Still every bit as funny, punchy and gutwrenching as it was the first time around. Can't think of any other game/series where I'd wander around a decently empty town for an hour just to read EVERY piece of dialogue.

Also, yeah, this game kinda smashes through my distaste for turnbased. Leaves it simple, explains it thoroughly in an easy to understand way and provides a get-out-of-jail card if you REALLY don't wanna do it.

Looking forward to Chapter 2 and all the feels/tears that'll bring.

My favourite game of 2019. Don't listen to the general distaste for this game because it's "just another Mario & Sonic" from an internet critic who likely hasn't played it. Mario & Sonic Tokyo 2020 provides a silly, lighthearted story for fans of both franchises and sprinkles little bits of Olympic history and trivia in for those with an interest or a potential interest in that sort of thing. The plot is nothing Oscar worthy or mind blowing, but serves as a fun little wrapper for a minigame collection, with the minigames themselves being a blast. Unshackling this game from required motion controls allows the minigames to shine as delightful Mario Party minigame-esque affairs rather than bland, wagglefest tech demos.

After you've finished the story and unlocked all the bonus content, multiplayer (either online or offline) is the way to go, and I found myself having a great time gathering round with friends. The online can be a little flaky, but as long as you play with friends with a good connection in private matches rather than matching with randoms, you should be fine.

All-in-all, my favourite M&S game to date and one which has been unfairly shunned due to its status in an otherwise uninspiring franchise and the strange limbo-like status the real Tokyo 2020 found itself in.

Putting aside personal biases and nostalgia, this is easily the best Mario Kart game to date. Gorgeous visuals, great track design and a lot of balancing done so that (hopefully) the scales won't tip too favourably in one person's direction, but balanced less annoyingly than Wii and 7 in that regard.

Only issue I would note is the online system. It's mostly great, but only being able to vote for 3 pre-determined tracks in public lobbies lead to a lot of repetition, with the same tracks appearing in rotation a lot, and popular favourites such as Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road most likely to get picked when they appear. Matchmaking itself is great, but the game's emphasis on creating "exciting" matches is confusing (players can get hit with shells on your screen when they never did on their own as an example, this is not weird desyncs between Switches going on or anything, the game intentionally does things like this for whatever reason) and doesn't feel like it has a place in a Mario Kart game personally.


Getting 100% in this game was a walk in the park for me personally, but I accept that others may not find it as simple. Within 1 playthrough of each cup on 150CC, Mirror and 200CC, I had all of their respective unlockables, which only left all time trials and grinding coins. The game didn't put up a challenge for me at all, but I'm sure that other players with varying skill levels may have differing issues.

The Wii version was a childhood favourite of mine, and the 360 version was something I dabbled in here and there (mainly the demo) but happy to have completed it first on the PS3 version.

Despite the clear flaws pointed out by most players at every opportunity, it's one I find myself having a lot of fun with. The medal collecting was never something that bothered me as it forced me to stop and take in the scenery on my first playthrough, then I was able to come back and speed through the stages once I was far more overpowered. The werehog while unnecessary (or at least in the form it's presented in) is a quaint brawler that while far from SEGA's best, does provide some entertainment but usually amounts to no more than a 20 minute button masher before you can get to the real stuff.

Despite all of this, I love the atmosphere and the world building this game has on offer, and wish more Sonic games would consider implelenting similar in the future.

Although not as good as the game it's remaking, R&C 2016 provided me a good deal of fun by cranking the difficulty down, skipping the cutscenes and playing the game with the audio off. This is where the biggest problems with the remake stem from, so removing them from the equation made the game pretty enjoyable. While a step back from the classics, arguably a step in the right direction off the back of the heels of Ratchet Future, and a crutial stepping stone for the amazing game that Rift Apart turned out to be.

A hugely controversial opinion within the Yakuza scene, but I prefer this game over 0. I'm aware of the cut content from the original game and the frustrating boss fights, but I found myself far more engaged in the story as a whole due to the lack of the whole "constantly switching perspectives just as things were getting tense" issue I had with 0. In Kiwami, you're a bigger deal as a character, the setpieces are far grander and the stakes are signficantly higher (for Kiryu at least). 0 gripped me, but Kiwami got me 10x more invested. Despite its flaws, I still think this is a better way to experience Yakuza 1's story in the modern day, but that's not to say that the experience is completely perfect.