I know P1 is not exactly the poster child of the series, especially with its outdated gameplay mechanics and that nightmarish encounter rate that feels like it's out to get you. But there's still something special about this game that often gets overlooked.

First off, let's address the absolute worst aspect of the game: the encounter rate. God, whoever thought it was a good idea must have had a sadistic streak. But once you get past that initial frustration and manage to keep your sanity in check, there's a lot to love here.

The vibe and atmosphere of P1 are immaculate with its gritty urban setting and eerie supernatural elements. It's a far cry from the flashy, modern aesthetics of later entries, but that's really part of its charm and just hits all the right spots for me. The main characters in the game are excellent. There may not be much in the way of more drawn-out interactions, but the characters in the context of the plot are awesome and their dialogue in the overworld gives a lot of extra nice bits of characterization. It's also refreshing to play a Persona game without the overly bloated and drawn-out plotlines that can bog down the newer titles. P1 knows what themes it's going for and does what it sets out to do, and for that alone, I really liked it.

The soundtrack of the PSP version is honestly great. I know a lot of people say that the original PS1 version is better but I have to disagree as I've found myself listening to certain PSP songs on repeat a lot. I feel certain ones are among the best in the series as a whole. A lone prayer is a bop.

Now, P1 definitely isn't without its flaws. The encounter rate alone drove me insane and almost made me quit right at the beginning, and the dated gameplay is definitely frustrating at times, but it was still worth trudging through.

As someone who is really tired of the "modern" and overused anime tropes, as well as the sometimes regressive writing in certain aspects that are present in newer titles, I think P1 was a breath of fresh air and has made me excited to try the P2 Duology.

“An adventure unfolds, a new beginning…”

I think a year or so ago I wanted to try to get into the Mana series but just never did. When Visions of Mana was announced, it brought some interest in me to give the series another chance. Look I’m not gonna guarantee anything but I might play that game whenever it comes out. I wanted to at least try to play most of what the series had to offer. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on the first game.

So I’ll be honest I’m not really that knowledgeable on this series besides the fact they exist. This was the only one I had put a decent amount of time and thought into the past but never got past I think when you get the Chocobo. Final Fantasy Adventure reminds me of the Zelda series with the top down weapon based combat seen here. Though unlike Zelda, this one puts in some of the RPG elements you’d see in a game like Final Fantasy. I’m not sure if this is the case for later games but was surprised to see so much of the series still showing up here like many of the classes. I would later learn that the Japanese title was called Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. So even over there it was seen as a FF spinoff. It made stuff like the sprite art look familiar even if I have never beaten an FF game in my life.

The progression in FFA was a nice surprise. Was expecting just some generic story but what is here is kind of touching and shows that not all stories can have happy endings for everyone. I think this was already a thing in FF games but I’m unsure. The game stars a slave to the Dark Lord that you can name whoever you want but since he ain’t a girl, I’ll just use the canon name Sumo. He swears to avenge the Dark Lord after he kills his best friend. There’s actually a decent amount of losses like Amanda becoming a Medusa and dying by the hands of Sumo with him having to get her tear afterwards to lift the curse of her brother Lester. The most tragic one for me had to be with Marcie where he says he’ll jump after throwing you to the other side only to realize he lied and went down with the sinking tower knowing he had to stay, I miss him. You can also name a girl but I also just went with the canon name being Fuji. I think her moment in the end is sad but I do feel like most of her time is just getting kidnapped now I think about it. I also really liked the part where Sumo didn’t want to be a Gemma knight anymore because he saw himself as a failure, while it’s not much there are moments I enjoy seeing his dialogue and I’m glad he has his moments of weakness. It’s hard to say much for the world itself as towns are small and almost no one is out in the overworld but what is here outside of that did get some feelings from me so I think it deserves a gold star for that.

The gameplay is the part where it shines the most for me because you can get all these cool weapons and spells to use. It’s not just a sword like the one you start off with. You get other weapons like an ax, chain, morning star, lance, and a sickle. Some have uses outside of combat like destroying some type of obstacle. They also have their uses in combat and swords & lances even use elements in combat. Even doing attacks is interesting thanks to the bar that fills up letting you do more damage as it fills up. Once you level up a bunch, it goes up really fast and when it’s fully charged, you can do a special move with it. I think my favorite weapon was the morning star as it had good range and power and it makes the mattock item irrelevant.

The magic is cool but it was never something I used a ton besides for cure. A lot of it is just too situational and I really only felt like using it since I knew I wouldn’t be running out of MP anytime soon. I should let you know that be careful when using Heal because if you use it, your defense bugs out and will be 0 until you pause. I also wish magic was more useful on bosses because most of them seemed immune to whatever I threw at them. Some enemies can also inflict statuses onto you and at worse they just feel like minor annoyances. I also felt items were very situational but maybe I was just playing too well to need them because I felt like I had a full bag for 90% of the game. This also meant I always had a ton of gold because the only expensive things are equipment and weapons and I always had enough of them.

Exploring the overworld is interesting to me because at first it’s pretty linear but by the time your chocobo gets the ability to run on water, you have a whole small world to explore and it can feel easy to lose yourself in but thankfully the areas you need to go to aren’t far off. That said however nothing in the world really screams landmarks outside of the tiles depicting what location you’re in like a desert of a snowy mountain. It can make the world feel very samey but it never really bothers me because I just like moving around hitting bad guys. There’s thankfully not many moments of needing help from a guide. There was one part I got really stuck at because the hint about palm trees and 8 make no sense to me though maybe I’m just stupid. The localization at times feels a bit rough and even left some stuff out from the Japanese version but it’s far from the worst. It should be noted that a fan translation of the Japanese version does exist if you wish to play that for a more accurate script.

There’s so many dungeons in this game that they all kind of blend in my mind as I’m writing this. None of them are really too hard, thankfully but one regret I have when playing them was not exploring them enough, I think I missed some weapons and equipment because of it. I don’t know why but it just never got old for me just exploring them and they never got frustrating, the only thing I don’t like about them is the overuse of ice magic puzzles. The bosses in these are also fine but none of them can inflict statuses on you and a lot of the patterns again blend in after a while. I swear a lot of them move in the same way. They do look pretty big and threatening but only a couple gave me much issue.

One story I have about my playthrough was how I almost had a dead save in the final dungeon. So, I made two saves, one before entering and one during the exploration. It was going fine until I accidently overwrote the one before the dungeon and then I realized I only had 3 keys. You can’t leave this area either, at least I wasn’t able to figure out how. I also couldn’t find any enemies that dropped keys. I’m sure there is some solution if you run out but I was very thankful I had just enough. Getting to Julius and facing him felt satisfying and was a good challenge and the story stuff at the end is pretty sad to think about but hey at least we get to see our chocobo be happy with another one before we leave to protect Fuji, forever…or at least until Sumo dies. Kind of screwed up to think once that Mana Tree dies, humanity is doomed.

The game does look nice graphically and it’s about what you’d expect from the genre at the time which isn’t a bad thing. Sprites look nice outside of the occasional ugly enemy, nice environments, it just works nicely. The music by Kenji Ito is amazing stuff. This has to be some of my favorite stuff on the system. Sadly there really aren't any good uploads of the OST on Youtube so I’ll refrain from sending many links of those but trust me when I say it’s great. The two overworld themes really give a great feel in my mind for the journey I’m going on. There’s some really nice sad and calming pieces in the game but my absolute favorite song has to be Courage and Pride from the Heart. The song plays for the Dark Lord and Julius phase 2 fights and my god it feels so perfect for the moment. Especially for the Dark Lord, a sword on sword action fight where you’re both moving around trying to get hits in, it’s perfect! Makes me wanna play more games with his music in them. This game even has the Chocobo theme! Everyone loves the Chocobo theme!!

I was very surprised with my final thoughts on the game. I thought it was pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, it has issues and I recognize that but I just had too much fun playing that game from beginning to end that the issues just don’t hurt the game enough for me. Final Fantasy Adventure is a very good action RPG for the Game Boy and it is a good start to this franchise. It has me very interested in the next game, Secret of Mana. If you can handle the issues with this game then it’s an easy recommendation. Maybe I’m going too nice on the game but when I beat the game I said “Well I thought it was really fun and that’s all that matters.” FFA is a game I’ll probably not replay in the near future but I’m satisfied with my finished playthrough of it! Not sure whenever I’ll get to Secret of Mana but expect that in the near future. Farewell for now.

There was this Japanese Sega Magazine that would talk about all of the Sega stuff including giving reviews or talking about upcoming games. One thing they did by the end of it's run when the Saturn was taking over there was a ranking list by readers for all of the Mega Drive games. One of the most interesting of them in the bottom 5 was Double Dragon II. I was like "What? Why is this here?" So I thought maybe I should see. Playing it now, I totally get what they mean.

So this seems to be a port of the Arcade game which I haven't played so I can't say how faithful it is. Let's start off with this, the game's music is actually not too bad. It could have been like the first DD game's Genesis OST where its atrocious. Not here though, which surprises me. Ok that's the only positive I have for this.

This game runs like garbage. It slows down all of the time and the scrolling is horrible. I honestly don't even know what's causing this slowdown. It even sometimes goes to normal speed for a second for no reason, is it just poor optimization? The hit detection seems off too but it's not the worst ever.

I don't really like the controls either, it just felt confusing to me. I'm sure I'd get use to it on an NES controller but it for some reason bothers me more on a Mega Drive controller. It doesn't help these problems also involve the jump kick and grabbing items as it only works with one button and depending on the direction as well.

The game only has four stages and it can also be pretty easy once you figure out what's good against the enemies. Was it only four stages in the arcade because wow that's short. There really is just nothing good here. Even the presentation is horrible.

Really I don't know why I expected something other than this, I already have never enjoyed the first game I tried for Arcade and Famicom so why I thought this would be a good idea is beyond me. Sure there's probably worse games on the console like Fantasia or Sword of Sodan but it's sad that this not only came out the way it did but it was even after Streets of Rage. Sure they were both being made at the same time but I expected better. I guess we should be glad this never got a western release.

For the past few months I’ve been thinking about giving the Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage series a good series of reviews for. It’s always been one on the bucket list of games I wanted to play all for especially since this review series will be pretty small. Only about 8 reviews this time around and there’s even gonna be a new game this year that I might get, it depends. Though with all that said, I should probably talk about the actual game.

In 1990, Capcom would port Final Fight to the Super Famicom. Despite the setbacks like the lack of co-op, the game was a hit for the system’s early days. Sega already had a beat 'em up series with the Golden Axe series (there also was Alien Storm) but it wasn’t enough. Thus, the Bare Knuckle series was born or Streets of Rage as it was called outside of Japan. I wouldn’t play this game till 2022. In that old review that’s gone now, I said “it might be better to just try 2 instead.” Was that really a fair statement? I decided to give it a more detailed look and see what Bare Knuckle: Ikari no Tekken gets right.

There isn’t much story in Bare Knuckle, it’s a simple text crawl telling you of this evil threat named Mr. X and it’s up to three Ex-cops named Axel Stone, Adam Hunter, and Blaze Fielding to put an end to Mr. X’s reign of the city.

This game will have you going through eight rounds in the city fighting enemies and bosses. It’s a beat em up so if you played one, you know how it should go. You have a punch, jump, and special button. Move variety is not the highest in this entry as you can also do jump kicks, a back attack, and three different types of throws and that’s about it. Even the special move is just a cutscene ala Golden Axe where you just watch every enemy die on screen. You only get one per life but there is an item to add one to the stock, you also get one after the end of the stage if you have zero.There’s a lot of terrain to break to find items too like healing ones, ones that give points, and even extra lives. There’s even offensive items you can find along with some enemies that carry them. There’s the short range but throwable knife, a bottle that you can hit with once and then becomes a stabbing weapon, a hard hitting bat and lead pipe, and finally a pepper shaker you can throw to stun an enemy. They add a little bit of variety but be careful as you’ll drop them if you get knocked to the floor though I do wish there was a way to remove an item from your hand.

As mentioned in the plot, there are three playable characters here. First is Axel Stone who has good attack and speed but has a lousy jump kick having the worst range. Second is Adam Hunter who is strong and has the best jump kick but is sadly the slowest of the bunch. Despite that, he’s still my favorite to play as. Lastly there is Blaze Fielding who is the fastest and has a good jump kick but is the weakest of the three. Some sites label her as the best character for beginnings so consider using her if you’re new to the game though it won’t really hurt who you choose to be honest. Sadly one issue this game has over Final Fight is the characters being very samey. While there are differences I could list like their punch combos having different animations but superficially it’s all pretty much the same and it really is just gonna end up being what of their small differences you prefer.

Enemy variety is quite small with only five different enemy types. There’s the standard mook called Garcia who will try to get up close and punch and some even use weapons so watch out for them! Y.Signal is a tricky one who will try to throw you or do slides which can help him dodge your punches. Here’s a tip for the throws, hold up and press attack & jump (though it might be just one of them) right before you land on the ground to land on your feet and take zero damage. Nora is a girl with a whip giving her long range but she even tries to be devious and fall to the ground looking defenseless but she’ll get back up and try attacking again. Try to use throws when she does that. Haku-Ou is a kung fu master who has a lot of speed and acrobatics so be wary of them especially in groups. Finally there is Jack who will juggle torches or axes to give him some protection and even use them as projectiles, he’s very tricky so don’t be too predictable with your movement. There is one trick I should tell you about. Using the first punch and not the full combo can keep enemies stunned and never be able to escape if you keep at it. You can also use this to get an easy throw after you hit them enough times. All enemy types are vulnerable to this strategy so try to use it when possible!

Despite the eight different rounds, you won’t experience too many differences between them outside of aesthetics for the most part. Though it’d be a disservice to the game to say there is none. Round 4 is a bridge area that has holes you can fall into losing a life instantly and they even put Y.Signals here to throw you into them but you can do the same to them which feels satisfying. Round 6 being a factory has machinery but it’s the same pressers that are easy to dodge even if the hitbox is very wack. Not even really all that fun to put an enemy into it to be honest. Round 7 is the usual beat ‘em up trope of the elevator section where you just ride up an elevator. At least you can back throw enemies out of the elevator but there’s not even a boss here so it’s a rather dull one. The final round features every boss you fought up to that point along with the biggest horror, moving carts! The horror! Oh you also can’t use your special in this stage so hope you didn’t rely on it too much for bosses.

Speaking of bosses, they are a mixed bag. I think when I first played the game I couldn’t stand them. I should note that I played the game three times on Normal difficulty so apologies if some strategies don’t work. This is also the only time you can see an enemy's life bar. The first boss is Antonio who can kick you and throw a big boomerang. My only advice is that throws can be pretty useful especially if he doesn’t use the kick. Also use your throw for i-frames if the boomerang is coming back. He only ever reappears in round 8. Souther can be a pain as he dodges jump attacks but you try to approach from above to get throws, he can be pretty easy to defeat. Though in round 6 you have to fight two of them so hope you kept at least one of your specials. Abadede is the easiest of the bosses for me, just use jump kicks and he’ll go down in no time. Bongo can hurt hard and be annoying but only when a mook is helping him. If he’s alone, just do the punch strat I mentioned before and he’ll go down easily. Just be careful to not do suplexes or back throws because you’ll get hurt instead. Then we have the annoying twins, ugh I hate them. They are not only lazy (they are Blaze Fielding recolors) but they just are hard to hit at the right time. For the one that walks up to you to throw, I just use back attacks and for the one using jump kicks, I just get up close trying to get a throw in. They are the worst boss in the game for me but at least you only rematch them one other time. Mr. X can also be a pain but it’s only really because of the fast mooks he has. Jump kicks are his worst enemy so try using those or throws if you can get away with them. Also do not say yes to his request unless you wanna redo round 6-8 again. Once he’s down, the game is over and the small credits roll.

I haven’t mentioned yet that there is co-op which is pretty cool but be warned it has friendly fire that can’t be turned off. Since I don’t really have friends (in person, not online), I can’t really show it off. I do wanna bring up a fun bad ending secret you can do in co-op. Remember that choice Mr. X can give? If you have one player say yes while the other refuses, the fight will go as normal but then you and your friend will face off similar to the final part of Double Dragon. I can’t remember if the one who says yes has to win but if they do, they’ll now be the new bad guy as the city is once again doomed to never be free from hell. It’s kind of funny though ngl.

This game looks amazing for a 1991 game. I love how it all takes place during the night, really showing the nice settings of this corrupted city. You got the bright neon lights of round 1 with the many cool looking buildings I wish I could go into. I love the beach setting with the moving empty cans in the sand, the rushing waves and even rain that sometimes shows up. The sea in round 5 also looks beautiful and one of my favorite areas in the game. Some of it just left me impressed for the time. Sprites also look pretty good too even if they lack stuff like facial features for stuff like the characters. The music done by Yuzo Koshiro is also legendary, easily some of the best on the system. I don’t think there’s a single bad song and there’s just beat after beat. I think my favorite has to be “Keep the Groovin’” The sound effects also sound good though I swear the eating sound is from Pac-Man, does anyone else think this?? The voice samples though are pretty bad and are the only blemish on a great presentation. If you play the Mega CD version, they did make them sound better but the rest of the game is pretty much the same though it does use the US name for the game for some unknown reason.

Playing this game multiple times has taught me a few things about the game and after getting better at it, I like the game. It’s not better than Arcade Final Fight 1 but it blows out the Super Famicom game. I’d even argue it’s better than Final Fight 2 but at least that has Maki who is still pretty sexy. Sorry Blaze but I’m more of a Maki fangirl. I like this game more than I did back in 2022 and reviews like this I feel help me appreciate the experience more. It is a flawed game and later entries would improve on what’s here but I think I was too harsh on it and I could see myself replaying this one maybe a year or two later. Sega did a good job introducing a new series and it’s a must play if you’re looking to play Mega Drive games. It’ll take a bit to learn the best strategies but once you figure it out, it’s a fun time. Next game will not actually be Bare Knuckle II but instead Bare Knuckle for the Game Gear and Streets of Rage for the Master System. I’ll see you then!

My first Mana game ended up being a lot more fun than I expected. The gameplay was so much fun, luckily hard mode wasn't extremely annoying like most are. My party consisted of Kevin, Riesz, and Hawkeye. At first, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy playing them but as they got more and more abilities and stat upgrades they become more fun. Though I did use Kevin the most.

The story isn't really much to write home about, so I won't bother. But I definitely enjoyed Kevin's side for than the others. Probably because I get to see more of the deep turmoil with him, his father, and Goremand. Kinda wish they allowed you to do the same with your party members but I guess they have to be my MC for that to be possible. But I just felt so blue balled after seeing Riesz's and Hawkeye's dialogue with Belladonna just for it to end on a nothing note.

The OST is great but isn't one I'd listen to a bunch. The voice acting is awful, straight up. I still found the dialogue to be endearing but not as enjoyable to listen to like Kingdom Hearts or Star Ocean. The lock on system is also trash like geez it's bad, honestly better to never use it.

Either way, I'm all on for the Mana series. I'll most likely play the first one next to see how the series was originally.

It's perplexing the standards that we set on certain games while we give lee way to others. If this was something Bethesda made, the glitches, frame rate issues, and general problems most people encounter with extended play or playing with friends would be considered endearing. Because the franchise itself is one of the biggest in the entire world, I understand there is a certain problem with them consistently feeling like they under perform. I am not trying to cast aside the problems of performance this game had at launch and further beyond it's extended life. I am however saying, it doesn't really effect your actual experience with the game.

Pokemon Scarlet is genuinely one of the best Pokemon games I have played, and I say that whole heartily. The story beats it sets are great, the amount of characters they introduce are interesting, the structure of how they set up each quest is more than we've ever really gotten. I can't express enough that what Pokemon Scarlet gave us is what I want them to improve on and give us more. Like I know this game was sold as THE open world pokemon game, but the actual meat and potatoes of this game is setting up your own adventure. You have 3 objectives for the main campaign, and each one has you interacting with different characters and giving you a different experience to go thru. Not only does this help shake up the monotonous gameplay that Pokemon has gone thru, but it also empathizes more places compared to just towns of the previous games in the series. The game makes me feel like I am actually on an adventure rather than knocking off places on a list. Despite how empty the overworld can be, the actual towns and characters feel alive. The biomes feel fresh and populated with pokemon, and often there is enough in any given area to make it feel like that's why a pokemon would live there. On top of that the music and sounds are all consistently in place and help build the atmosphere. While pokemon certainly hasn't had a lot of misses, Scarlet's soundtrack is absolutely brimming with a lot of quiet hits.

As much as I want to continue to praise Scarlet / Violet, particularly their efforts into making pokemon better in the competitive format, what we really need to discuss is the failings of Scarlet / Violet. As mentioned before the graphics of this game can get a bit wonky. The level scaling in this game is non-exist despite being open world. The uniform selection is absolutely abysmal compared to previous games. The game does have a problem with freezing if you played it for far too long, or will encounter more bugs the more you play it. Aside from a few set pieces, you really aren't allowed to go in anywhere aside the school and gyms. The game has noticeable frame rate drops when loading the map, or if it's loading too many things at once. And that's kind of the majority of problems Scarlet has. I'm not even saying that these aren't problems that pokemon needs to work with, absolutely they do, there really is little reason aside from time constraints that this stuff shoudn't have been fixed. Ya, a lot of this is cosmic too or only shows up briefly, but I can see how that would break immersion for a lot of people. Do i think these problems ruin the game? No, not really, especially if you plan for some of these before hand, but that's also the problem. Unless you know when going in, these types of problems would absolutely deter people from experiencing this game.


Bottomline, Scarlet is still a bit messy, but a lot of that mess can be ignored for the vast improvements they had with it's mechanics, campaign, and character writing. Story wise this is one of the strongest Pokemon games out there. Difficulty wise the game will at least keep you on your toes every now and then. And for everything else, Pokemon Scarlet shows promise in how we are getting our pokemon now. If this trend continues, and we start getting more improvements in performance and higher end graphics than even those that can't ignore these cosmic issues would be singing a different tune. But from me, to you, I absolutely think this is one of the best Pokemon games we got in a while, so much so that it feels like a breathe of fresh air compared to the fart stain that was Pokemon Sword and Shield.

My first thought was that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was just going to be a straight spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio Future (which would have been a letdown considering my three weeks of original Jet Set Radio prep), but I'm pleasantly surprised by the blend of mechanics presented! In reality, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes the overall structure and aesthetic from Future while borrowing more heavily from original Jet Set Radio's tight level design and intricate scoring mechanics, and dare I say, actually improves upon certain aspects. It does have a few underdeveloped features as a result of its experimentation, but overall, not a bad first attempt by Team Reptile!

One issue that apparently escaped my notice the first time around (I replayed Future recently just to confirm this) was that Future's extremely linear and stretched-out levels resulted in tons of backtracking upon missing objectives/falling off the stage, and led to fairly rigid approaches that really tried my patience upon additional loops. This is fortunately not the case with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk: levels are generally a lot more open with many more shortcuts and are spaced apart carefully to where traversal feels much more free-form. It more closely resembles original Jet Set Radio, especially when you consider how its momentum mechanics complement this design. Future made the speed fairly easy to obtain: jump onto a rail regardless of your momentum, then keep mashing trick to accelerate and never slow down. On the other hand, original Jet Set Radio became well-known for how slow your character would move about unless you actively utilized rails and grindable walls to speed up, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes a modern twist: you need to maintain momentum by either rail grinding and leaning into corners for speed boosts, or by using grounded manuals combined with boost (refreshed from performing tricks) to retain speed.

The momentum mechanics go hand-in-hand with the game's combo system. After thoroughly exploring levels to spray graffiti spots for "rep" and completing subsequent score and movement-tech challenges from opposing crew members, your crew must finally confront opposing crews in a crew battle, outscoring them with trick combos in their own territory. The scoring and trick system improvises upon both original Jet Set Radio and Future: in both games, the safest way to score trick points was abusing infinite grind loops and repeating the same tricks/movement over and over. However, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk turns this on its head: you don't get tons of points for doing the same tricks ad-nauseam (since trick value decreases and eventually levels off when used more and more). Instead, the main key to getting points is increasing the multiplier by utilizing unique features of the stage: that is, leaning into tight corners on grindable rails, wall-riding billboards, and going up half-pipe ramps (which are improved over the original game since you can manual up ramps and then air boost off into manuals/rail and wall-grinds, so they can function as part of a combo). The key word is "unique," since utilizing the same set-piece in a held combo will not give additional multipliers, and the same goes for graffiti spots that can now also be resprayed as one-time trick bonuses during continuous combos. As a result, the trick and multiplier staling incentivizes players to fully explore and utilize every set-piece present upon the open stages to create massive combos, made easier thanks to the mid-air dash (which also lets you alter airborne momentum once) and the manual. The only downside here is that the game's circumstances never become difficult enough to necessitate this trick optimization; the story crew battles are pretty easy and I was leapfrogging them using the above strategy (i.e. while other crews were floundering around several hundred thousand, I was well beyond a couple million in score), so unless players are trying to crack the tougher post-game score barriers for optional characters/achievements, they may never need to lean on these strategies at all.

The lack of difficulty serves as a microcosm of this game's unfortunate trend: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk certainly innovates upon many features from the Jet Set Radio games, but I find a few to be undercooked or lacking in execution. The combat's one example: it's not a bad idea in theory (using tricks to both deal damage and maintain score/momentum) and in fact has been proposed before, but its implementation leaves something to be desired. Attacking enemies feels like it has little impact because of the muffled sound-effects, akin to slapping a wet sock on a table. Also, most enemies can be defeated with a single grounded attack into an immediate "corkscrew" jump and then spray-painted in the air. While this graffiti coup de grâce never gets old, it does feel quite difficult in practice comboing in and out of this linearizing technique (since you need to be standing and off your skates to execute, breaking any combo potential), so combat never really flows and the mandatory combat sections in-story feel somewhat superfluous.

Adjacent to this is the heat system, a spin on original Jet Set Radio's enemy escalation during story stages. As your character goes about spraying graffiti, police forces begin to spawn in tougher waves: for example, wave one consists of simple grounded officers with batons and pistols, wave two activates turrets that home-in on the player with chains and slow their movement, and wave three brings in armored forces that can block attacks. I found most of these enemies to be mere nuisances: you can easily skate around and dodge most attacks (except for the turrets, which can be easily disabled with a single attack + spray), and since enemies can't be easily comboed for points and will respawn continuously upon defeat anyways, it's best to just ignore them as is. Again, this is fairly similar to original Jet Set Radio's strategy of outmanuevering enemies since foes there were active time sinks, so this doesn't bother me greatly. Unfortunately, this creates friction with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's exploration, and not just in the sense that enemies will impede progress. The game requires you to swap between the three different types of movestyle for their different abilities: skateboards can ride on extendable fire hydrants to extend them vertically and reach heights, inline skates can skid on glass to shatter specific ceilings, and bikes can open special garage doors. The only way to switch between characters/movestyles is to go to checkerboard tiles and dance, but the game prohibits switching when there's "too much heat." Thus, you have to de-escalate the heat gauge by entering orange porta-potties (unmarked on the map, so hopefully you remember their locations!). However, they also lock up after a single use, so players have to either outright leave the stages or find a different porta-potty elsewhere to reopen old porta-potties for enemy despawning. I think this could have easily been improved if the heat gauge slowly decreased over time from successful enemy evasion.

Even with my criticisms, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was definitely worth the three year wait. The story isn't anything mindblowing, but it's got some nice twists that are conveyed via these surreal platforming sequences that are a cross between the time rifts from A Hat in Time and a Psychonauts fever dream. I'm pleasantly surprised by a good chunk of the soundtrack too: Hideki Naganuma's three contributions are the obvious highlights, but other tracks like 2Mello's I Wanna Kno and Sebastian Knight's Feel the Funk more than hold their own weight. It's a good mix of upbeat sampledelia hip-hop and chill ambient tunes, with my only real complaint being the lack of guitar-heavy rock tracks like Magical Girl or Statement of Intent... RIP Guitar Vader. Finally, I more than got my playtime's worth out of 100%ing the game, considering all the hidden areas and collectibles to find and just how much fun I had figuring out new ways to string together ridiculous combos. Despite the game's various areas of improvement, I find Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to be a fantastic fresh take upon a beloved franchise that isn't just a homage to Jet Set Radio, but a love letter to classic Y2K counter-culture and skating games as a whole. If you're not a prior fan of the franchise, this might not be the game to change your mind, but if you are, then I see no reason why you wouldn't find some enjoyment out of it. It's no surprise that fans absolutely ate this up, with excitement for the franchise reaching a new fever pitch. Your move, SEGA. Let's see if you guys still understand the concept of love.

A very ambitious port at putting Gunstar Heroes on the Game Gear. Now I'm not an expert at this game in fact I suck at it. Can't even do a no game over run on easy mode. This version of the game is missing the dice maze level and the shmup level. Almost everything else is here though.

I did notice some changes with this one like the seven force level having you ride a jetpack rather than a antigravity cart. The shmup level is now replaced with a level where you ride this walker, it honestly really sucks. Though I do like the touch that you can see the boss fight for the shmup level and the ship shooting at it in the background to at least have it there in spirit. You also have this boss where you can only use your fists on stage 4 (or 5 if it was the MD version.) Was that one even in the MD version? I can't remember. Oh also the beginning of stage 3 is different too.

It does sadly have a lot of flicker and slowdown but I don't really know how they could have prevented that. The graphics still are very impressive for the GG. The music is good but I much prefer how it sounds on the MD. Honestly it feels like this port was made just for people who only had a GG though maybe there is an actual reason I'm unaware of. This port was actually done by M2 and they should be proud they even got this being good, let alone playable. I kind of wish other people played this on this site but considering how almost no one even has this version on their backlog, it'll probably stay just being me. If you love Gunstar Heroes on the Mega Drive, give this one a try someday. It may not be as good as its console counterpart but it's still enjoyable and one of the better Game Gear games.

This replay of Color Splash has honestly surprised me. I went into it thinking it would be just a slightly better sticker star. Instead, I actually got a good game. I fully believe this is the best modern Paper Mario game. It has the charm and humor the series is known for. The combat which is unfortunately the worst part of the game, is at least playable. I can’t say that about the other modern Paper Mario games. I love the world design. This game is way better than I remember and deserves more love.

The story is basically; find the seven things and then beat Bowser. That is the story. It is Sticker Star again, with one important difference. The writing is good. The plot is very barebones, but the characters and humor kept me engaged. It also helps that there are smaller-scale stories in some of the levels. The haunted mansion is a good example of this. In that level, you have to help all the ghost toads find peace. Some chapters have larger-scale stories like in the old games. So while the overarching story is lacking, the actual journey is a lot of fun to experience. It also helps that the main partner character is likable, unlike Kersti from Sticker Star.

The main thing that surprised me was how unique some of the levels were. Sticker Star was so generic and boring that it kinda threw me off how interesting some of the levels were. Unfortunately, it doesn’t start like that. The first chapter has mostly generic Mario areas with the only small exception being the beach festival. But the moment you get past Chapter 1, the game picks up. The areas start getting more interesting. I already mentioned the haunted mansion level, but there is also a really cool island that makes you switch between worlds to solve puzzles, and it's really cool. There’s also a level where you have to play through a recreation of a level from Mario 3, but you have the ability from Super Paper Mario that lets you turn the 2D plain into 3D letting you find and explore hidden areas. It is so much fun! The further you get the better the game gets. The levels are even better since you can paint in blank spots in the environment. This encouraged exploration and was a lot of fun. It enhanced these already great levels.

The music is also fantastic, although that's a given for this series. Some of my favorites are the battle theme, Ludwig’s boss theme, Wendy’s boss theme, Port Prisma, the overworld theme, and a remix of N64 Rainbow Road.

Now there is one big thing I haven’t mentioned yet. That is the combat, and it's not great. It's very flawed due to the card system, not being able to choose who you want to attack, and how slow it is. Here’s the thing. I don’t care. The combat is bad, but it's at least playable. Sticker Star had no redeeming qualities so the bad combat made the game worse. In this case, everything else about the game is so good, that I didn’t mind the flawed combat system. It's at least playable, which I can’t say about Origami King's combat.

Overall, Paper Mario Color Splash surprised me. It was way better than I remembered. I firmly believe it is the best modern Paper Mario Game. I highly recommend checking it out.