This game kicks major ass! It took me a while to warm up to how it played since I haven't played Castlevania in a few years. Actually, I've only played one Castlevania and that's the Original on Famicom/NES. I think that game is pretty good, but this one just captured me more. I think it's the presentation and the fact that I just like Richter more than Simon generally. The presentation is excellent in this: the graphics, the cut-scenes, the CD quality music everything just has this 90s radical blue haze coating it. It's such an atmospheric game. I liked how this game felt like a twist on Castlevania 1. Richter feels basically like Simon from the first game but he has a bit more finesse, like Richter can backward jump and is just generally not as stiff. I think the stages accommodate your move-set pretty well and though at times, something seems unfair or impossible, a bit of thinking and practice will make you realize it's very doable. Nevertheless, I found the game on the more difficult side, but I don't play a lot of classic action games. I still stuck through the entire game and its extra levels with Richter regardless. That's another point of pride for the game, the amount of content. There's a second playable character called Maria who plays completely differently from Richter, though I would recommend a first play-through as Richter since Maria can cheese a lot of stuff and the stages' challenges feel like they weren't designed around her abilities. There are also alternate routes through every stage that are completely unique. If you want to 100% the game you have to play through all of them, they're pretty hidden but I think a lot of the secrets make logical sense. I wasn't really sure if I was a Castlevania fan before but I think I am now. Looking forward to playing Symphony of the Night whenever I get around to it.

Cute game from a begone era of Disney. I think the art style isn't nearly as charming as the original. Despite that, I think it still holds up visually even being a 3D 7th-gen game from a smaller team. It's clear they put a lot of effort into cultivating "Disney" vibes, from the music, to the voice acting, to the animations. Mickey feels good to control and it was a pleasant experience overall. The game is pretty basic outside of that but not all games have to be particularly groundbreaking to be an enjoyable time, especially for what is a remake of a licensed game. It's unfortunate Sega Studios Australia closed after this because I would have liked to see how they would tackled other classic Disney games.