An improvement over not just the original Monkey Island 1, but its Special Edition as well. I enjoyed the pacing of this one a lot more, the way it starts you off on a small island to ease you in, before opening up three individual islands with their own distinct feel. Making progress can be satisfying, and you're allowed to do it in a more or less free order, giving way for potential optimized routes on follow-up playthroughs.

I also thought the writing was more interesting this time around, and the jokes tended to land more often. The ending of the game is seen as controversial, but I think it fits perfectly with Monkey Island's focus on being a parody of pirate tropes. This was never a serious adventure by any means.

As for the Special Edition's features... if you didn't like Monkey Island 1's more open-ended interface, this version of Monkey 2 streamlines it to only provide you with the context-sensitive options needed to trigger unique dialogue. It's much nicer and faster. You've also still got the hint system in here, along with the toggle between old and new graphics, and a newly added developer's commentary mode. I would only recommend using that one on a 2nd run though, some of the commentary can only be triggered during dialogue-heavy scenes, and it distracts away from the game.

Along with the original game's writing being better, I also consider the voice direction in this Special Edition to be a step-up. It still has some awkward pauses here and there, but the acting generally feels a lot more natural, and even enhances the jokes at times.

Some of these puzzles, though, yeesh. Thank god the Special Edition has a hint system, because some of these solutions are a real stretch in imagination. The infamous "monkey wrench" puzzle for example, makes sense once you know the pun it's going for, but seeing as this pun is never actually mentioned in the game, you're expected to perfectly align your mindset with the one out of potentially dozens of jokes that the developer was thinking of in their head, and that's just a poor way to make the player solve a puzzle. Y'know, other than get them to just use everything on everything. The library also kinda sucks, it's way too open for its own good.

As much as I do have some gripes with this game's puzzle design, the Special Edition alleviates any and all problems this may pose, and what you end up with is a pretty charming adventure, and a respectable version of the game to experience it with. It's a recommend from me.

"Zelda 1 with experience points" seemed like it could make for a pretty fun game, and there's definitely glimmers of that here. The world map is big, but relatively memorable... there are some interesting story beats spread throughout, and the music isn't too bad either. It's really the dungeons themselves that make the game 3-4 hours longer than it should be.

Aside from that one ice-themed dungeon that had the sliding tiles, so many of them are utterly forgettable. Screens upon screens of enemies that I eventually just don't feel like wanting to fight.

Zelda 1's combat kept things interesting by forcing you to get upclose to enemies, sometimes behind them. This risk-based gameplay was tough, but very deliberate in its intent, and most importantly, was fast-paced and smooth to play.

Final Fantasy Adventure's idea of combat is to make you constantly head into the sluggish inventory system to swap out your weapons depending on which enemy is weak to what. A good chunk of your weapons have fairly good range, so there's no need for risk, and every enemy moves at a choppy 5 frames per second compared to your smooth movement. Sometimes, it's difficult to even tell if you landed a hit, the feedback on that is poor and unsatisfying.

Every now and then, you get a puzzle, and for my baby brain that struggles with those, Adventure's puzzles were actually pretty alright. I had a few "ah-ha" moments with these, and I've somehow found them to be the best part of the game. There's something here. Whenever you're not fighting, you can feel something special in this game. It's just a shame that the combat is such a major part of it, when it's too awkward, slow and clunky to deserve that much spotlight.

To my surprise, one of the more competent licensed games in the NES library. When you realize it's SunSoft, it makes sense, they were responsible for the NES Batman game too. Good soundtrack, and a nice variety of weapons keeps you going forward. You do need some tolerance for top-down platforming though, as there's a bunch of it. Oh, and the game ending with an attempt at giving you a fucking seizure wasn't very cool. Not cool at all. Disregarding that though, it was worth checking this out once.

The part of the collection that involves the classic Genesis titles is fine. Actually, it's a little more than fine, and is arguably the better way to play the original Sonic trilogy than emulating the Genesis titles. There isn't as much slowdown, instruments don't get cut off by the sound effects anymore due to CD Audio support, there's a mode that slightly rebalances the difficulty to not be as dumb (Example: They give you rings for the Sonic 2 final boss), and they even introduce the spin dash into Sonic 1. That's on top of supporting Sonic 3's lock-on gimmick, and an autosave feature so you don't have to do each game in one go. Diving into some of the bonus content, like scrapped pitches for a cartoon, or the concept art was also pretty fun. The manuals could've also been a neat addition! If they were rendered above a 144p resolution. I can't read this shit, dude.

I only lament that Sonic CD got completely robbed and isn't a part of this collection at all. Unless you count them including CD's opening as part of the bonus content, but that's just rubbing salt in the wound at that point. In general, I wonder if this collection was really worth its asking price back in the 90's. I mean, you've got no 8-bit titles, or spinoffs to speak of... just four old games with a bunch of QoL applied to them. And don't get me wrong, the QoL is very appreciated, so is the bonus content. But even back then, Sonic Jam seems like it missed a big opportunity to let this be the ultimate collection of Sonic games that were out by then, and instead settles only for the utmost necessary components instead. Is this really what Sonic fans deserved for spending their money on the Saturn, plus however much this game costed?

And I mean, you DO have Sonic World, and it's a pretty neat look into what a 3D Classic Sonic title could've looked like if they didn't go down the Adventure redesigning route. But aside from the fact that it's more of a tech demo than a real playable campaign, THIS CAMERA. Dear lord, Mario 64 had its moments here and there, but Sonic World's camera feels especially designed to fight my instincts to the bitter death. Knowing that much of Sonic World's mission structure is dependent on optimal routing of the map layout, this could've been fun if the camera was normal and allowed you to look straight ahead to see where you're heading. But it seems that everytime you start running, it forces you into this dreadful zoomed in top-down perspective that ensures you have as little awareness of the layout around you as possible. Whether this was a result of technical constraints, or just a flaw in the design choice, it makes it difficult to take the incentives of the Sonic World seriously. And its intent of a free and open space to run around in, ends up ruined by a sense of claustrophobia.

Due to Sonic Jam's unfortunate ommissions of certain Sonic titles, and its poorly executed 3D content, I can't objectively consider this a great collection when thinking about the collection that it could've been, were production on it started earlier (as in, earlier than 3 years into the console's lifespan) and been given more time to flourish. But, that's way in the past now. We should also consider the value Sonic Jam has today, especially when your most likely way to experience it will be via emulation. In that sense, if you're just looking for a good way to play the major cornerstones of Sonic's Genesis era, then Sonic Jam at least fulfills that purpose. Sure, Origins has CD, plus widescreen support... but I'd still feel safer choosing to emulate this, than forking over 30 dollars for that. At least Sonic Jam is stable.

(Used a hack to double my EXP and Gold gains)

I've seen people out there think that EarthBound is a remake of the first MOTHER, so there's no point in playing the first game. I think that's wrong. Yes, they share familiar elements, but that's like saying you shouldn't play any Mario except Odyssey, because Bowser is in that one too.

I think in part, MOTHER 1 stands out due to the era it was released in. Back when every RPG had a fantasy medieval setting, MOTHER positioned itself in a modern town, with credit cards, ATM machines, convenience stores, phones and cars and trains... EarthBound plays this much more straight because it's done it before, but in the context of MOTHER 1, it's much more blatant about using these elements to create a parody RPG that constantly fucks with you, and tricks you into doing things you don't want. But when it does that, I can't even get mad, all I can do is laugh.

There's charming moments too! There's a particular scene towards the end of the game that involves the characters interacting in a way that is unlike anything you see in EarthBound. It caught me off-guard, to think something like that was included in a 1989 NES game. And albeit I can see why it wasn't done again, it's things like that that make MOTHER 1 unique.

The combat is simple, very Dragon Quest-esque, and with a decent amount of strategy introduced as you obtain further party members. There's unfortunately nothing that sets it apart like how EarthBound with the rolling HP mechanic, but this is perfectly servicable anyway.

I think the charm of the game outweighs the negatives, but I'll list them anyway. Areas are too spacious, to a point where I didn't know I missed an important area until 70% through the game. I used online maps to figure out what led to where. Having to constantly backtrack to Magicant to equip my new party members proved to get tiresome after a while, and I wish there were more convenient ways to enter and exit that place.

Oh, and I would probably add Mt. Itoi as one of the problems with the game due to its difficulty spike, but once you realize you can just run away from everything and head right to the final boss, it's really not that bad.

Worth playing once, especially if you liked the other MOTHER games. It's not the most modern-feeling RPG out there, but it's not as bad as age and it being on the NES makes it out to be.

I've heard this was one of the best versions of Prince of Persia to play. But there's probably no changing the fact that this isn't the kind of game for me.

The controls are the whole point of the game. Making careful decisions, avoiding fall damage, adhering to a more realistic sense of parkour than most games of its time. Unfortunately, there's some sort of delay on the jump, and it makes it really difficult to gauge the right timing to hop across a gap. This led to multiple deaths that I thought weren't in my control.

Even if I were to adapt to the awkward controls - which might've been doable - attaching a time limit to level design that requires this kind of careful precision is not something I like. Speaking of the level design, not my jam either. A lot of it blends in, relying too much on mazes with occasional nonsensical solutions. A particular standout was having to jump into a random ceiling to knock off a tile that allows you to go up. When the levels are not unintuitive, or the time limit isn't stressful, the game just feels bland. It's fucked up that I had more fun in the training levels than any of the main ones.

The combat feels like it was a last-minute throw-in. Once you figure out the strategy, you can use it against every single enemy you encounter. It removes all challenge from it, and becomes busy work.

I wanna give this game some credit. The rotoscoped animations are really impressive, and I do kinda like the concept of exploring a dungeon like this. But, I didn't have fun with the execution. I'm not good or patient enough for this.

Bar none, the best RPG on the NES and the best game of the NES Dragon Quest quintology. Whereas I could point out at least one flaw with the previous Dragon Quest games (even if each one was better than the previous entry), I can confidently say that DQ4 is the only one where anything I'd criticize would be a nitpick.

Being able to select and customize between 8 of the game's predetermined characters at any moment massively expands your inventory space, while still alotting a good degree of party customization to find the setup that works best for you.

The balance is perfect. The game makes sure to introduce each character to you one by one, demonstrating their strengths and weaknesses, but once it gets to chapter 5, the real game begins. The party members you just got to know over the first several hours of the game are now collectibles for you to acquire. Once you have them all, experimentation is encouraged, and the game can be tackled in many ways.

The only downside I could think of is the weak storyline. Even so, I came to understand that story is not what Dragon Quest is about, at least, not to my understanding. It's about the feeling of adventure, and this game nails that perfectly.

Nothing beats the feeling of defeating your first Metal Slime King.

In some ways, better than the first one. In other ways, way more stressful than the first one.

Bear in mind, that I'm not an expert on RPG's, in fact, I'm currently going through a huge backlog of all the ones I've never experienced, in order to get better at playing them. With that in mind, Legend II is so far the most difficult RPG I have played in my life. And normally I play these things to relax, so perhaps it's not a matter of the game's difficulty being poorly designed so much as it's a problem with me and me alone. Please do know that this review only reflects my own personal experience with the game. What I want out of an RPG is not what you may want.

My first mistake was focusing on leveling up my Strength stat. Worked out for me in Legend 1, utterly broke that game into pieces. Don't do that here. Agility is the most crucial stat you'll want. Not only you'll want it to get the most out of Agility-based weapons, but if you neglect leveling it up for a while, you won't be able to damage any enemies going forward. Nothing but miss, miss, misses.

After realizing that fact, you better believe I had an immense amount of grinding to make up for. But, no matter how much grinding you'll do for anything, enemies were always tough as nails, and many of my dungeon explorations were just barely clutched. Running away from encounters is an entirely justifiable strategy here. But, once you get to the final dungeon, forget about running away from anything, and prepare to face against a shitload of encounters, brought to you by the lovely cranked up encounter rate that'll drain your resources to null.

As jank as the first Legend game was, I've found it a lot more managable. With the sequel, there were many headaches, nervous laughters, moments of bafflement, points where... I thought of simply giving up. Nonetheless, I persevered, but, just for the sake of not having to come back to it ever again.

There were a couple cute and fun moments. Each area felt fairly imaginitive. Unfortunately, the maddeningly repetitive music and high difficulty contributed to a nerve-wrecking experience that I cannot recommend to anybody other than SaGa enthusiasts and those looking for a serious challenge. For someone like me though, Legend II was just II much.

It's a cute concept in any case, but my willingness to play this game lived or died by how crazy the cat's jumping abilities were. After all, cats are capable of insanely high jumps. Playing this game for 50 minutes, this cat was probably the weakest jumping cat I've ever seen in my life. Can barely climb up a short ledge, felt like I had anvil weights attached to my legs. It's possible that the cat's jumping power improves as you make progress, but even so, the game in general had a heavy control feel that went against all my expectations of a nimble and agile cat. It did not make for a good first impression, and thus I couldn't muster up the will to play any further. That cat do be cute though

It's... almost there. As usual, the remaster provides some nice music, and much-needed QoL changes to improve the flow of the game. The job system, which allows you to switch between classes at any time, has promise in terms of the experimentation it provides. But...

I was a little disappointed to find out that out of the huge variety of jobs this game provides, the only ones I considered useful were the blatant upgrades of previous jobs. Perhaps that's on me, perhaps I wasn't thinking creatively enough on how to utilize them. I don't know, none of them jived. Whereas I could see the potential in different party combinations in Dragon Quest 3 & 4, most of the ones here felt too unconventional to sink my time into leveling.

Aside from that, FF3 is basically FF1 if it were more inconvenient. The first time the game told me that I needed to miniaturize every party member to enter a small hole, was when I hoped it'd be the last time. But then the game makes you do it 4-5 more times, and everytime it puts you in a major disadvantage against the enemies, where you're spending the entire dungeon in mini form, running away from everything or wasting your very limited magic points.

The ship traversal feels more cumbersome this time around, the way they split things into several ships that each have their own ability, instead of having one ship that upgrades over time. This leads to having to backtrack to the currently-needed ship, which felt unnecessary.

The Crystal Tower, the final dungeon of the game, is infamous for being one of the worst in the series. In the case of the remaster, it was managable enough, but what I didn't know is that there's actually one more dungeon immediately after the Crystal Tower. This made the game's finale rather exhausting to push through. Not difficult, just kinda... "i wish this game ended already" kinda feeling.

The remaster still has some fun moments of dungeon-crawling and adventuring through landscapes, including a neat reveal of just how expansive the world truly is. But, some of its questionable design choices are embedded into its gameplay system, and made me frequently wonder "why did they do it like this?" Better than FF2, but I'd still go back to FF1 sooner than this.

I was hoping the remaster would fix some of FF2's more egregious issues, and to an extent it does, but not enough. Having to individually grind your stats based on the actions you take is one thing, but grinding out each and every individual spell was a piss-taking exercise in patience.

It didn't help that all that grinding later, and the spells were still next to worthless. According to Reddit though, this was because of the equipment I was wearing, which utilizes an invisible "weight" system that nerfs your magic. The game itself... does not ever hint of this (update: since latest patch, now it does. might update the review at some point in the future), and by that point, I've already beaten it by cheesing my way through it with regular attacks.

All this to say, I'm baffled to have played an RPG in which spamming your regular attack felt more encouraged than making use of any of your spells. You can imagine how dull that makes it to play. Little to no strategy required.

I do not know if there is a definitive way to play Final Fantasy II yet, that's something I'll be finding out as I tackle the other versions. As of this review however, I can't say this one holds up.

A pretty good way to get into the Final Fantasy series, and perhaps to even get into RPG's in general if you're looking to start with something simple.

The remaster brings many QoL changes that remove the tedium of the NES original, including a modern inventory system, a way to auto-battle, fast forward things, and a map to make use of. There's also decent replay value through picking which classes you want to start the game off with. The music kicks ass, also, they did an incredible job remixing it. The overall difficulty is pretty easy, up until you reach the final boss. That one's gonna test you proper.

You're not gonna get an amazing story out of this due to its roots, but if you enjoy the feeling of leveling up, getting stronger, and looking forward to what the next area has to offer, this game more than scratches that itch.

The only major complaint about the remaster is the use of font. There are ways to change it into something more 8-bit looking, which I would recommend looking up.