fast changing landscape of gaming after Grand Theft Auto 3 changed gaming forever, for better or for worse but that's a story for another time, for now the game changed a lot about my favourite genre along with another game, God of War. A lot of developers that weren’t Nintendo (I mean even then there wasn’t many major 1st party platformers after Super Mario Sunshine) didn’t know how to suite this change, some suck to their roots while expanding on the predecessor’s gameplay like Ratchet & Clank 2 Locked & Loaded, Pac Man World 2, Rayman 3 & Ty 2: Bush Rescue which did well while others mainly Crash & Spyro struggled to change with the times while others got overly edgy and missed the point of what made the games so great like Prince of Persia Warrior Within and uh, Jak 2 (I do not like Jak 2: Renegade) both of these games just feel off to play as they’re clearly trend chasing but don’t make the gameplay any better, just worse but again for another time. Sly 2 did the impossible and managed to do both things masterfully, right in the hotspot of Grand Theft’s Auto’s magnum opus, San Andreas. It told a deeper, darker & and more mature story naturally with the same cartoony charm of the first game while also having a new gameplay formula that instead feels like a natural evolution of Sly 1 and not trying to disregard everything that the first game did while also being a pretty fun in it’s own right and suiting the rapidly changing times, all of this is masterfully communicated by the prologue sequence.
The prologue sequence in the first game was already decent but this one just steals the show, first of all, gameplay wise it shows the new formula used in this game pretty well, it’s not an open world yet but the area you play is much more open than any level area from the first game, it shows the new health system & how it’ll be utilised, the multiple playable characters and what they’re gonna do and Sly’s moves, but more importantly story wise. In this game it not only perfectly justified its existence but also serves as a decent enough introduction to people who didn’t play the first game, our goal is set pretty clear, get da Clocktwerk perts, it’s not overly convoluted or doesn’t make sense in terms of the established world, it also serves as good enough driving force for Sly and the boys to stop the evil plan by the new group of villains as they have seen the horror that Clockwerk has done firsthand and know that these people are easily dealing with more that they can handle, speaking off you are given a scarily first impression by the Klaww Gang, they managed to steal all the parts without a trace, making them already a more competent force than the Fiendish Five. We’re also introduced to a mysterious new ally and character to bounce off to Carmelita, Constable Neyla who gives us the clue to the Klaww Gang, look I’m not gonna pretend she’s a twist villain in this game but it’s serviable enough twist until the end but since we’re far off that yet, she’s a decent enough new character. But easily, this prologue excels at reintroducing previous characters, Sly’s just a good as the first game but a lot more mature, he’s always has his head on the mission at hand while can also tell a joke, the biggest difference in his friends where he always backs them up and believes in them no matter what, speaking of the Cooper Gang has shown a greater amount of competence than anything from the first game, Bentely shows a great amount of courage being on his first time on the field and has is just as great as the first game and Murray, he’s almost a different character and in a good way he’s fully transitioned into the muscle of the group instead of the dumb fat character, his more booming vocal direction is great, his new design is great and the comedy that the tell with this character is great, making him like an over the top wrestling character was possibly one of oddest yet greatest choice you could make for the character, Carmelita is also there i guess don’t really have much to say, Zenigata but it’s a girl and a fox i guess that’s all your getting lol. This is all amalgamated in the chase at the end, showing the characters and new gameplay with the music that has been built up throughout the prologue, it’s flawless and we’re just getting started, Sly 2s greatness in terms of story, gameplay and presentation is masterfully exhibited, so I'm gonna go in depth with each subject in each part, first the gameplay, then presentation and finally the story so without further ado let's get this show on the road.
Part 2: Advancing and Reinventing Platforming Gameplay
Sly 2’s gameplay is both radically different and insanely amazing improvement to Sly 1, the idea of the series going Open World sounds like dumb trend chasing but it works gloariously, it feels natural seeing that this isn’t a simple Hub World, but rather a entire sandbox for you to play and tinker around with masterful level design that complements the character's physics and stealth elements along with fun and varied missions that follow a airtight structure along with a few new improvements such as a health system and removal of lives which makes the slight more in-depth combat system a lot more bearable, Sly feels a lot more agile with way more moves you can achieve making him really fun to play as now, a run button which has a pretty good risk reward system, You get a burst of speed but at the risk of alerting guards, speaking off Sly 2 ups the stealth element tenfold as the enemies in this game aren't a one and done thing, You've got Light Guards which have automatic guns when you're on their light and smaller guards that can jump or throw dirt at you, in return you can also pickpocket guards to get coins or items you can sell in Thief.net which can gain you new power-ups in the Gadget-Grid, some of them are necessary to complete the game but some are completely optional and even expand the combat or movement options, highlights being the Stealth Slide, Hang-glider and Jackpack with a fair trade off with them being a separate meter that depletes when you use them but your wondering what I mean by a Jackpack? Sly doesn't have a Jackpack? Well that's when Sly & his titular Band of Thieves come in.
Part 3: Minigame & Mission Mayhem!
Yes I know the multiple playable characters aren't a minigame but bare with me, Most platformers at this time that had multiple playable characters didn't do them very well, SA2 being a prime and InFamous example where each character is a different gameplay style and another one being Donkey Kong 64 where character balance is non-existent but Sly 2 manages to do Multiple playable characters amazingly, the ratio of playable characters is great, 50% Sly and other 50% being dedicated to the other characters (though i would say 30% Bentley and 20% Murray) so you'll play as the other characters not as often as Sly but still pop up every once in a whole but more importantly they don't stray away from a main gameplay style (plus they're fun to play)
Bentley is a lot less agile and instead is more focused on long ranged combat with his Bow and Bombs, he's probably least favourite character to play given how he leads to the minigame which I'll get into later plus he's a bit weak and slow without his Adrenaline Burst Gadget or other Gadgets but I still think playing as Bentley is decent enough due to how he's used in terms of the game as your never forced to fight enemies extensively, but playing as Murray is so damn good, he just there to wail on guards and I'm not complaining, not being able to jump and run while carrying things and he isn't as agile as Sly but it's just fun to smash things especially with his gadgets, like the Juggernaut throw were the enemy explodes on impact and his inferno moves, and the Guttural Charge all being elements of destruction when playing as him, so overall we've established that Sly 2 has great character gameplay but what about the missions and returning minigames? Well each Mission and Chapter for that matter has a clear structure that eventually follow into the Heists, some of these are great mainly ones that focus around platforming, smaller rooms that have self contained challenges, switching between different characters and the camera recons but some missions are absolutely awful, mainly the ones in the Chapter 4 & 5 most the missions that don’t involve character team-ups in Chapter 8, a lot of them in Chapter 4 & 5 focus on the verticality of the stage so for a lot of them you’re just awkwardly jumping around, plus as we’ll get to soon, the variety in them is not very good and Chapter 8 isn’t fun to traverse through even with Sly, it only gets fun when you get the Mega-Jump but for most of it feels way too big for its own good, the catalyst of this is the TNT run where you have traversal through this giant stage, but on the whole i’d say the missions in Sly 2 manage to keep my attention throughout it’s missions, the game does have a inconsistent difficulty problem and repetitive structure but i think the game throws enough at you to make each mission at least unique, for better or worse.
It’s time for the 3D Platformer Minigame round-up, Sly 2’s minigames are both a huge improvement and a huge step-down from the first game, some of are horrible, mainly the tank, it controls so awkwardly and doesn’t feel rewarding when destroying the other enemies, the hacking minigames are fun but there’s way too many of them, half of Bentleys missions revolve around them and it just becomes boring after a while, the Parappa Minigame was cool though i feel doing them at different times is a bit weird, protecting yourself from enemies using traps, and using helicopters/planes in Chapter 2, 5, 7 and 8 while cool gets a bit mindless after a while and finally you’ve got the 2000s Platformer classic: The boring and mindless Turret sections, but i feel Sly 2’s variety comes more so in the form of of giving the player unique challenges and places to traverse through a long with some fun yet pretty mindless combat sections which are mainly shown in the bosses rather than relying on the minigames as a crux of content like the previous did and it shows, Sly 2 clocks around 10-12 Hours and maybe an additionally 13-15 Hours 100% the game, speaking of i really enjoyed 100% this game, i liked finding all the clue bottles and buying all the power-ups since they gave me some fun skills to mess around with but i do wish they could at least shown like the last few when you’re done to mitigate the last crate syndrome seen in game’s like this, maybe with an upgrade you could purchase, but unfortunately, Sly 2 has basically no replay value once doing all of that, the only thing that come close are Treasures which are a nice distraction but once doing all Treasure runs, there’s nothing else, This is the moment where i wished there was a New Game Plus Mode where you could play the game again (maybe with skippable cutscenes) while also retaining your old moves and maybe upgrading them, along with just being harder, also wish you could replay individual missions and try to beat them as fast as possible, calling back to the time trials from Sly 1 like come on even Jak 2 did this, but it’s nothing to stress or hold the game over. So overall in terms of Gameplay, Sly 2 definitely hits it’s mark, Chapter 4, 5 and 8 are kinda weak compared to the rest of the game especially Chapter 8, the level design just sucks, it’s too spacious, big and not fun to traverse around , but still it is such a great game due to its strong level design, characters and missions, it may be a bit on the easy and long side (The Bug mission especially) but it can’t take away from what is easily one of the highlights from this era, and we’re not even done yet.
Part 4: Presentation!
The game doubles down on the Toon-shading aspects of Sly 1, making it a pretty cool game to look at, locations are mostly unique and are brimming with life throughout the game, though one compliant i have is that after Chapter 3, Contessa and Jean Biasons Act 2’s just look the same to me, Contessa's especially, with Jean you could say that one’s more ice themed while the other is more snow themed but maybe with the Contessa ones a mental asylum and the other is a castle? But they don’t really differentiate much honestly, one thing i noticed while playing both versions is that the PS2 Version is much darker, plus the excess motion blur and inconsistent 30fps return which are all fixed in the PS3 along with a higher resolution and framerate and uh, fading in and out audio clips, widescreen assets not fitting unless in overscan mode, removed bonus content like great making off documentary and the commercials, which is a bad emission in my opinion but alright.
There’s also another weird difference in that Sly’s Colours are made more accurate in the PS3 Version to his cutscene look which is cool i suppose but the definitive way is to play this with emulation mostly due to mods but that’s a discussion for another day, though one thing if i don’t know if is a result of the port is that the game is pretty glitchy, clipping through the floor, some cutscenes not working, dialogue cutting out and needing a restart were all problems i faced during the game, it’s certainly more than the first game despite me thinking that game was more unpolished, but two things that is a huge boost in quality is the music/sound design and voice acting. Nearly every track in the game is so good, emphasising the sneaky theme the sly games are known for along with each world having a varied and distinct themes throughout, i don’t have any stage highlights but one thing in-particular i like is how when the menu theme gets more elaborate and sinister as the game progresses, that’s a pretty cool detail, i also really love the sound design, especially when you hit an enemy with that Batman and Robin Sound effect, really making it feel like a comic book/TV Series that came to life, this is further shown through the new artstyle used in this and Sly 3, it looks a lot better to me, it feels less cheap imo (also the artstyle in the first game is used in a bonus video, Sly Cooper: The Second Season and was used in a demo so that’s nice)
But easily, in terms of Voice Acting, Sly 2 is the best in terms of improving the presentation set from Sly 1, returning VA’s like Kevin Miller and Matt Olsen return with a much better direction, sounding less stiff and more alive, Chris Murphy sounds like a completely new character, turning into a deep macho wrestler instead of a Gay Barney the Dinosaur which is cool given how he may have been replace but sometimes his voice can sound a bit jarring with the deeper voice but overall an massive improvement, and then you got the newcomers, Sergeant Johnson i mean David Scully does a great job as both the comedic Dimitri and the threaten/imposing Rajan, the late Gloria Manon did an great job at playing the Conteassa and Ross Douglas and Sam Mowry do a decent/serviceable job at doing their performances as Jean Biason and Apperggio respectively. The only one i’m quite mixed about is Alésia Glidewell, while her performance as Neyla is good both managing to balance threatening and gentle with a decent british accent her role to voicing Carmelita is a bit boring, the first game’s VA wasn’t amazing but with the right direction could have been up there with the returning VA’s but why recast? They also decided to remove her latina accent in favour of an American (?) accent, she’s just not a very good replacement overall, she sounds bored most of the time and says the same lines with the exact same tone and emotion which can happen with the other characters along with some instances of overacting but it’s especially the case with Carmelita but on the whole i really dig the cast, but are they given good material, well i mean you know the answer already.
Part 5: Sly 2’s Subversive and amazing story
There’s no way of cutting it, Sly 2’s story is almost amazing and it really only shits the bed at the end of the game but that’s for later, for now let me ask you this question; What makes a good video game story? Not a good story in a game but a good story that uses the medium of Video Games through it’s story, where it doesn’t have to sacrifice Gameplay for story exposition and tells the a story that can only be used in Video Games, A game like Far Cry 3 or Ace Attorney do this incredibly well while others such as most Modern Sony games while tell a good compelling story mostly do it at the expense of Gameplay, Obviously you need cutscenes to tell your story but in cases were you’re just walking in a straight line while a character tells you shit possibly masked as a loading screen isn’t that great in my opinion. But Sly 2 while doesn’t do it as well as those 2 still makes your actions in the story tied to the gameplay such as a mission structure, which can make playing the game being a bit repetitive but without further ado, let’s start from beginning, ah your already asking didn’t i already do the beginning and to that i say, Yes, Yes i did but there’s another beginning i haven't talked about, the prequel comic. Unlike Sly 3 where it explains plot details left out of Sly 3 this one is more of a brevity comic which brings back the Monaco chapter cut from Sly 2, the comic is more there to shed light on Sly's relationship with other people such as his father, The Cooper gang and Carmelita, Overall it's a very cute comic despite their being a bit of a contradiction with Murray's character but still, I really like Sly applying his father's philosophies to a heist in Monaco, Sly bonding with the Cooper gang as kids in the orphanage that they grew up in whilst doing a heist and my favourite, Sly and Carmelita meeting for the first time with different and exaggerated versions of the events of the comic, so overall a pretty fun comic with some fun dialogue, nothing necessary but you go give a read if your a fan of series, now back to the story.
As established I've already talked about the prologue, so in Sly 2 you start in familiar territory, France as you take down Dimitri, one thing you'll notice is that the villains aren't just your normal monster of the week archetype seen in Sly 1 and most platformers, each of the Klaww Gang are one cog in a spice machine, Dimitri being the distributor in the club's of Paris, Rajan being the Spice Producer, The Contessa being the hypnotist, Jean Biason being the transporter, Arpeggio being the leader/chief inventor and Neyla being the protege (also fun fact, Neyla was suppose to be related to Rajan but was removed due to “simplicity”, would have cool to see) all of the villains are part of a connected organisation that feels like you’re taking down a Band of Thieves at one time, Sly 1’s villains were good but Sly 2’s are on a whole nother level, each one being more sinister and competent than the last (until the end), and on the whole, the characters of Sly 2 are incredibly well-written, Sly is just as great as the first game, now being more mature and appreciative of his friends, Bentley and especially Murray have now have the screentime they desperately need and deserve, like the first game, the characters have a drive for their actions and damn well-witten arc mainly Bentley and Murray though Sly has a good mini arc at the end of the game, releasing that his friends can’t match up to him no matter what, leading to his characterisation in Sly 3, Bentely also grows from being a somewhat small, quiet kept person who is pretty much scared of everything in the outside world becomes the key to stopping the Klaww Gang and fighting Jean Biason, the biggest character in the game, using per-wit, Murray has probably my favourite character moments in terms of pure comedy and brilliance, can you tell i love this character? He goes from the dumb fat guy who you like but know is a bit incapable to a strong, courageous, fearless and badass hippo who his still a bit incapable (like he gets distracted with food all the time in this game like wtf) but is still a very good friend and even ally to have, Murray’s the heart of the team, staying optimistic in the worse of situations and when he’s given it, you know your in for deep shit. Murray’s is probably one of the best strong yet dumb characters i’ve seen in any media barring maybe Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddy, I wouldn’t even call him that dumb in most cases just unaware of his surroundings and doesn’t having much knowledge as say Bentely or even Sly, and it’s so heart-wrenching to see their new found confidence absolutely crippled (physically with Bentely), both of them hit an all time low in their mental state but still decide to help Sly get away despite him knowingly turning himself in for a good a while, completlingly their character’s arcs, Sly realising that his friends can prove themselves even unexpectedly despite them already doing that in the previous chapters removing the doubt he always had with them and the Cooper Gang growing more confidence despite the drastic ending, Carmelita is there too i guess, she’s a character that’s good but i don’t really have much too say much about, i like how she realises not all thieves are bad at the end of the game and sometimes in Chapter 6 & 7 but i don’t have much to say about her and finally Neyla, i think i’ll save her for later.
Sly 2 is essentially a story of building the confidence you’ve never knew you had in you, there may be times you’ll doubt your confidence but it’ll come back even stronger than before, along with strengthening your relationships with your friends and enemies, leaving the past behind/keep moving forward and taking things seriously when you need too, it’s a masterfully written story that is elevated by insanely well-written dialogue with any character, being both smart, witty, charming and funny at points, i love how it foreshadows future events such as Bentely not being able to drive stick, Murray’s fate with the contessa, Neyla’s true intentions and Carmelita’s feelings about Sly all are foreshadowed in the past events. But i’ve already hammered in why this Story is so amazing but what about it being subversive? Well let me take you through the story of this game, Chapter 1 is pretty simple, you’re greeted with the same Carmelita sting operation you’ve grown oh so familiar with in this game, even if you haven’t played this game your established a full success, in Chapter 2 your given the same affairs as last time both gameplay wise and story wise, Sly and gang pulling of scheme after scheme eventually leading to the heist that is until you realise Rajan escaped, the game pulls a fast one on you and subverts your expectations, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to how Sly 1’s villains fared, it’s the reason why having Monaco cut was such a great decision overall as it allows both old and new players to grow accustomed to how things will be run but here it’s completely turned on its head, especially how most games at the time with these types of villains are handle so in Chapter 3 you’re more on edge seeing how Rajan escaped again who knows what will happen next? That’s when Neyla comes in and helps you recover the heart piece while also beating Rajan with Murray’s newfound confidence, this is where you think you’d escape with the help of Neyla right? And that’s where the twist comes in, the game perfectly subverts your expectations once again with Neyla, this is the time were i talk about Neyla as a twist villain, i’ll admit, while i do love the idea of it the execution could be better though it’s not terrible, i do like the red-herring in the beginning of the game and her as character is great, especially in chapter 6 were she doesn’t decide to give up for anything and that’s where in my opinion she should have been killed off but that’s unfortunately not case but that’s until a little awhile, from the twist Sly and Murray captured leading to Bentley being the narrator for 3 cutscenes and the main star of Chapter 4, emphasising how this adventure will focus on the Cooper Gang not just Sly, this is where the subversive bit of the game ends, it’s mostly is pretty straight forward, this game doesn’t have the most mind blowing twists but it still delivers on a pretty great story, in Chapter 5 especially the game really wants you to believe you’ll fail again but in this operation you’ll really have to fight for the the Clockwerk parts in it, then in Chapter 6 you get all 3 Clockwerk parts making you at the height of your confidence, continuing through most of Chapter 7 until Rajan raids your safehouse and gets all the Clockwerk, leading to a high octane chase ensuing (which happens with all 3 characters by the way) as you stow away into the bunker and ride off to Arpeggio Airships, and then Chapter 8 shits the bed really hard.
Okay, it’s time Chapter 8’s gameplay and story is really weak I’ve already talked about that but story wise? It’s sucks, we’re introduced Arpeggio a villain who has a decent back story, we go do the photo recon then, Clock-La for some reason instead of doing something that makes sense, they do Clock-La, you see instead of wanting to fly like all birds for Arpeggio he wants to be immortal, but Neyla does as well and yeah this needed another draft, like i said earlier i think Neyla should have been done with Chapter 6 and have Arpeggio steal the show and not make him into a joke, like in my opinion Arpeggio should have been the main villain of this chapter and awakened Clockwerk, not as a vehicle like the original does but have him return, raising the stakes even higher, (i guess Arpeggio could die again, i don’t know) and the game essentially continues as normal but now Clockwerk takes stage.
That’s just way better than Clock-La in my opinion since it ties into the themes of this game and could lead to some great dialogue, don’t get me wrong it doesn’t make the other scenes and ending aren’t hampered by Clock-la but could have been a lot better (along with the whole of Chapter 8) but man the ending it’s kinda dark, the only game that apparently has a darker ending is Klonoa but that’s for another time, the team is in disarray as 2 of the members are heavily injured one mentally and physically as the team aren’t ready for any elaborate scheme this time, this leads to a great interaction with Sly and Carmalita how they have more in common with Carmelita realising that not all thieves are bad, unbeknownst to them,to the Cooper Gang help Sly escape as Carmelita vows to find him once again while Sly escapes on the hang glider, ending Sly 2 (except not as there’s post credit stuff with what the Klaww members are doing now plus the game tells you to touch grass so that’s nice) but i think I’ve stretched the story analysis enough, overall Sly 2’s story is awesome, it blends great and charming dialogue with a deep and mature story that naturally follows the first game and manages to subvert your expectations, while it doesn’t stick the landing all the time, it manages to still stay enjoyable through it’s characters, but anyway let’s wrap things up shall i?
Conclusion and Thank You
Yeah this game is very good, like holy shit it’s way better than any right it needs to be, it takes a completely new direction that is respectful to the original game both in terms of story and gameplay topped with presentation that makes you feel like your in a comic book, you can tell the developers really tried to make this game as great as it could be since they didn’t know that if Sly was a feasible series to continue with, i mean Rocket was a failure and at the time, Sly 1 was underperformed so the future of the company and series was up in the air, and it paid-off, over 2 Million Units sold and received critical acclaim both at release and retrospect, so i think to say Sucker Punch needed to deliver but would they, find out after i 100% Sly 3 i guess, this is where i would end the review except something unexpected while i was making this review i managed to hit over 50 followers, and i just wanted to say thank you, never did i imagine to reach this amount of people (especially this soon) when joining this site or if people would like the reviews but i’m glad my anixties are put to rest so i apolgise for the wait for this review but i hope it delivered (or it’s a horribly bloated mess, though i hope that’s not the case) but anyway yeah man you’ve probably been reading this for a while go outside.
I’ll be seeing you soon, Ringtail
Yeah I rated this higher than Sonic Frontiers and Unleashed what of it
Anyway, while not the best Visual Novel experience out there for it essentially being free 2-3 Hour experience, this game is a charming little romp, I was surprised how well written the characters and murder mystery actually, and the dialogue was genuinely witty and fun. I really also like the graphics and music, while not the best 2D Artwork or soundtrack in the series, fit’s this game well.
Anyway, overall a fun time! Now leave me alone for 2 Weeks, I have a Racoon to attend to
Anyway, while not the best Visual Novel experience out there for it essentially being free 2-3 Hour experience, this game is a charming little romp, I was surprised how well written the characters and murder mystery actually, and the dialogue was genuinely witty and fun. I really also like the graphics and music, while not the best 2D Artwork or soundtrack in the series, fit’s this game well.
Anyway, overall a fun time! Now leave me alone for 2 Weeks, I have a Racoon to attend to
2021
Never have I seen more confused than what it wants to be, never have I seen a game utterly destroy its messages, never have I seen a game that essentially wastes your time more than Balan Wonderworld.
Preamble, I never wanted to cover this game at all, i played the demo on switch when it came out and did not like it, but some friends gifted this game to me on my new Switch so whoop de doo i get to play the killer app for the Switch, Balan Wonderworld.
So, Yuji Naka, made all of our childhoods and created games we all love and hate, then after a racing game he mysteriously left, no big bang, no message in the next game, nothing. He then did some weird odd jobs that didn't really leave much of an impression on people, i mean Wii Motion Plus? Ivy the Kiwi?, the great Yujj Naka working on mediocre side games? Well Rodea was a quaint success for the Wii Version but nothing really hit that high that Yuji did for Sonic, except of course, Sega Hard Girls.
But finally, fans finally got to see what he was cooking up alongside Sonic creator Naoto Ohshima to make a new ambitious game, Balan Wonderworld, and it bombed, both critically and commercially. Just happened? Well apparently Naka was binned from the team 6 months before it was supposed to release and he was campaigning for a delay, well given how he was the director of the game and other aspects of his past, I feel there's something missing here. But the game itself? It's awful.
Let's start with the story of the game, good lord it's a mess and it really irks me as it tries to touch on themes that not many aspects that aren't normally done in Platformers, so first of depending on the gender you choose the character deals with a thing that they have to overcome, anxiety, Leo does it in fear of getting into another heated argument with a friend (which is from Wikipedia so take that as you will lol) and Emma does it in fear of people talking behind her back. They then escape to the Balan theatre where they met Balan and are thrusted to his Wonderworld. This whole scene is pretty great, the animation as a whole in this game's cutscenes are pretty good but then it takes a nosedive.
Like for the rest of the game you're helping people with their problems, okay cool but are these real? are they acts in the theatre like it's not very clear what it is, but we have much bigger problems with the story. Each chapter follows someone with a problem they have and how they overcome it, okay cool but there's one problem i have with this format: due to the games poor communication of it's world and story it's not clear what the problem is in some cases especially with this games lack of voice acting some of the problems like the farmers are fine i guess but i really love some the themes it touches on such as how you shouldn't enclose yourself with other people who can help, having a creative slump, pushing yourself further and further to the point of destruction no matter what you do that special someone does not notice you, how having a odd hobby makes you shunned by people close to you and no matter what the circumstances may look like, you can do anything you're capable of, It’s really cool as i have dealt with these things to varying degrees and seeing this type of game cover them was really sweet, but there's also some pretty jarring ones or ones that don't make sense, in particular Chapter 2 and Chapter 6. Chapter 2's i just don't get, so basically this girl likes the water right? Well then for some reason the dolphin turns evil and nearly kills her? What? What was the point? Why did the Dolphin attack her? Is it about how sometimes people who may like you can get sick of you? Is it about how your personal interests can sometimes destroy your real life? Like what is the point??? Even the tie book doesn't explain this, speaking of to fully understand this game's plot you need a book that doesn't even come with the game, it's side material, You essentially need side material to fully "enjoy" no, understand this games plot you need a book. It explains a lot of the oddities of this game like the main villain, Lance (get it Balance) and his plan though I just used the Balan Wonderworld Wiki to look it up since I'm not buying it lol. But a decent Book should not explain this game’s plot at all, Sucker Punch games like inFamous and Sly Cooper have side-material like that, but it’s not instrumental to understand the game’s plot, you can still enjoy them and your get to see more in the world’s you love, since they did for the sequels, sure is it weird that Zeke and Cole are best buddies in inFamous 2 again despite InFamous saying otherwise and Moya’s absence in inFamous 2 and also how Sly met Mcsweeny, sure but it doesn’t not make these stories any worse, but with the Book it essentially carries the entire plot but anyway.
Chapter 6 is way more egregious at first, first watch these scenes beginning and ending cutscene and tell me what you think or comment it or I don’t know keep it to yourself,
Well I don't know if it’s my dumbass brain perceiving things when I first played it but it looks like the Cat died then Balan turned back time to bring the cat back? I was both confused, laughing and somewhat angry at this, was this really a solution to this problem? It was even worse as one of the other chapter’s plots had the parents die and the person was enclosing people close to her, so what Balan gonna turn the clock on that one too? But in actuality, the chapter was about how the girl DIDN’T see her cat die so she left before something happened and now it’s okay? Okay how was any player supposed to figure that out? Obviously this Pegi 7 Game isn’t gonna show a cat being run over so the player would obviously assume the Cat dies, also if they were gonna do this solution to a problem wouldn't it be better for something else like how she forgot to feed it and it runs any or something.
But anyway the Plot of this game is quite a mixed bag, on one hand you got isolated scenes such as the opening and ending as it does that thing i love in media and shows what the characters are doing after the events of the film/game, and some of the themes the chapters touch on is really cool and mature, but on the other hand, the poor communication due to speaking in Balanese and the stage cutscenes being a bit lazy albeit still looking nice. It’s a shame that the execution is so mixed but the story is the least of our worries.
Presentation wise i feel Balan presentation is mixed, i feel the character designs are amazing, especially Balan, Lance and the Boss designs but the enemy designs are really simplistic and not in the good way, the music is pretty good with more musical and gospel feel despite the Balanese Lyrics sounding terrible but the environments, they're the most generic environments you can think of, Grass, Ice, Jungle, Forest, Lava etc (I Was surprised when there was no Desert lol) some of them are also repeated too so that’s nice. The environments also sometimes do this warping the ground, it just looks very disorientating and has no reason to be like that. The game on switch is surprisingly terrible, like why is it so bad, this game isn’t so demanding, it looks so bland and boring like it’s an early PS2 game that had a very rushed PS3 port with not that many upgrades, why is the framerate so awful? Why is everything at such a low resolution, why does it crash so frequently and why did people have seizures at the final boss, seriously what was it and Platformers in 2021 giving seizures to people?
Now, it’s time for the most anticipated part, the gameplay. It’s awful, shockingly so. You have to play 12 Chapters of the most boring, bland painfully easy stages ever crafted in a platformer, it’s quite amazing honestly, before then the physics and control in the game don’t feel good, bad control in a game doesn’t matter if the core gameplay is fun enough,but it’s not here. Characters feel way too slow, heavy and stiff, making platforming feels so awkward and not that fun due to the controls. But this Level Design, you have 2 Main Acts then a Boss at the end plus an extra Act in each stage after you beat the final boss. The level design in this game does not know what it wants to be, it is a collectahon due due to gating your progression when you haven't a certain amount of statues? Or a more linear game due to having an end goal, nah man how about Both. Throughout these longass stages you're trying to find the most easy collectables in a Platformer with no challenge or effort whatsoever, topped with weird ass Mo-capped NPCs, Crystals awkwardly scattered throughout the stage so you can feed your discount Chao to grind for the Balan costume and the most bland combat in a game I've ever played in terms of enemy variety and the bosses themselves and with that bagpipe theme blasting whenever an enemy emerges from the ground, damn man didn't know you made Sonic Unleashed. I don't think I've seen a game where I can say I didn't have fun with it at all apart from some isolated so bad it's good moments after beating bosses with those dance sequences, like when I'm playing the game looking at the environment with these NPCs I keep thinking it's a shitty unity indie game but no, this is a game that was released for nearly £50 on release and published by a big name such as Square Enix and was behind the eyes of Yuji Naka.
Oh lord I haven't mentioned the 3 most InFamous features of this game, the 80+ costume gimmick. I mean it speaks for itself, why would your game have 80 power-ups and you can only have 3 at a time? None of them are really that fun to use, some like the gliding one especially the ice step ones make the stages more bearable and completely break the game but others either are completely situational to the stage, copy of other games like the Homing Attack or Uproots, are a pretty simple action you can use in most other platformers, an offensive/defensive attack or just useless like Fox Box, not the ambitious crossover but the insanely amazing power-up where your character turns into an un-rendered blender Box, You can't jump as well so move aside Fire flower & Power Pullet, BallBone Wankerwell has the most influential power-up in gaming history, there's also just one button you use other than for movement and switching costumes, why is Naka and Arzest so hellbent on making this game so simple? Kids are smarter than this, don't dumb down the game like this, the reason why Kirby works so well and why Balan fails with level design and it's copy abilities due to is it's complexity, You don't need to make your game DMC5 or Smash Meele to make it fun but it adds an extra layer to a on already good game and that's what the amount of Copy abilities, all of them being so unique and complex yet simple to use makes them all pretty fun to use in later games, but here the game is painfully simple and genuinely thinks your a little baby that can't even use one other button.
And finally, Balan Bouts & Sport minigames, these aren't fun at all, the sport minigames are so strict but it isn't fair given how much you need to get right in some of them to get your statue, and the Balan Bouts, if you thought Qtes were bad in any game these are on a whole nother level, You have to time Balans actions with your button as he just flies around destroying stuff I guess for other than it looks cool, but the amount of times you do it especially in later world's as they use it as a crux for statue placements, You have to watch the same damn 5 cutscenes with the music blast your ears of as if you fail once (which is likely due to input delay) then good luck, You have to do the QTE all over again next time to get another statue.
So overall, this game sucks and I think I may have found my least favourite game of all time, like sure it isn't a 1/10 But does that really matter? Oh wow it's not a fundamental failure like cool, but the game treating me if I'm braindead and undertaking heavy themes like this is honestly worse to me than any Sonic 06, Big-rigs, Devil May Cry 2, Mega Man X7, Sly Cooper Thieves In Time, Life is Strange etc because at least those games don't waste time or belittles you as much as Balan so fuck this game, if Sly 1 & 2, Super Mario Galaxy games and Odyssey, Ratchet Trilogy or Sonic Generations is how you should do a Platformer with fantastic gameplay, endearing world and characters, amazing and unforgettable Presentation, Balan couldn't be the antithesis of it even if it actively tried to be.
Preamble, I never wanted to cover this game at all, i played the demo on switch when it came out and did not like it, but some friends gifted this game to me on my new Switch so whoop de doo i get to play the killer app for the Switch, Balan Wonderworld.
So, Yuji Naka, made all of our childhoods and created games we all love and hate, then after a racing game he mysteriously left, no big bang, no message in the next game, nothing. He then did some weird odd jobs that didn't really leave much of an impression on people, i mean Wii Motion Plus? Ivy the Kiwi?, the great Yujj Naka working on mediocre side games? Well Rodea was a quaint success for the Wii Version but nothing really hit that high that Yuji did for Sonic, except of course, Sega Hard Girls.
But finally, fans finally got to see what he was cooking up alongside Sonic creator Naoto Ohshima to make a new ambitious game, Balan Wonderworld, and it bombed, both critically and commercially. Just happened? Well apparently Naka was binned from the team 6 months before it was supposed to release and he was campaigning for a delay, well given how he was the director of the game and other aspects of his past, I feel there's something missing here. But the game itself? It's awful.
Let's start with the story of the game, good lord it's a mess and it really irks me as it tries to touch on themes that not many aspects that aren't normally done in Platformers, so first of depending on the gender you choose the character deals with a thing that they have to overcome, anxiety, Leo does it in fear of getting into another heated argument with a friend (which is from Wikipedia so take that as you will lol) and Emma does it in fear of people talking behind her back. They then escape to the Balan theatre where they met Balan and are thrusted to his Wonderworld. This whole scene is pretty great, the animation as a whole in this game's cutscenes are pretty good but then it takes a nosedive.
Like for the rest of the game you're helping people with their problems, okay cool but are these real? are they acts in the theatre like it's not very clear what it is, but we have much bigger problems with the story. Each chapter follows someone with a problem they have and how they overcome it, okay cool but there's one problem i have with this format: due to the games poor communication of it's world and story it's not clear what the problem is in some cases especially with this games lack of voice acting some of the problems like the farmers are fine i guess but i really love some the themes it touches on such as how you shouldn't enclose yourself with other people who can help, having a creative slump, pushing yourself further and further to the point of destruction no matter what you do that special someone does not notice you, how having a odd hobby makes you shunned by people close to you and no matter what the circumstances may look like, you can do anything you're capable of, It’s really cool as i have dealt with these things to varying degrees and seeing this type of game cover them was really sweet, but there's also some pretty jarring ones or ones that don't make sense, in particular Chapter 2 and Chapter 6. Chapter 2's i just don't get, so basically this girl likes the water right? Well then for some reason the dolphin turns evil and nearly kills her? What? What was the point? Why did the Dolphin attack her? Is it about how sometimes people who may like you can get sick of you? Is it about how your personal interests can sometimes destroy your real life? Like what is the point??? Even the tie book doesn't explain this, speaking of to fully understand this game's plot you need a book that doesn't even come with the game, it's side material, You essentially need side material to fully "enjoy" no, understand this games plot you need a book. It explains a lot of the oddities of this game like the main villain, Lance (get it Balance) and his plan though I just used the Balan Wonderworld Wiki to look it up since I'm not buying it lol. But a decent Book should not explain this game’s plot at all, Sucker Punch games like inFamous and Sly Cooper have side-material like that, but it’s not instrumental to understand the game’s plot, you can still enjoy them and your get to see more in the world’s you love, since they did for the sequels, sure is it weird that Zeke and Cole are best buddies in inFamous 2 again despite InFamous saying otherwise and Moya’s absence in inFamous 2 and also how Sly met Mcsweeny, sure but it doesn’t not make these stories any worse, but with the Book it essentially carries the entire plot but anyway.
Chapter 6 is way more egregious at first, first watch these scenes beginning and ending cutscene and tell me what you think or comment it or I don’t know keep it to yourself,
Well I don't know if it’s my dumbass brain perceiving things when I first played it but it looks like the Cat died then Balan turned back time to bring the cat back? I was both confused, laughing and somewhat angry at this, was this really a solution to this problem? It was even worse as one of the other chapter’s plots had the parents die and the person was enclosing people close to her, so what Balan gonna turn the clock on that one too? But in actuality, the chapter was about how the girl DIDN’T see her cat die so she left before something happened and now it’s okay? Okay how was any player supposed to figure that out? Obviously this Pegi 7 Game isn’t gonna show a cat being run over so the player would obviously assume the Cat dies, also if they were gonna do this solution to a problem wouldn't it be better for something else like how she forgot to feed it and it runs any or something.
But anyway the Plot of this game is quite a mixed bag, on one hand you got isolated scenes such as the opening and ending as it does that thing i love in media and shows what the characters are doing after the events of the film/game, and some of the themes the chapters touch on is really cool and mature, but on the other hand, the poor communication due to speaking in Balanese and the stage cutscenes being a bit lazy albeit still looking nice. It’s a shame that the execution is so mixed but the story is the least of our worries.
Presentation wise i feel Balan presentation is mixed, i feel the character designs are amazing, especially Balan, Lance and the Boss designs but the enemy designs are really simplistic and not in the good way, the music is pretty good with more musical and gospel feel despite the Balanese Lyrics sounding terrible but the environments, they're the most generic environments you can think of, Grass, Ice, Jungle, Forest, Lava etc (I Was surprised when there was no Desert lol) some of them are also repeated too so that’s nice. The environments also sometimes do this warping the ground, it just looks very disorientating and has no reason to be like that. The game on switch is surprisingly terrible, like why is it so bad, this game isn’t so demanding, it looks so bland and boring like it’s an early PS2 game that had a very rushed PS3 port with not that many upgrades, why is the framerate so awful? Why is everything at such a low resolution, why does it crash so frequently and why did people have seizures at the final boss, seriously what was it and Platformers in 2021 giving seizures to people?
Now, it’s time for the most anticipated part, the gameplay. It’s awful, shockingly so. You have to play 12 Chapters of the most boring, bland painfully easy stages ever crafted in a platformer, it’s quite amazing honestly, before then the physics and control in the game don’t feel good, bad control in a game doesn’t matter if the core gameplay is fun enough,but it’s not here. Characters feel way too slow, heavy and stiff, making platforming feels so awkward and not that fun due to the controls. But this Level Design, you have 2 Main Acts then a Boss at the end plus an extra Act in each stage after you beat the final boss. The level design in this game does not know what it wants to be, it is a collectahon due due to gating your progression when you haven't a certain amount of statues? Or a more linear game due to having an end goal, nah man how about Both. Throughout these longass stages you're trying to find the most easy collectables in a Platformer with no challenge or effort whatsoever, topped with weird ass Mo-capped NPCs, Crystals awkwardly scattered throughout the stage so you can feed your discount Chao to grind for the Balan costume and the most bland combat in a game I've ever played in terms of enemy variety and the bosses themselves and with that bagpipe theme blasting whenever an enemy emerges from the ground, damn man didn't know you made Sonic Unleashed. I don't think I've seen a game where I can say I didn't have fun with it at all apart from some isolated so bad it's good moments after beating bosses with those dance sequences, like when I'm playing the game looking at the environment with these NPCs I keep thinking it's a shitty unity indie game but no, this is a game that was released for nearly £50 on release and published by a big name such as Square Enix and was behind the eyes of Yuji Naka.
Oh lord I haven't mentioned the 3 most InFamous features of this game, the 80+ costume gimmick. I mean it speaks for itself, why would your game have 80 power-ups and you can only have 3 at a time? None of them are really that fun to use, some like the gliding one especially the ice step ones make the stages more bearable and completely break the game but others either are completely situational to the stage, copy of other games like the Homing Attack or Uproots, are a pretty simple action you can use in most other platformers, an offensive/defensive attack or just useless like Fox Box, not the ambitious crossover but the insanely amazing power-up where your character turns into an un-rendered blender Box, You can't jump as well so move aside Fire flower & Power Pullet, BallBone Wankerwell has the most influential power-up in gaming history, there's also just one button you use other than for movement and switching costumes, why is Naka and Arzest so hellbent on making this game so simple? Kids are smarter than this, don't dumb down the game like this, the reason why Kirby works so well and why Balan fails with level design and it's copy abilities due to is it's complexity, You don't need to make your game DMC5 or Smash Meele to make it fun but it adds an extra layer to a on already good game and that's what the amount of Copy abilities, all of them being so unique and complex yet simple to use makes them all pretty fun to use in later games, but here the game is painfully simple and genuinely thinks your a little baby that can't even use one other button.
And finally, Balan Bouts & Sport minigames, these aren't fun at all, the sport minigames are so strict but it isn't fair given how much you need to get right in some of them to get your statue, and the Balan Bouts, if you thought Qtes were bad in any game these are on a whole nother level, You have to time Balans actions with your button as he just flies around destroying stuff I guess for other than it looks cool, but the amount of times you do it especially in later world's as they use it as a crux for statue placements, You have to watch the same damn 5 cutscenes with the music blast your ears of as if you fail once (which is likely due to input delay) then good luck, You have to do the QTE all over again next time to get another statue.
So overall, this game sucks and I think I may have found my least favourite game of all time, like sure it isn't a 1/10 But does that really matter? Oh wow it's not a fundamental failure like cool, but the game treating me if I'm braindead and undertaking heavy themes like this is honestly worse to me than any Sonic 06, Big-rigs, Devil May Cry 2, Mega Man X7, Sly Cooper Thieves In Time, Life is Strange etc because at least those games don't waste time or belittles you as much as Balan so fuck this game, if Sly 1 & 2, Super Mario Galaxy games and Odyssey, Ratchet Trilogy or Sonic Generations is how you should do a Platformer with fantastic gameplay, endearing world and characters, amazing and unforgettable Presentation, Balan couldn't be the antithesis of it even if it actively tried to be.
1992
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is one of gaming’s best achievements, a game that managed to improve on everything it’s predecessor has done while also being so great, it’s no secret that I prefer this game to the first one but like, Sonic 1 was already very good and a solid start to the series, but this game is pure Sonic Euphoria, the pinnacle of the series, and while it has some flaws, it has some of the best stuff in the history of the series and what better time to look at this great game at it’s 30th Anniversary.
It’s no secret that the original Sonic The Hedgehog was a huge success, so to capitalise on that, a sequel was in order to be made right? Well not immediately as Sega thought it was “too soon” for a sequel though probably after seeing the money that the first game made, they were probably quickly persuaded to make a sequel, however while the original game was handled by Japan, Sonic 2 was handled by the United States from the team dubbed the Sega Technical Institute which was lead by Sony’s Mark Cerny, some developers from Japan did help however, namely recent Convict Yujii Naka who left Sega of Japan after pay disputes. The goal of Sonic 2 was to go all out with everything, Story, characters, gameplay, levels, music, everything and Sonic 2 succeeded with that but not what many people have thought, this game was hell to develop for. Sonic 2 would have been thrice as larger if the team had enough time, but cutbacks had to be done to get the game for that November 92 release, Stages such as the Hidden Palace Zone which would have big story beat for the New Chaos Emeralds was cut due to time and hardware limitations despite it being in a lot of marketing and a multitude of other zones including Dust Hill, Genocide/Cyber City Zone and Wood Zone.
Sonic 2 was such hell to develop with as multiple team members left during the development due to language and cultural barriers, while with the crunch and crumbling expectations at the time set by Sega and the Team themselves, (so much so the game was borderline unplayable 48 Hours before release). Sonic 2 sounded like a disaster, a game that would be ridiculed and mocked for trying something new. But by all miracles, it succeeded. Sonic 2 despite not having as many zones they planned and the insane amount of crunch, was considered a great game both then and now and is arguably the best in the series and kept Sega afloat with 6 Million copies sold and made them a worthy rival to Nintendo. In a series inFamous for its disasters, who knew the best game in series would be subject to the things that caused the eventual downfall of Sonic, but that’s neither here nor there so the question is, what do I think? Sonic 2 is pretty good, like really good not my favourites in the series, but a mighty fine good Sonic game.
Sonic 2 happens a good while after Sonic 1 and other miscellaneous misadventures, Sonic at this point has meet with his 2 tailed protege/best friend, Miles Prower (who was subject to a similar competition that Sonic had) who’s nickname is Tails (he doesn’t do much in this game, he has some half assed flying gimmicks in the remeaster but that’s about it, his AI is funny though so i play as the duo), the 2 investigate Westside Island after Dr Robotnik has set his eyes in finding all 6 Emeralds with a mysterious 7th Emerald on the Island, from there Sonic & Tails are quickly thrusted into an new high octane adventure as the endless Battle against Nature vs Machines are strengthened.
Sonic 2 obviously doesn’t have the best or most in-depth story, but the 3rd Act of the game is surprisingly strong, there’s a neat little progression that shows us the Industrial side of Eggman’s tricks, which eventually leads us to Sky Chase and Wing Fortress as Sonic’s new friend, Tails is shoot down leaving Sonic alone to face of against Egggman, leading to a fight in the Death Egg Zone with Silver Sonic and Eggman’s new invention, the Death Egg Robot. Both endings are really strong, while the canon/good ending isn’t as good as the “bad” ending both endings still are great, it shows that even at this point early on that Sonic inspires the people in his life positively which changes the world for the better around them, even with all 7 Emeralds collected and how Sonic is still fine, the fact that he still went to see Sonic, strengthens their brotherly relationship. It’s overall a good story that is still simple while adding that complexity that games after this will improve upon.
But it’s no secret that in terms of gameplay, Sonic 2 is just outstanding, a fast furious, 2D Platformer that prioritises speed above all else, while i like Sonic 1’s more slower pace and emphasis on keeping your flow and naturally gaining your speed, i can’t deny that this more high octane gameplay form is way more fun, this is partly due to the Spin-Dash, when you hold down and spam one of the buttons, you get a big burst of speed but as a trade of, you have to be still. This gives a good little tradeoff and strategy to how, like the original game you collect Rings as health or as extra lives which act as a 2 hit mechanism, one hit you lose all of them and then the next hit you're dead unless you collect more rings, there’s also more Enemies or "Badniks" than the first game which while taking one hit there's a good amount of variety and strategy to them about the way you approach them and how they behave, there’s also a few power ups that return from Sonic 1 that spruce up the Gameplay such as a Shield which acts as an additionally with no extra ring costs, speed shoes which increase Sonic's acceleration and speed and finally, the invincibility which makes Sonic invulnerable for a short period.
All of this is complemented by the biggest improvement, the Zones and Bosses, they downsized the majority of Zones to 2 Acts, which i’m honestly not a fan of, i prefer having longer zones though i do understand why some may like it the changes, the Zone roster this time includes:
-Emerald Hill Zone: A pretty fun zone, while not as graphical as strong as Green Hill, i find more fun speedrunning and exploring the stage due to more loop de loops and fun gimmicks, the boss is laughably piss easy though
-Chemical Plant: Such an iconic and great Zone, especially with Act 2 where you run down a long tube and then gain a ton of momentum when rolling down it, perfectly balances speed, platforming and fun and interesting gimmicks with the Mega Mack and Cubes, the boss however is slightly janky because of the way it works, i don’t it should have had falling platforms, otherwise it would be a pretty fine boss fight, chemical plant itself is the shining example of why Sonic is so great and why i’m still a fan, this stage is the pinnacle of Sonic designs and showcases why i love the series so much, high speed antics, great music, the prevalent themes of Nature Vs Machines through the environments, etc, Chemical Plant is the complete package
-Aquatic Ruins: A Great Stage in my opinion, better than Emerald Hill but not quite as good as Chemical Plant, the parts on land are fun but the arrows are bit overpowered in my opinion, i actually prefer going into the water since it feels a lot better designed and more fairly challenged than the parts on land due to that constant fear of drowning bring back that risk reward system of stopping to get bubbles or speeding ahead to get a higher score/mitigation of a Time over, the falling pillars are a bit janky and the boss is once again too easy but this overall another great Zone
-Casino Night Zone: This is like they saw what Spring Yard Zone was and overdosed it on Crack, more pinball gimmicks along with a pretty fun new Slot Machine gimmick that sure started many gambling addictions in 1992, some abrupt pacing moments but this and chemical plant is pure Sonic euphoria
-Hilltop Zone: This is the where i put the controller down for Sonic 2, not really a bad zone i like i think it’s decent overall, Great Aesthetics (despite it being literally and music as always but it’s sorta forgettable barring the parts where you escape the lava, i don’t like the seesaw gimmicks, the badniks really get on my nerves and the boss borders a weird line between easy and frustrating, still it’s a good zone just overall forgettable
-Mystic Cave Zone/Hidden Palace Zone: This middle part of Sonic 2 isn’t very strong in my opinion, while not bad this is more forgettable part and Mystic Cave Zone strengthens this belief, it’s a very slow zone, the aesthetics while look great, it’s gimmicks are inherently frustrating, resulting in some unfair deaths. I honestly don’t have much to say about this zone, the boss is fine albeit a bit too easy and the music gets on my nerves but other than that, the weakest zone in the game, However this is where i would move onto Oil Ocean but since i also played the Whitehead version i got to play Hidden Palace Zone, it’s a great stage, very colourful and full of life with the best Badnik roster of the game, The Boss however is just awful, it’s attacks and movement are way too unpredictable and it throws way too much on you, despite this, i feel this Zone managed to pick up Sonic 2 to it’s admittedly mediocre slump
-Oil Ocean Zone: I like this one, doesn’t hold a candle to the Mania counterpart or even the first half of Sonic 2, i think this one is mostly fun aesthetically and in its 2nd Act with the Oil gimmick, there’s a lot of doing nothing in this stage especially with a lot of automation with the cannons and propeller gimmick, The Boss is also probably my favourite in the game, while being basic there’s a good layer of strategy and challenge to the boss that most in this game haven’t seen
-Metropolis Zone: I don’t know if this is a hot take but Metropolis slaps and is the best Zone since Casino Night Zone, it balances speed, platforming and exploration with multiple roots with a good sense of challenge while giving us the hardest Badniks to fight so far, the gimmicks are also fresh and interesting throughout the Acts, The biggest issue is that it’s 3rd Act, i get why it needed a 3rd Act, it’s the final main zone and it needed to go on a bang, plus it sorta feels like from a possible time when Sonic 2 was planned witn 3 Acts but this Zone is insanely frustrating and unfair, the platforming feels sorta half baked and the enemies are probably at its worst here but despite this i was sorta surprised by Metropolis Zone, maybe i was expecting the worst, but not a half bad Zone.
-Sky Chase/Wing Fortress: Worst part of the game, Sky Chase is fine just insanely slow and boring and Wing Fortress, this Zone is horrendous, not only is there a cheap start to the zone where you’re forced to jump but the level design here is just Metropolis Act 3 but even worse, so many times i got softlocked with the start as i was stuck on the big propeller as i bounced off the Shield power up, Platformingg feels incredibly unnatural anc way too tight and it’s overall a confusing zone to navigate through, Boss is decent though
-Death Egg Zone: Does this count as a Zone? It’s not really one seeing as it’s just 2 Bosses, My guess was that this would have been a full 2 Act Zone, using Silver Sonic and the Death Egg Robot as Bosses but due to time constraints was rushed, reusing Chemical Plants assets but whatever sorta anticlimactic, I think Silver Sonic is a good boss, maybe to easy but it’s a fun boss, it feels like you have think for it’s gonna do next and then act fast before he attacks again, The Death Egg Robot is not as good, i feel it would be a decent boss if the hitbox wasn’t as janky or his attacks were slightly more predictable or varied, i don’t think the Lack of Rings is too unfair since Sonic 1 also had no Rings though possibly that Boss being in a different context may have had something to do with it
Sonic 2 Zones are a huge step up from Sonic 1, though you can tell there’s a huge drop-off in quality in the later act, nothing bad (Apart from Wing Fortress) but certainly not as bad as Sonic 1’s worst, it feels like Sonic 2’s development may have had a part in this game dropping in quality, which i can now somewhat appreciate the game being like this, since i was more mixed on this game before. But like the biggest issue just like Sonic 1 is the Special Stages, the original version was possibly even worse due to not being able to properly see the rings but the Remaster fixes this, however they’re still bad, the ring requirements are way too strict in most cases however it may be due to the fact that entering the Special Stages are different, instead of a Giant Ring at the end of the stage, you have to get 50 Rings to the Checkpoint then entering a small portal, Tails is also another issue, he has this long delay which i wouldn’t mind and got used to, but in later stages you have to be near laser focused on your reaction time and you just can’t do that with Tails, you may ask why play the game with him if he’s such a hindrance but even without him the stages would still be bad, especially if he’s not getting extra rings you missed, i just feel these Special Stages were more for spectacle rather than practicality because i’d say Sonic 1’s special stages are better due them being more varied and slightly more fun in them (i stress the word slightly be it is a slight difference). The reward for getting them is Super Sonic, which is just having infinite invincibility along with a broken yellow Sonic Sprite, not too much of a great reward in my opinion.
However like Sonic 2, it’s presentation is steller, it probably has my favourite Classic Sonic art style in the series, great character and badnik designs that fit right into Sonic 1’s pre established artstyle and world, Environments look even more lush & colourful with that serialised storytelling of progressing through a natural world that turns more industrialised. Plus the music is great as always, Dream Comes True returned to headline the ost and it’s as great as ever, a vocal song at the band made is present in ending at fits right in with the rest of the great soundtrack with the only stage theme i don’t really like is Mystic Cave, each of them also have a wider themes of emotions and really connect to the stages aesthetics much better than Sonic 1’s Soundtrack, I think my favourite track is probably the ending melody, something about that really feels like a great reflective story and adventure that we went through.
But just reflecting on Sonic 2, Sonic 2 (for the most part) is what a sequel should strive for, bigger, better, bolder and faster, it’s a game that’s just perfect for newcomers, not too hard or easy, not too long though not insulting short either, it’s definitely not a perfect game but it’s essentially a perfect sequel, it feels the Crisp company had really listened to the feedback and made a great packet of them, while not perfect is a great improvement of the last bag of crisps that while good, left a lot to be desired, however while the Crisp company go Beyond and above next time delivering an even better packet, or take a detour and try a new but familiar flavour?
It’s no secret that the original Sonic The Hedgehog was a huge success, so to capitalise on that, a sequel was in order to be made right? Well not immediately as Sega thought it was “too soon” for a sequel though probably after seeing the money that the first game made, they were probably quickly persuaded to make a sequel, however while the original game was handled by Japan, Sonic 2 was handled by the United States from the team dubbed the Sega Technical Institute which was lead by Sony’s Mark Cerny, some developers from Japan did help however, namely recent Convict Yujii Naka who left Sega of Japan after pay disputes. The goal of Sonic 2 was to go all out with everything, Story, characters, gameplay, levels, music, everything and Sonic 2 succeeded with that but not what many people have thought, this game was hell to develop for. Sonic 2 would have been thrice as larger if the team had enough time, but cutbacks had to be done to get the game for that November 92 release, Stages such as the Hidden Palace Zone which would have big story beat for the New Chaos Emeralds was cut due to time and hardware limitations despite it being in a lot of marketing and a multitude of other zones including Dust Hill, Genocide/Cyber City Zone and Wood Zone.
Sonic 2 was such hell to develop with as multiple team members left during the development due to language and cultural barriers, while with the crunch and crumbling expectations at the time set by Sega and the Team themselves, (so much so the game was borderline unplayable 48 Hours before release). Sonic 2 sounded like a disaster, a game that would be ridiculed and mocked for trying something new. But by all miracles, it succeeded. Sonic 2 despite not having as many zones they planned and the insane amount of crunch, was considered a great game both then and now and is arguably the best in the series and kept Sega afloat with 6 Million copies sold and made them a worthy rival to Nintendo. In a series inFamous for its disasters, who knew the best game in series would be subject to the things that caused the eventual downfall of Sonic, but that’s neither here nor there so the question is, what do I think? Sonic 2 is pretty good, like really good not my favourites in the series, but a mighty fine good Sonic game.
Sonic 2 happens a good while after Sonic 1 and other miscellaneous misadventures, Sonic at this point has meet with his 2 tailed protege/best friend, Miles Prower (who was subject to a similar competition that Sonic had) who’s nickname is Tails (he doesn’t do much in this game, he has some half assed flying gimmicks in the remeaster but that’s about it, his AI is funny though so i play as the duo), the 2 investigate Westside Island after Dr Robotnik has set his eyes in finding all 6 Emeralds with a mysterious 7th Emerald on the Island, from there Sonic & Tails are quickly thrusted into an new high octane adventure as the endless Battle against Nature vs Machines are strengthened.
Sonic 2 obviously doesn’t have the best or most in-depth story, but the 3rd Act of the game is surprisingly strong, there’s a neat little progression that shows us the Industrial side of Eggman’s tricks, which eventually leads us to Sky Chase and Wing Fortress as Sonic’s new friend, Tails is shoot down leaving Sonic alone to face of against Egggman, leading to a fight in the Death Egg Zone with Silver Sonic and Eggman’s new invention, the Death Egg Robot. Both endings are really strong, while the canon/good ending isn’t as good as the “bad” ending both endings still are great, it shows that even at this point early on that Sonic inspires the people in his life positively which changes the world for the better around them, even with all 7 Emeralds collected and how Sonic is still fine, the fact that he still went to see Sonic, strengthens their brotherly relationship. It’s overall a good story that is still simple while adding that complexity that games after this will improve upon.
But it’s no secret that in terms of gameplay, Sonic 2 is just outstanding, a fast furious, 2D Platformer that prioritises speed above all else, while i like Sonic 1’s more slower pace and emphasis on keeping your flow and naturally gaining your speed, i can’t deny that this more high octane gameplay form is way more fun, this is partly due to the Spin-Dash, when you hold down and spam one of the buttons, you get a big burst of speed but as a trade of, you have to be still. This gives a good little tradeoff and strategy to how, like the original game you collect Rings as health or as extra lives which act as a 2 hit mechanism, one hit you lose all of them and then the next hit you're dead unless you collect more rings, there’s also more Enemies or "Badniks" than the first game which while taking one hit there's a good amount of variety and strategy to them about the way you approach them and how they behave, there’s also a few power ups that return from Sonic 1 that spruce up the Gameplay such as a Shield which acts as an additionally with no extra ring costs, speed shoes which increase Sonic's acceleration and speed and finally, the invincibility which makes Sonic invulnerable for a short period.
All of this is complemented by the biggest improvement, the Zones and Bosses, they downsized the majority of Zones to 2 Acts, which i’m honestly not a fan of, i prefer having longer zones though i do understand why some may like it the changes, the Zone roster this time includes:
-Emerald Hill Zone: A pretty fun zone, while not as graphical as strong as Green Hill, i find more fun speedrunning and exploring the stage due to more loop de loops and fun gimmicks, the boss is laughably piss easy though
-Chemical Plant: Such an iconic and great Zone, especially with Act 2 where you run down a long tube and then gain a ton of momentum when rolling down it, perfectly balances speed, platforming and fun and interesting gimmicks with the Mega Mack and Cubes, the boss however is slightly janky because of the way it works, i don’t it should have had falling platforms, otherwise it would be a pretty fine boss fight, chemical plant itself is the shining example of why Sonic is so great and why i’m still a fan, this stage is the pinnacle of Sonic designs and showcases why i love the series so much, high speed antics, great music, the prevalent themes of Nature Vs Machines through the environments, etc, Chemical Plant is the complete package
-Aquatic Ruins: A Great Stage in my opinion, better than Emerald Hill but not quite as good as Chemical Plant, the parts on land are fun but the arrows are bit overpowered in my opinion, i actually prefer going into the water since it feels a lot better designed and more fairly challenged than the parts on land due to that constant fear of drowning bring back that risk reward system of stopping to get bubbles or speeding ahead to get a higher score/mitigation of a Time over, the falling pillars are a bit janky and the boss is once again too easy but this overall another great Zone
-Casino Night Zone: This is like they saw what Spring Yard Zone was and overdosed it on Crack, more pinball gimmicks along with a pretty fun new Slot Machine gimmick that sure started many gambling addictions in 1992, some abrupt pacing moments but this and chemical plant is pure Sonic euphoria
-Hilltop Zone: This is the where i put the controller down for Sonic 2, not really a bad zone i like i think it’s decent overall, Great Aesthetics (despite it being literally and music as always but it’s sorta forgettable barring the parts where you escape the lava, i don’t like the seesaw gimmicks, the badniks really get on my nerves and the boss borders a weird line between easy and frustrating, still it’s a good zone just overall forgettable
-Mystic Cave Zone/Hidden Palace Zone: This middle part of Sonic 2 isn’t very strong in my opinion, while not bad this is more forgettable part and Mystic Cave Zone strengthens this belief, it’s a very slow zone, the aesthetics while look great, it’s gimmicks are inherently frustrating, resulting in some unfair deaths. I honestly don’t have much to say about this zone, the boss is fine albeit a bit too easy and the music gets on my nerves but other than that, the weakest zone in the game, However this is where i would move onto Oil Ocean but since i also played the Whitehead version i got to play Hidden Palace Zone, it’s a great stage, very colourful and full of life with the best Badnik roster of the game, The Boss however is just awful, it’s attacks and movement are way too unpredictable and it throws way too much on you, despite this, i feel this Zone managed to pick up Sonic 2 to it’s admittedly mediocre slump
-Oil Ocean Zone: I like this one, doesn’t hold a candle to the Mania counterpart or even the first half of Sonic 2, i think this one is mostly fun aesthetically and in its 2nd Act with the Oil gimmick, there’s a lot of doing nothing in this stage especially with a lot of automation with the cannons and propeller gimmick, The Boss is also probably my favourite in the game, while being basic there’s a good layer of strategy and challenge to the boss that most in this game haven’t seen
-Metropolis Zone: I don’t know if this is a hot take but Metropolis slaps and is the best Zone since Casino Night Zone, it balances speed, platforming and exploration with multiple roots with a good sense of challenge while giving us the hardest Badniks to fight so far, the gimmicks are also fresh and interesting throughout the Acts, The biggest issue is that it’s 3rd Act, i get why it needed a 3rd Act, it’s the final main zone and it needed to go on a bang, plus it sorta feels like from a possible time when Sonic 2 was planned witn 3 Acts but this Zone is insanely frustrating and unfair, the platforming feels sorta half baked and the enemies are probably at its worst here but despite this i was sorta surprised by Metropolis Zone, maybe i was expecting the worst, but not a half bad Zone.
-Sky Chase/Wing Fortress: Worst part of the game, Sky Chase is fine just insanely slow and boring and Wing Fortress, this Zone is horrendous, not only is there a cheap start to the zone where you’re forced to jump but the level design here is just Metropolis Act 3 but even worse, so many times i got softlocked with the start as i was stuck on the big propeller as i bounced off the Shield power up, Platformingg feels incredibly unnatural anc way too tight and it’s overall a confusing zone to navigate through, Boss is decent though
-Death Egg Zone: Does this count as a Zone? It’s not really one seeing as it’s just 2 Bosses, My guess was that this would have been a full 2 Act Zone, using Silver Sonic and the Death Egg Robot as Bosses but due to time constraints was rushed, reusing Chemical Plants assets but whatever sorta anticlimactic, I think Silver Sonic is a good boss, maybe to easy but it’s a fun boss, it feels like you have think for it’s gonna do next and then act fast before he attacks again, The Death Egg Robot is not as good, i feel it would be a decent boss if the hitbox wasn’t as janky or his attacks were slightly more predictable or varied, i don’t think the Lack of Rings is too unfair since Sonic 1 also had no Rings though possibly that Boss being in a different context may have had something to do with it
Sonic 2 Zones are a huge step up from Sonic 1, though you can tell there’s a huge drop-off in quality in the later act, nothing bad (Apart from Wing Fortress) but certainly not as bad as Sonic 1’s worst, it feels like Sonic 2’s development may have had a part in this game dropping in quality, which i can now somewhat appreciate the game being like this, since i was more mixed on this game before. But like the biggest issue just like Sonic 1 is the Special Stages, the original version was possibly even worse due to not being able to properly see the rings but the Remaster fixes this, however they’re still bad, the ring requirements are way too strict in most cases however it may be due to the fact that entering the Special Stages are different, instead of a Giant Ring at the end of the stage, you have to get 50 Rings to the Checkpoint then entering a small portal, Tails is also another issue, he has this long delay which i wouldn’t mind and got used to, but in later stages you have to be near laser focused on your reaction time and you just can’t do that with Tails, you may ask why play the game with him if he’s such a hindrance but even without him the stages would still be bad, especially if he’s not getting extra rings you missed, i just feel these Special Stages were more for spectacle rather than practicality because i’d say Sonic 1’s special stages are better due them being more varied and slightly more fun in them (i stress the word slightly be it is a slight difference). The reward for getting them is Super Sonic, which is just having infinite invincibility along with a broken yellow Sonic Sprite, not too much of a great reward in my opinion.
However like Sonic 2, it’s presentation is steller, it probably has my favourite Classic Sonic art style in the series, great character and badnik designs that fit right into Sonic 1’s pre established artstyle and world, Environments look even more lush & colourful with that serialised storytelling of progressing through a natural world that turns more industrialised. Plus the music is great as always, Dream Comes True returned to headline the ost and it’s as great as ever, a vocal song at the band made is present in ending at fits right in with the rest of the great soundtrack with the only stage theme i don’t really like is Mystic Cave, each of them also have a wider themes of emotions and really connect to the stages aesthetics much better than Sonic 1’s Soundtrack, I think my favourite track is probably the ending melody, something about that really feels like a great reflective story and adventure that we went through.
But just reflecting on Sonic 2, Sonic 2 (for the most part) is what a sequel should strive for, bigger, better, bolder and faster, it’s a game that’s just perfect for newcomers, not too hard or easy, not too long though not insulting short either, it’s definitely not a perfect game but it’s essentially a perfect sequel, it feels the Crisp company had really listened to the feedback and made a great packet of them, while not perfect is a great improvement of the last bag of crisps that while good, left a lot to be desired, however while the Crisp company go Beyond and above next time delivering an even better packet, or take a detour and try a new but familiar flavour?
Finally, I am looking at a series that has quickly become one of my favourites, Sly Cooper. These reviews won't come out daily like I planned too as I really want to go in-depth with them plus I'll have to complete/master Sly 3 so please understand the frequency of Sly reviews.
So after the somewhat underwhelming commercial success yet decent critical acclaim of Rocket Robot on Wheels, Sucker Punch went to Sony to pitch their next idea (who by the way turned Rocket down due to being on the N64, yeah you can tell they were a bit in-experienced from being a game studio made from the ground-up lol) for a new Stylish and unique Platformer exclusive to the PS2 unknowingly adding to the holy Triforce of PS2 Platformers (Not really true to me as i don't really like Jak), despite looking and sounding a bit rough of the edges, the game did pretty well critically but compared to the other two it didn't sell well initially but after a few years, the game did manage to sell over 1 Million Units so that's pretty cool, But the game itself?
Well, this game is probably my favourite in the series despite being a lot more simple & jankier compared to the other games. The gameplay is a lot like Crash Bandicoot, but manages to be a lot better than the series in my opinion, barring Crash 4 (Yes I'm one of those people). This is mainly due to Sly’s pretty smooth Controls, how you approach some enemies in the game, The more robust Hub-Worlds, the strong, challenging yet fair level design which throws a lot of varied gimmicks at you that make you really feel like a thief, including using barrels, slowing down time, using Sly’s caine to hang onto certain objects, using Sly’s acrobatic nature to go on ledges, tightrope and more. I feel some levels are too short but on the whole Platforming wise Sly is pretty cool at that but having a limited amount of health and game-overs like Crash make it a bit outdated. 100% each stage is a bit of a mixed bag, getting Clue Bottles are fun but rewards are a mixed bag tbh, some like the rolling are pretty cool but others like the coin magnet don’t change much to me. Time Trials can be fun, making you master a stage but some of these can be really unfairly strict and the rewards are mixed, given how they give us some dev commentary, while some are pretty insightful how the game was made (and them hating the prototype builds) some of them feel so incredibly forced and you wonder what the point was. But these are just half of the game, the other half are minigames and these aren’t very good, they don’t become terrible but I wish they had more thought put into them, The turret stages are fine i guess, (Though you can kill Murray though so that’s pretty cool) but vehicles control and feel really loose and adding shooting controls make it feel really mindless and boring , but the hacking minigame in the end are probably the best out of them all, though they aren’t the crux if the game they’re still a pretty major part in the game and is in my opinion the only big detriment to the game, but that being said the last stage of the game is just comprised of the insanely mediocre minigames and only a sparse and infrequent amount of what is admitally pretty good and challenging platforming. The Bosses are also a bit too easy, the final boss despite introducing an irrelevant gimmick is pretty fun but the rest of them once you get down their pattern is pretty weak especially with their build-up (also shouts out to the PS3 Version having a gimped rhythm game)
One thing that i absolutely love is the presentation, the devs use this really fun buzz-word called “Toon-Shading” and it really makes the game look unique and stylised, making it somewhat timeless to me even with the 60fps bump from the PS3 and the lack of the crazy amount of motion-blur in the original, nonetheless the music is real strong, not amazing but give a great feeling of being a sneaky thief, the animated cutscenes look pretty nice despite being overshadowed by Sly 2’s and 3’s versions, Character animations are a bit primitive with their puppet mouths but charming to say the least and the Voice-Acting is mixed to say the least, nothing terrible, characters sometimes overact and are too wooden but when it’s good, they’re a good mostly it’s Sly himself but I do like Gay Murray, but aside from R&C this is probably the best game with Voice-Acting from this era i’ve played so far.
But I’ve basically avoided this enough, the story, It’s pretty great, like all good stories, the main character has a drive and reason to do the things they wants, Sly (despite being a thief) is an incredibly likeable protagonist, who might have the Ratchet issue of being too much of dick but it’s not as bad imo since it’s shown multiple times Sly cares for his friends despite being a bit dickish to them and he’s just the type of character i like in media, the chill, calm collected one who can have a laugh but knows when to get serious (this will be important later on), i feel like when he confronts the Panda King is a stand out moment as he puts his personal goals aside and decides to take down the bigger bad guy which is carried on till the end of the game, It’s incredibly rewarding getting all the pages for his family/carrying out his revenge after he’s witnessed the death of his family and was binded to an orphanage where he meet his 2 best friends, the relationship & chemistry between Carmelita (Who is also a good character don't have much to say about her) and Sly is written incredibly well as it’s so obvious that they like each other but can’t be together. However, i feel as if the Cooper gang and the villains while good are a bit too onenote, Murray doesn’t do much aside get them into trouble and drive the van, Bentely (despite getting some either intended or unintended laughs at me) just stays in the Van and is a tutorial guide and the Villains while have amazing yet somewhat repetitive backstories don’t make to much of an impression once you get to them aside from the Panda King despite their best efforts to have all sorts of stuff you see them do to the environment, however it’s all elevated by the interactions with Sly despite their onenote nature, it’s just incredibly fun and empowering seeing him interact with his childhood enemies, either taking them as a complete joke or pretty seriously later down the line, Clockwerk’s twist is a bit cartoonishly leftfield and he really needed more time to shine in the game but overall the story in this game while simple and somewhat a bit too onenote is great due to the strong protagonist & globe-trotting vibe.
So overall, Sly 1 is a simple yet incredibly fun and solid start to the trilogy, it’s more simple scope makes it fun to play it’s levels despite obviously taking a lot from Crash but makes it unique due to being a thief and having his cane, the game is a bit too short and i wish the minigames were either toned down, improved or completely removed but it can’t take away from what is an amazing game.
Next time, I’ll be taking a look at Sly 2. It'll be a bit before i do as i’m preparing for a trip, but when i do prepare for some sheer unadulterated blind love.
So after the somewhat underwhelming commercial success yet decent critical acclaim of Rocket Robot on Wheels, Sucker Punch went to Sony to pitch their next idea (who by the way turned Rocket down due to being on the N64, yeah you can tell they were a bit in-experienced from being a game studio made from the ground-up lol) for a new Stylish and unique Platformer exclusive to the PS2 unknowingly adding to the holy Triforce of PS2 Platformers (Not really true to me as i don't really like Jak), despite looking and sounding a bit rough of the edges, the game did pretty well critically but compared to the other two it didn't sell well initially but after a few years, the game did manage to sell over 1 Million Units so that's pretty cool, But the game itself?
Well, this game is probably my favourite in the series despite being a lot more simple & jankier compared to the other games. The gameplay is a lot like Crash Bandicoot, but manages to be a lot better than the series in my opinion, barring Crash 4 (Yes I'm one of those people). This is mainly due to Sly’s pretty smooth Controls, how you approach some enemies in the game, The more robust Hub-Worlds, the strong, challenging yet fair level design which throws a lot of varied gimmicks at you that make you really feel like a thief, including using barrels, slowing down time, using Sly’s caine to hang onto certain objects, using Sly’s acrobatic nature to go on ledges, tightrope and more. I feel some levels are too short but on the whole Platforming wise Sly is pretty cool at that but having a limited amount of health and game-overs like Crash make it a bit outdated. 100% each stage is a bit of a mixed bag, getting Clue Bottles are fun but rewards are a mixed bag tbh, some like the rolling are pretty cool but others like the coin magnet don’t change much to me. Time Trials can be fun, making you master a stage but some of these can be really unfairly strict and the rewards are mixed, given how they give us some dev commentary, while some are pretty insightful how the game was made (and them hating the prototype builds) some of them feel so incredibly forced and you wonder what the point was. But these are just half of the game, the other half are minigames and these aren’t very good, they don’t become terrible but I wish they had more thought put into them, The turret stages are fine i guess, (Though you can kill Murray though so that’s pretty cool) but vehicles control and feel really loose and adding shooting controls make it feel really mindless and boring , but the hacking minigame in the end are probably the best out of them all, though they aren’t the crux if the game they’re still a pretty major part in the game and is in my opinion the only big detriment to the game, but that being said the last stage of the game is just comprised of the insanely mediocre minigames and only a sparse and infrequent amount of what is admitally pretty good and challenging platforming. The Bosses are also a bit too easy, the final boss despite introducing an irrelevant gimmick is pretty fun but the rest of them once you get down their pattern is pretty weak especially with their build-up (also shouts out to the PS3 Version having a gimped rhythm game)
One thing that i absolutely love is the presentation, the devs use this really fun buzz-word called “Toon-Shading” and it really makes the game look unique and stylised, making it somewhat timeless to me even with the 60fps bump from the PS3 and the lack of the crazy amount of motion-blur in the original, nonetheless the music is real strong, not amazing but give a great feeling of being a sneaky thief, the animated cutscenes look pretty nice despite being overshadowed by Sly 2’s and 3’s versions, Character animations are a bit primitive with their puppet mouths but charming to say the least and the Voice-Acting is mixed to say the least, nothing terrible, characters sometimes overact and are too wooden but when it’s good, they’re a good mostly it’s Sly himself but I do like Gay Murray, but aside from R&C this is probably the best game with Voice-Acting from this era i’ve played so far.
But I’ve basically avoided this enough, the story, It’s pretty great, like all good stories, the main character has a drive and reason to do the things they wants, Sly (despite being a thief) is an incredibly likeable protagonist, who might have the Ratchet issue of being too much of dick but it’s not as bad imo since it’s shown multiple times Sly cares for his friends despite being a bit dickish to them and he’s just the type of character i like in media, the chill, calm collected one who can have a laugh but knows when to get serious (this will be important later on), i feel like when he confronts the Panda King is a stand out moment as he puts his personal goals aside and decides to take down the bigger bad guy which is carried on till the end of the game, It’s incredibly rewarding getting all the pages for his family/carrying out his revenge after he’s witnessed the death of his family and was binded to an orphanage where he meet his 2 best friends, the relationship & chemistry between Carmelita (Who is also a good character don't have much to say about her) and Sly is written incredibly well as it’s so obvious that they like each other but can’t be together. However, i feel as if the Cooper gang and the villains while good are a bit too onenote, Murray doesn’t do much aside get them into trouble and drive the van, Bentely (despite getting some either intended or unintended laughs at me) just stays in the Van and is a tutorial guide and the Villains while have amazing yet somewhat repetitive backstories don’t make to much of an impression once you get to them aside from the Panda King despite their best efforts to have all sorts of stuff you see them do to the environment, however it’s all elevated by the interactions with Sly despite their onenote nature, it’s just incredibly fun and empowering seeing him interact with his childhood enemies, either taking them as a complete joke or pretty seriously later down the line, Clockwerk’s twist is a bit cartoonishly leftfield and he really needed more time to shine in the game but overall the story in this game while simple and somewhat a bit too onenote is great due to the strong protagonist & globe-trotting vibe.
So overall, Sly 1 is a simple yet incredibly fun and solid start to the trilogy, it’s more simple scope makes it fun to play it’s levels despite obviously taking a lot from Crash but makes it unique due to being a thief and having his cane, the game is a bit too short and i wish the minigames were either toned down, improved or completely removed but it can’t take away from what is an amazing game.
Next time, I’ll be taking a look at Sly 2. It'll be a bit before i do as i’m preparing for a trip, but when i do prepare for some sheer unadulterated blind love.
2022
Would be a decent collection with some fun and challenging missions (Though there isn't many) with a cool new story mode and 16:9 but is ruined by lacklustre and short cutscenes though are animated well, Dumb and unesscessary DLC that makes no senese from a business standpoint, poor optimization due to denevo, weaker prototype music, some sprite bugs being unaddressed, game looking blurred and lack of any real customizability, at least the bonus content is decent.
Still if you just want the missions and maybe the story mode wait for a discount, there's many better ways to play the classics thanks too fans and sega delisting them is stupid too.
Still if you just want the missions and maybe the story mode wait for a discount, there's many better ways to play the classics thanks too fans and sega delisting them is stupid too.
1991
Ah Sonic The Hedgehog, it's a series that needs no introduction, or does it? Its a series that while incredibly, and i mean incredibly flawed holds a near and dear place in my heart and in spite the series glaring flaws i keep coming back to it, so in prepartion of Sonic's new Open Zone foray into next generation consoles let's take run down memory lane to Sonic's Origins, oh yeah i was originally planning on this to be my 50th review but i felt my other reviews of the games i was doing wasn't really going anywhere so fuck it, we're doing it now, so, order a Chili Dog, Scrape your Knuckles and grab some tails as we dive into the world of Sonic The Hedgehog
It's no secret that Sega is a very flawed company, more than most, the master system was a big ol flop due to the mascot (Alex Kid) just not gelling well with people and so Sonic The Hedgehog was born! Except not really, you see the tean wanted to make a Protagonist that was both really fast, appealed to a newer generation while still respecting that more Mickey Mouse kinda design philosophy, many character designs were created that would be later brought back into the series, such as Teddy Roosevelt in PJs being the main base of Dr Robotnik, Feels the Rabbit and an unnamed armadilo protype designs for Sonic possibly being the main base for Cream the Rabbit and Mighty the Armadilo, A Band that included a Crocdile which became Vector with the Band concept being reused for Sonic Underground and lastly, Sonic's human girlfriend, Madonna who may have been reused as concept for 06 (?). Whatever it is to me its so incredibly fascinating that these early concepts all came back one way or another and these concepts in general just being a thing, but whatever the point is Sega had many ideas for what the next mascot here, that a competition was held to see which design was best fit, After a close bout between Feels the rabbit and Sonic the hedgehog, Sonic obviously won. Sonic was the perfect thing Sega was looking for, someone with attuide, an edge, his speed all of that could act as suffient rival to Mario, in second place was Teddy Roosevelt in PJs who manifested into the iconic villain we know today, Dr Robotnik in American or Dr Eggman in Japan which was later adopted to his nickname worldwide. The man who created Sonic's design, Naoto Oshima worked closely along with Phatasy Star dev Yuji Naka (who had a concept for a fast character from speedrunning Super Mario Bros 1) to fully develop Sonic 1 along with a small team of devs, despite how much i made fun of him in the Balan Review and his wild ass ramblings on the Toxic Bird App, i can't deny he had a big handing into making Sonic 1 into the game it is today, that being said one of the biggest factors that really made Sonic 1 so iconic was it's marketing push, being a pack in title for the Genesis it was bound to do well but i don't think they realised how well Sonic 1 would do, that attuide and design along with that bright green background must of caught so many childrens eyes back then, course for the parents it was the price but probably seeing that design must have memorizing to say the least, of course for some reason Sega felt the need to very slightly and i mean slightly redesign Sonic for the American regions, having an disney artist, Greg Martin comprise the art for all American Sonic Media, including the basis for all 3 sonic cartoons. I love this art even though it kinda sucks, like the Japan stuff still looks cool but the American art just envokes a great sense of nostalgia and warmth to me unlike the Japan art despite me not being born at the time, might be bias due to AOSTH being my favourite series of all time? (Even though it really sucks) Sure maybe it's that but i always feel the Japanese design doesn't evoke that same edge as well as the American design while still keeping that cutesy Mickey Mouse design, again both look great just i personally prefer Greg Martin's take. But anyway, the length preamble aside Sonic 1 was a critical and commercial sucess but does it hold up today? Look no 2000s edgecore Youtuber broad statments, yeah Sonic 1 is pretty good while the cracka do show at points i can't deny that i just had some unadulterated fun with this game.
Getting to the game itself, it tells a simple story of nature vs industrialization or what it means to have power, does one use it for the greater good? Or nefarious deeds (or whatever the fuck the American Sonic Bible was), it follows a free spirted teenager named Sonic The Hedgehog, originating from Christmas Island but left due to his love for Adventure, as he battles for the first time the evil Dr Robotnik as the race through South Island to find all 6 Chaos Emeralds, Sonic has the incredible power of going extremely and cartoonishly fast, using his powers for good while Robotnik is incredibly smart with an IQ of 300 but decides to use his power for evil and destruction by capturing the inhabitants of the Island and turning them into robots, only amplfied by his want for the Chaos Emeralds. Again a simple story but it's effective with a strong but simple ending, depsite there being no game reward with getting all the emeralds, i still do because i like the ending, Sonic doesn't get any grand power but only has flowers blooming around, fully affirming that Robotniks gone for good (for now).
Gameplay wise, Sonic 1 is a simple 2D Platformer, you collect Rings as health or as extra lives which act as a 2 hit mechanism, one hit you lose all of them and then the next hit you're dead unless you collect more rings, it's a unique formula that works in the game favour as it can act as risk reward system, damage boost when hit to go as fast as possible or collect enough rings so you can be as safe as possible. Enemies or "Badniks" take one hit but there's a good amount of variety and strategy to them about the way you approach them, Sonic 1 also has a few power ups that spruce up the Gameplay such as a Shield which acts as an additonally with no extra ring costs, speed shoes which increase Sonic's acceleration and speed and finally, the invincibility which makes Sonic invulnerable for a short period. It feels like everything in Sonic 1 personifies more than anything, a sense of flow, while speed is important having this sense of flow or kinetic energy feela good to pull off, though playing this game without the Spin Dash added in later ports (which gives you a big burst of speed) and lack of speed cap does feel clunky at that since it feels so made with it in mind.
Of course, having a flow wouldn't be any good if the Zones were fun and, uh they kinda are? Easily the most contentious atturbute to Sonic 1 is it's levels with 3 acts, most people would say play Green Hill then skip to Sonic 2 but i don't know i had a lot lf fun with most of these stages:
-Green Hill is just amazing, keeps the flow and speed going while also providing multiple routes
-Marble Zone is good! It's not as good as Green Hill but i find it's design while slower to be fun, Act 3 can be pretty frustating though, especially at the end when you can lose all your progress with one misjump at the end
-Spring Yard Zone is a bit of a mixed bag though still fun overall, it keeps the speed and the flow of Green Hill intact, and using momentum to roll around the stage is pretty fun but the slower sections with spikes and the moving blocks do get a bit tedious at times
-Labyrinth Zone... Yeah no can't really defend this one it sucks balls, it's way too slow, hate how they discarded the suba mask (An item that would have helped in underwater) for the bubbles, while it keeps the anxiety and pace going, adding that risk reward setting of getting bubbles to stay safe or rush ahead, the water physics being way too slow dampers this zone, especially in later acts
-Starlight Zone is alright, a cool city area with some annoying fans and walking bombs but sorta forgettable, it's probably the most well designed stage since Green Hill but feels pretty forgettable all things considered
-Scrap Brain Zone is easily the worst zone in the game, hellish and unfair enemy placements, straight up cat mario esuqe traps and level design plus Labyrinth Zone Act 4! Wow game i really wanted more of Labyrinth Zone
So depsite 2 stinkers, i still think Sonic 1's Zones are fun though they aren't the biggest issues with the game, the bosses are either way to easy with simple patterns to read (Green Hill, Marble Zone, Spring Yard and the Final Boss) or are unfeasibly unfair like Labyrinth Zone with it's chase sequence or Starlight Zone with those seesaws. I also feel the Special Stages aren't very fun getting to them is pretty easy though there did needed to be a chance to get them in Act 3 and Scrap Brain but visually they look great and weird but gameplay wise they rely to much on luck/RNG to be considered fun. But depsite my issues i still i had a lot fun with the moment to moment Gameplay, most other zones, it sorta feels like some zones were easily better designed than others while some were just straight up unfair.
But putting aside the issues that the biggest plus with Sonic 1 is the presentation, it's absolutely steller, they collaborated with the band Dreams come true to deliver a great and unforgettable soundtrack, environments look colourful and brimming with life, Green Hill has cemented it's name in history because of it's great music and unique albeit overused visuals, Sonic 1 unlike most Sonic games, feels like you're going on a seriouziled adventure as you see the world naturally turn more artificial, from the lush plains of Grewn Hill to the sacred ruins of Marble Zone, to the Las Vegas esque omnious city of Spring Yard Zone to the other sacres ruins of Labyrinth Zone (in my opinion they should put it after Marble Zone but okay) to the city ruled by night in Starlight Zone then to finally, Robotniks domain that is completely artificial and mechanized named Scrap Brain Zone. It shows the Genesis strengths as a 16-bit console in terms of music and graphical fediality that still somewhat holds up today.
Overall, i kinda feel Sonic 1 gets a lot of uneeded flac, there’s some issues sure but i feel like the Classic era more than anything had such a clear identity and personality of what it wanted to be, while Sonic 1 is certainly more subdued and diled back than it's sequels, its still a game that gets better and better as a i replay it and has aged very well and i urge you should play it since in my opinion, it definitely gets better as you replay it (though play any version with Spin Dash, Super Sonic Multiple playable characters and Elemental Shields), while it hasn't aged like fine wine or like bad milk, sorta like the crisps you've had for 2 years, doesn't have the greastest taste and might give you a bit of a stomach ache but it tastes good nonetheless, plus the other brands that the crisps have made have infinitly improved on them in every way.
It's no secret that Sega is a very flawed company, more than most, the master system was a big ol flop due to the mascot (Alex Kid) just not gelling well with people and so Sonic The Hedgehog was born! Except not really, you see the tean wanted to make a Protagonist that was both really fast, appealed to a newer generation while still respecting that more Mickey Mouse kinda design philosophy, many character designs were created that would be later brought back into the series, such as Teddy Roosevelt in PJs being the main base of Dr Robotnik, Feels the Rabbit and an unnamed armadilo protype designs for Sonic possibly being the main base for Cream the Rabbit and Mighty the Armadilo, A Band that included a Crocdile which became Vector with the Band concept being reused for Sonic Underground and lastly, Sonic's human girlfriend, Madonna who may have been reused as concept for 06 (?). Whatever it is to me its so incredibly fascinating that these early concepts all came back one way or another and these concepts in general just being a thing, but whatever the point is Sega had many ideas for what the next mascot here, that a competition was held to see which design was best fit, After a close bout between Feels the rabbit and Sonic the hedgehog, Sonic obviously won. Sonic was the perfect thing Sega was looking for, someone with attuide, an edge, his speed all of that could act as suffient rival to Mario, in second place was Teddy Roosevelt in PJs who manifested into the iconic villain we know today, Dr Robotnik in American or Dr Eggman in Japan which was later adopted to his nickname worldwide. The man who created Sonic's design, Naoto Oshima worked closely along with Phatasy Star dev Yuji Naka (who had a concept for a fast character from speedrunning Super Mario Bros 1) to fully develop Sonic 1 along with a small team of devs, despite how much i made fun of him in the Balan Review and his wild ass ramblings on the Toxic Bird App, i can't deny he had a big handing into making Sonic 1 into the game it is today, that being said one of the biggest factors that really made Sonic 1 so iconic was it's marketing push, being a pack in title for the Genesis it was bound to do well but i don't think they realised how well Sonic 1 would do, that attuide and design along with that bright green background must of caught so many childrens eyes back then, course for the parents it was the price but probably seeing that design must have memorizing to say the least, of course for some reason Sega felt the need to very slightly and i mean slightly redesign Sonic for the American regions, having an disney artist, Greg Martin comprise the art for all American Sonic Media, including the basis for all 3 sonic cartoons. I love this art even though it kinda sucks, like the Japan stuff still looks cool but the American art just envokes a great sense of nostalgia and warmth to me unlike the Japan art despite me not being born at the time, might be bias due to AOSTH being my favourite series of all time? (Even though it really sucks) Sure maybe it's that but i always feel the Japanese design doesn't evoke that same edge as well as the American design while still keeping that cutesy Mickey Mouse design, again both look great just i personally prefer Greg Martin's take. But anyway, the length preamble aside Sonic 1 was a critical and commercial sucess but does it hold up today? Look no 2000s edgecore Youtuber broad statments, yeah Sonic 1 is pretty good while the cracka do show at points i can't deny that i just had some unadulterated fun with this game.
Getting to the game itself, it tells a simple story of nature vs industrialization or what it means to have power, does one use it for the greater good? Or nefarious deeds (or whatever the fuck the American Sonic Bible was), it follows a free spirted teenager named Sonic The Hedgehog, originating from Christmas Island but left due to his love for Adventure, as he battles for the first time the evil Dr Robotnik as the race through South Island to find all 6 Chaos Emeralds, Sonic has the incredible power of going extremely and cartoonishly fast, using his powers for good while Robotnik is incredibly smart with an IQ of 300 but decides to use his power for evil and destruction by capturing the inhabitants of the Island and turning them into robots, only amplfied by his want for the Chaos Emeralds. Again a simple story but it's effective with a strong but simple ending, depsite there being no game reward with getting all the emeralds, i still do because i like the ending, Sonic doesn't get any grand power but only has flowers blooming around, fully affirming that Robotniks gone for good (for now).
Gameplay wise, Sonic 1 is a simple 2D Platformer, you collect Rings as health or as extra lives which act as a 2 hit mechanism, one hit you lose all of them and then the next hit you're dead unless you collect more rings, it's a unique formula that works in the game favour as it can act as risk reward system, damage boost when hit to go as fast as possible or collect enough rings so you can be as safe as possible. Enemies or "Badniks" take one hit but there's a good amount of variety and strategy to them about the way you approach them, Sonic 1 also has a few power ups that spruce up the Gameplay such as a Shield which acts as an additonally with no extra ring costs, speed shoes which increase Sonic's acceleration and speed and finally, the invincibility which makes Sonic invulnerable for a short period. It feels like everything in Sonic 1 personifies more than anything, a sense of flow, while speed is important having this sense of flow or kinetic energy feela good to pull off, though playing this game without the Spin Dash added in later ports (which gives you a big burst of speed) and lack of speed cap does feel clunky at that since it feels so made with it in mind.
Of course, having a flow wouldn't be any good if the Zones were fun and, uh they kinda are? Easily the most contentious atturbute to Sonic 1 is it's levels with 3 acts, most people would say play Green Hill then skip to Sonic 2 but i don't know i had a lot lf fun with most of these stages:
-Green Hill is just amazing, keeps the flow and speed going while also providing multiple routes
-Marble Zone is good! It's not as good as Green Hill but i find it's design while slower to be fun, Act 3 can be pretty frustating though, especially at the end when you can lose all your progress with one misjump at the end
-Spring Yard Zone is a bit of a mixed bag though still fun overall, it keeps the speed and the flow of Green Hill intact, and using momentum to roll around the stage is pretty fun but the slower sections with spikes and the moving blocks do get a bit tedious at times
-Labyrinth Zone... Yeah no can't really defend this one it sucks balls, it's way too slow, hate how they discarded the suba mask (An item that would have helped in underwater) for the bubbles, while it keeps the anxiety and pace going, adding that risk reward setting of getting bubbles to stay safe or rush ahead, the water physics being way too slow dampers this zone, especially in later acts
-Starlight Zone is alright, a cool city area with some annoying fans and walking bombs but sorta forgettable, it's probably the most well designed stage since Green Hill but feels pretty forgettable all things considered
-Scrap Brain Zone is easily the worst zone in the game, hellish and unfair enemy placements, straight up cat mario esuqe traps and level design plus Labyrinth Zone Act 4! Wow game i really wanted more of Labyrinth Zone
So depsite 2 stinkers, i still think Sonic 1's Zones are fun though they aren't the biggest issues with the game, the bosses are either way to easy with simple patterns to read (Green Hill, Marble Zone, Spring Yard and the Final Boss) or are unfeasibly unfair like Labyrinth Zone with it's chase sequence or Starlight Zone with those seesaws. I also feel the Special Stages aren't very fun getting to them is pretty easy though there did needed to be a chance to get them in Act 3 and Scrap Brain but visually they look great and weird but gameplay wise they rely to much on luck/RNG to be considered fun. But depsite my issues i still i had a lot fun with the moment to moment Gameplay, most other zones, it sorta feels like some zones were easily better designed than others while some were just straight up unfair.
But putting aside the issues that the biggest plus with Sonic 1 is the presentation, it's absolutely steller, they collaborated with the band Dreams come true to deliver a great and unforgettable soundtrack, environments look colourful and brimming with life, Green Hill has cemented it's name in history because of it's great music and unique albeit overused visuals, Sonic 1 unlike most Sonic games, feels like you're going on a seriouziled adventure as you see the world naturally turn more artificial, from the lush plains of Grewn Hill to the sacred ruins of Marble Zone, to the Las Vegas esque omnious city of Spring Yard Zone to the other sacres ruins of Labyrinth Zone (in my opinion they should put it after Marble Zone but okay) to the city ruled by night in Starlight Zone then to finally, Robotniks domain that is completely artificial and mechanized named Scrap Brain Zone. It shows the Genesis strengths as a 16-bit console in terms of music and graphical fediality that still somewhat holds up today.
Overall, i kinda feel Sonic 1 gets a lot of uneeded flac, there’s some issues sure but i feel like the Classic era more than anything had such a clear identity and personality of what it wanted to be, while Sonic 1 is certainly more subdued and diled back than it's sequels, its still a game that gets better and better as a i replay it and has aged very well and i urge you should play it since in my opinion, it definitely gets better as you replay it (though play any version with Spin Dash, Super Sonic Multiple playable characters and Elemental Shields), while it hasn't aged like fine wine or like bad milk, sorta like the crisps you've had for 2 years, doesn't have the greastest taste and might give you a bit of a stomach ache but it tastes good nonetheless, plus the other brands that the crisps have made have infinitly improved on them in every way.
2005
November 15th 2005 must have been both weird, strange and terrible for both Pac-Man and Sonic Fans huh? 2 games that radically change up the tone and the gameplay of the series with very mixed results. (At least Rush was good).
Preamble: Originally never planning on covering this game but since i’m on a role with Sonic Games as of now, might as well do a bit more before Origins comes out.
Shadow The Hedgehog absolutely confuses me even though i’ve played like 4-5 Routes, it’s probably one of sonic’s worst outings yet I can’t help myself to laugh at it.
The story is one of the worst yet funniest Sonic stories ever made due to the pretty weak script, Heroes dialogue in stages returning and the awfully directed 4Kids cast who debuted in this game, things such as “Disgusting Black creatures” and “That Damn fourth Chaos Emerald!” Is probably the most tryhard lines in a game i’ve seen, the concepts of this game are also pretty funny like how Shadow straight up kills Eggman & Sonic, his new back story with the aliens and due to how the morality system works, Shadow’s character is all over place, like Heroes wrapped up his arc and bringing him back so well even though it was so simple, though I would think staying dead would have been better though i’m not opposed to him coming back, it’s just so try hard and edgy.
Gameplay wise, this would probably a so bad it’s good game but it’s not, gunplay while absurd for the idea of Sonic characters welding realistic fire-arms is surprisingly decent and in-depth but feels a bit too mindless for my liking though is probably the best shooting gameplay in the series, The Level design while not up to the standards of the other 3D games are still fun but are ruined due to the horrid morality system involving you to kill ALL the enemies in the stage or some awkward mission goal as you can tell these stages weren't made to have all of it’s objects to be ravaged like this leading to when you have collected almost empty for stages being pretty empty and mindless, even doing these missions isn't fun and pretty boring, especially when your “allies” are barking orders at you (which by the way you can play as with 2P). But even then the games is killed by it’s horrid physics and this is coming from someone who loves Heroes. They feel way worse for some reason to me as the level design can't suit for the slippery controls as your doing these mundane tasks and not going fast. There’s also hand to hand combat which is laughable bad as it barely does any damage. But I think just getting the goal in Shadow (Mostly Neutral routes) can be fun enough though definitely weaker than most Sonic games.
And the Presentation of this game is awful, boring environments, same glossy models from Heroes look even worse and the music is really forgettable to me.
So uh overall this game would be a so bad it’s good kinda game but unfortunately it sucks.
Now uh I guess 06 is next lol.
Preamble: Originally never planning on covering this game but since i’m on a role with Sonic Games as of now, might as well do a bit more before Origins comes out.
Shadow The Hedgehog absolutely confuses me even though i’ve played like 4-5 Routes, it’s probably one of sonic’s worst outings yet I can’t help myself to laugh at it.
The story is one of the worst yet funniest Sonic stories ever made due to the pretty weak script, Heroes dialogue in stages returning and the awfully directed 4Kids cast who debuted in this game, things such as “Disgusting Black creatures” and “That Damn fourth Chaos Emerald!” Is probably the most tryhard lines in a game i’ve seen, the concepts of this game are also pretty funny like how Shadow straight up kills Eggman & Sonic, his new back story with the aliens and due to how the morality system works, Shadow’s character is all over place, like Heroes wrapped up his arc and bringing him back so well even though it was so simple, though I would think staying dead would have been better though i’m not opposed to him coming back, it’s just so try hard and edgy.
Gameplay wise, this would probably a so bad it’s good game but it’s not, gunplay while absurd for the idea of Sonic characters welding realistic fire-arms is surprisingly decent and in-depth but feels a bit too mindless for my liking though is probably the best shooting gameplay in the series, The Level design while not up to the standards of the other 3D games are still fun but are ruined due to the horrid morality system involving you to kill ALL the enemies in the stage or some awkward mission goal as you can tell these stages weren't made to have all of it’s objects to be ravaged like this leading to when you have collected almost empty for stages being pretty empty and mindless, even doing these missions isn't fun and pretty boring, especially when your “allies” are barking orders at you (which by the way you can play as with 2P). But even then the games is killed by it’s horrid physics and this is coming from someone who loves Heroes. They feel way worse for some reason to me as the level design can't suit for the slippery controls as your doing these mundane tasks and not going fast. There’s also hand to hand combat which is laughable bad as it barely does any damage. But I think just getting the goal in Shadow (Mostly Neutral routes) can be fun enough though definitely weaker than most Sonic games.
And the Presentation of this game is awful, boring environments, same glossy models from Heroes look even worse and the music is really forgettable to me.
So uh overall this game would be a so bad it’s good kinda game but unfortunately it sucks.
Now uh I guess 06 is next lol.