Picture this next scenario in your head, if you will. It is 1992, and you are still living your normal, average life. You never did get that Sega Genesis that you wanted for Christmas, but you forgot about it in the coming months, and have just been vibing ever since. That is, until November rolls around, and you see the hot new title coming out soon for that system, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. As you watched footage of it and read about it, you were slowly getting excited again. This one seemed like it would be even better then the first, as it was looking more colorful, there was this weird mutant fox following you around, and WOAH, A GOLDEN SONIC?! Yeah, it was official, you were set on getting this game, so for Christmas, you once again asked Santa for that Sega Genesis, but this time, you asked for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 instead. The day rolls around, you open your presents, and there it is! The Sega Genesis, you finally got it! And right alongside this Sega Genesis… was a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Master System. It was at this point where you decided you would devote your life to Mario from now on, and threw the game right in the trash.

So yeah, like with the original game, Sonic 2 managed to get a separate companion game that was released for the Master System and the Game Gear, once again most likely for those who were unfortunate enough to not own a Genesis… even though they most likely didn’t own a Master System either. This time around, the game was developed by Aspect, a company whose only other game before this was a Golden Axe game for the Game Gear, so needless to say, I really wasn’t looking forward to this one, as I thought it was gonna be ass compared to the Genesis game, but hey, seeing as the original Master System game was somewhat good, I had a little bit of hope for this game. So, after playing through it, I can say that the game is better then the original Master System game… but not by much. It is exactly what you would expect for a Sonic game on this system, especially if you had knowledge and experience with the previous game.

The story this time is not just about stopping Robotnik’s evil plan, but also needing to save Tails from his clutches, so they aren’t being subtle anymore about wanting to be Mario, the graphics are pretty much on par with the original game, even if they still look pretty good for the Master System, and the speed is still there to compliment it, the music isn’t as good as what we got from the previous, even if there were some decent tracks in there that I grew to love, the control is about the same as the original game, so no need to comment on that any further, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a Master System Sonic game, and when I say exactly, I mean EXACTLY.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of the blue blur himself, take on a set of six-seven zones in the game, running, jumping, and going as fast as possible throughout all of the stages, while destroying as many badniks and collecting as many rings as you can, gather plenty of ring and invincibility boxes along the way to give you more of an advantage over the challenges ahead, and take on some of the most pathetic bosses that I have ever seen not just in a Sonic game, but in all of video game history. It is your typical 2D Sonic adventure through and through, so you may be thinking to yourself, what exactly was changed in this game to make it better? I mean, the original Sonic 2 added a lot to make it an almost perfect sequel, so surely this game did so too right? Ha ha ha ha ha ha…….. NOPE.

It’s almost as if Aspect took a look at Ancient’s homework and copied straight from it, because this is more or less just the exact same game as the original Master System Sonic game, except this time with a new set of levels and bosses, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is very noticeable. None of the added features in the main Sonic 2 game were added to this game, which means no spin dash, no Super Sonic, and not even a seventh Chaos Emerald. The only thing that did carry over from the main game was Tails, but even then, he is just the Princess Peach of the game, so his role in this game is pretty much pointless. And even then, you don’t even have to save him if you don’t get all the Chaos Emeralds, which is… actually pretty dark, now that I think about it, but still, he does nothing in the entire game.

To be fair though, I did say earlier that I thought this game was better than the original game, and I do stand by that claim. It does feel a lot more tightly put together, with there being plenty of fun levels to blast through here, and finding the Chaos Emeralds in the levels is still a pretty good alternative to regular Special Stages. What also helps is that not only is the water level actually somewhat good, but they didn’t place a Chaos Emerald in a bed of spikes! That is what we call character development right there, friends. And speaking of which, whenever you get all of the Chaos Emeralds, not only does it give you the good ending, but it also gives you access to the final zone of the game, Crystal Egg Zone. It may not be the best zone in the game, and the music makes me wanna off myself, but it is nice to see an actually reward for going out of my way to get these things, other then something I could just look up on YouTube.

With all that being said though, the game does still have its problems. First of all, just like with the first game, you get zero rings for the boss battles, which isn’t that much of a big deal, because, again, the bosses are mostly complete jokes, but seriously, can we STOP with this shit? And secondly, this game has two other problems in the form of one level and one boss: Scrambled Egg Zone, and the final boss. Scrambled Egg Zone is without a doubt the worst zone in the game, as it requires you to go through these very specific pipe passages to get to the end of the stages, as well as very precise platforming placed right alongside it. It isn’t too big of a deal, but considering how often you can fuck up and get sent allllll the way back to the beginning in some circumstances, as well as the fact that you are, again, a super-fast rodent, getting through this place is much more of a pain then you would expect. And as for the final boss… I mean, it just isn’t fun to fight at all. It is overly precise and it feels like fate is in charge of whether or not you actually hit Robotnik or a projectile. Maybe this is just skill issues, maybe, but I just didn’t have a good time with it whatsoever.

Overall, despite some bad levels, bosses, and design choices still being present, I would still say this is an improvement over the previous Sonic Master System game, and if this was your only option to experience some kind of Sonic 2, I would say it isn’t that bad of a choice. I would recommend it for those who are massive Sonic fans, as well as those who are big fans of the first Master System title, but for everyone else, just stick with the original Sonic 2, as it will give you a much better experience overall. I’m just glad that, after that, there will be no more side games released on the Master System after this alongside the main games. I mean, can you imagine if we got Sonic CD for the Master System, or Sonic 3 for it? Yeah, right… that would be as stupid as putting Sonic in a car, which we all know is never going to happen. Certainly not a police car, specifically.

Game #379

I'll break this down into a few sections as best as I can, but I'll give a summary for those looking for a quick review. For those that played Danganronpa, if you played this game, you're going to find enjoyment here; the vibes and style are very different and you won't get the same experience of entering a class trial or anything like that, but you'll find a similar sense of humor and writing for the better and worse. As for the game itself, its pretty good. Not something to gush over, as I think the story's themes aren't quite as profound as other titles, including the last of the Danganronpa entries, V3, but still think its just solid.

Cast
The characters are all at least good, with some of them being great. Shinigami is basically Junko Enoshima done right; despite being a death god whose got a very different outlook on life and death and its sanctity than our protagonist, she manages to feel more human with those human moments being much stronger because of the said natural disconnect. She manages to carry over the funny from what that character did in that series, while also being her own unique charming character. Yuma also makes for a compelling protagonist, growing a lot as the game progresses, and most of the detective agency makes for a likeable bunch. Desuhiko is the token pervert of the group so you might not be as big on him; for me personally, he was ok, but definitely the weakest of the core group. The antagonists and suspects are all pretty strong for what they are and there really isn't a character in the game I can call outright bad, which is pretty impressive with the number of folks we meet.

Presentation
I'll be short with the music; Masafumi Takada composed it, so its pretty excellent. As for the art style, that's also pretty damn solid. Really the only problems I have from a pure presentation perspective personally are the fact that this game's stuck on a switch and you gotta play it at 30 fps. I believe data miners have already found xbox buttons in the files for the QTEs, so if you're worried about having to actually use a switch to play a game, hey, there will probably be a port within a year.

Story
The game is new, and with the game being so new, I won't go into heavy spoiler discussion as said discussion isn't as helpful when the game's not as much of a known entity as a game that's been around for a few years. As for what is there, I'll say the game has some pretty strong chapters where you're gonna find yourself very sympathetic for the culprit, and others where you'll be practically screaming murder this guy! The overall main story and main twist of this game is strictly okay. I think it grows a bit too big as far as stakes than the game needed to, but I do think it was fairly built up to aside from one detail. Now with the main story being overall okay, you do still have some pretty strong character moments and the stories in some of the individual chapters hold their own as being pretty great.

Mystery Quality/Gameplay
I'm bunching these together since the gameplay in the Mystery Labyrinths and mystery solving themselves are pretty tied together. So, to answer if labyrinth minigames are better than class trials for solving the mystery, yes, I would say so; a lot of shackles from being stuck in a high school are solved by them and despite me not feeling a similar level of tension to class trials, I do think these labyrinths and their approach to minigame design are a general improvement over the last game; they also do a good job cutting the more useless minigames. As for the mysteries themselves, I thought the mysteries for each case were pretty rock solid, save for maybe the first one. There's a few details I didn't personally like, but I didn't have any problems with the rest of them, aside from what I've gone over with the last case, though its always hard to do those flawlessly and I think for what it was worth, it was fine.

Concluding Thoughts
I don't think Rain Code is quite a game of the year, or the best story I've seen in a game. However, what Rain Code does have going for it is that it manages to be a really good game that'll manage to feel familiar to fans of Kodaka's other words like Danganronpa, while also being incredibly unique. There isn't a game with a vibe like it, and while I think it would be difficult, if Kodaka would want to revisit this occult world and write more mysteries for it, I'd be curious to see what they are.

Don’t walk away from this game… RUN away from this game as fast as you can if you value your time and money.

This game isn’t even a sequel, it’s quite literally the same exact game as the first game but without loot boxes. I liked the first Overwatch when it released but I stopped playing in 2018 since I moved on to other games. When I heard about OW2 with a PvE mode, that was the ONLY reason I was even remotely interested in OW2. And after years of waiting, OW2 releases without a PvE mode only to scrape it months later and it turns out that Blizzard already knew they were going to cancel it before OW2 officially released. So like what in the actual fuck have you been doing these last 4 years beside lying through you teeth? At this point, if your end goal for OW2 was a PvE mode, why even bother making OW2? And of course it’s because you’re greedy for my money, just had to repackage the same game, add “2” on the logo and shove season passes and cosmetics into our faces for RIDICULOUS PRICES!

I’m so sick and tired of your bullshit Blizzard. I held off on making this review just because I was waiting for the PvE mode that never came. The whole point of OW2 was for the PvE mode and then you have the nerve to say “PvE is still a focus moving forward”. Overwatch 2 pretty much is just a game meant to lock content behind paywalls. I just uninstalled OW2 and from now on I will NEVER buy nor play another video game from Blizzard since it will be nothing more but a waste of storage on my consoles. Not only did you lose any trust and faith I had left for you but now Blizzard is one of the best examples on how scum and greed can ruin your franchise. As the years came by you never did get better, you only went downhill and still are because there’s no such thing as “rock bottom” for Blizzard.