This game is fucked up.

I only ever played Rayman 2 & 3, and I thought "Hey, why not play the whole trilogy." Rayman 1 looks real cute.
Nope, get fucked idiot. You just started playing a game that doesn't care about your feelings.

Let's get the visual and audio stuff out of the way first. The game looks and sounds amazing, especially considering it's 1995 release date. Some of the tracks send you on an out of body experience, if you won't play it listen to the OST, you won't regret it.

Gameplay is slick. You can shmoove in this game and you will have to. Oh you will have to my friend.

This game might be one of the hardest commercial releases I have ever played. This is coming from a person who played and finished a good chunk of the NES and SNES library. There are some MAJOR difficulty spikes in this game. At times I was questioning whether or not I was playing a romhack.
This is all paired with a brutal lifes and continue system.

There is nothing frame perfect in this game but some stuff felt too damn close.

This all being said I loved it all the way through up until the final boss which was underwhelming to say the least.

Definitley worth your time.

This game is offensive to me.
It embodies what the first 4 games incessantly made fun of. It's a safe, perfectly marketable piece of software which challenges nothing and nobody in any way shape or form. This game has nothing to say, no question to ask, it's meticulously designed to be as profitable as possible and nothing more.
This clip right here has never been more topical:
https://youtu.be/SCFKaVPnIeg?t=1737

Just play the originals, honestly the only thing this game has on the older games is that it plays just a tad smoother. That's it.

Imagine The Legend of Zelda right.

Only with amazing, trailblazing writing, which respects your intelligence. Godlike presentation in general, especially for 1999 and voice acting which holds up better than most voice work today.

Paired with tedious godawful gameplay, which is so incompetent at times that it's almost like a joke.

Can't recommend a playthrough but do watch the cutscenes on youtube. It's honestly astounding for 1999. Amy Hennig is fucking cracked man.

I've always said that in order to reach new audiences videogame developers needed to be bold and make changes.

And let's be honest here, FromSoftware games were in dire need of some changes.

However by making these changes there's a possibility that some members of the core audience might be alienated.

This is a necessary step of progress.

Unfortunatley for me, I'm part of that alienated core audience.

I think this is a good game, great at times even.
But I'm 15 hours in and I just can't lie to myself any longer.

It's not for me. I've seldom been this bored while playing a videogame.

Hope everyone else on here has a great time with the game though.

I do think that changing things up like this was a good step for FromSoftware and I can't wait for their next project.

I gotta be honest I haven't played this game in a long time and honestly I thought it was overrated.

But then I played it again.

This game is considered Michel Ancel's Magnum Opus for a reason. I could name you a hundred different reasons. This game translates the 2D artstyle from the first game brilliantly. It's unreal to play a game like this today in which the visuals were so carefully considered and beautifully executed. I swear "Art Direction" as a concept is dead in Triple-A gaming these days. And this gem from 1999 pulls it of perfectly and still looks fantastic today.

The music is again amazing. Not quite as memorable as the first game but it creates an atmosphere that's much darker and way more serious. And oh my, more serious it is this time around.

The story is a timeless little gem about the opressed rising up to overthrow their opressors. The mise-en-scène in this game is also worth mentioning. There are some breathtaking moments here, with 1999 visuals mind you. Honestly, I always thought the PS2 remakes name "Revolution" fit this game much better. A french game about the opressed rising up to topple their opressors, ye Revolution sounds about right. Of course I can also understand that "The Great Escape" is a cute reference to the 1963 film, which deals with similiar subject matter.

But here comes the king, the big one and my undisputed favorite part of the game. The Gameplay.
The movement is slick, the jumping is damn near perfect and there is just tons of variety jam packed into a 5 hour experience. There is no filler here. Back to back to back to back to back to back awesome levels with new mechanics and secrets to find. Honestly the pacing is a thing of beauty. The unskippable cutscenes are my only gripe here.

The game only slips up once for me, and that is in the level Whale Bay. This level is in my opinion weirdly placed, reintroduces mechanics that were already explained and generally has little to offer. But that's it, it was fine honestly, just unfortunately sandwiched between 2 amazing levels.

Absolute Banger. Give it a go anyway you can. But I gotta recommend the Dreamcast version.

I was that guy you know.

The first and last defense of Rayman 3 as the best entry in the franchise. I find myself overcome by existential dread, the likes of which could turn a man insane. Having played the original Rayman trilogy back to back now, I can't hide from the truth anymore.

Rayman 2 is the best entry and it makes me sick to my stomach admitting this to myself. I played Rayman 3 for roughly 300 hours as a kid. I love this game. But it's a flawed gem. I got some mean things to say about this game. Mean in a way only someone that truly loves it could be.

Rayman 3 is the first entry in the series without Michel Ancel's oversight. A lot of staff of the original team had moved on to other projects and Ubisoft found themselves with a very different looking team working on the third entry. Quite frankly this game could have never topped Rayman 2. The saddest part is, the devs knew it too and so they didn't even try.

Rayman 3 has very different themes, atmosphere and tone than the previous entries. I love the direction and for the time I thought it was unique. Rayman 3 takes itself much less seriously than the previous entry. There's a lot of humour, 4th wall breaks, videogamey stuff and constant witty dialogue by the characters. The game establishes through it's writing right at the start that it's not here to try to be the big blockbuster magnum opus that Rayman 2 was. The tutorial character Murphy is straight up used as a mouth piece by the developers to convey this message.
"I was told that after ‘Rayman 2’ I’d be cast as a tormented artist who falls for a girl with great, big...eh...eyes. And here I am, still playing a sidekick in some low-budget flick! Yeesh."

And I'll be honest I think it works. It doesn't try to hard, the characters appear to be mostly intact. I mean Rayman barely speaks but quite honestly I think that was a good move. This game makes me laugh everytime I play it. Nostalgia is a factor of course but there's honestly some hilarious stuff in here. Naturally humour is subjective, so it's a hard thing to analyse or critique in my opinion. So let's just stick with the writing is good, but don't expect anything serious or groundbreaking.

In terms of gameplay I gotta say overall I'd call it a sidegrade, tending towards downgrade. Moving Rayman just doesn't feel as good. The jump, oh god the jump. Look how they massacred my boy. Jump control is heavily reduced. Not in movement rather in height and speed. Shorthopping in Rayman 2 is probably the cleanest thing in the entire series but goddamn dude, it really is just not a thing in this one. The powerups are fun in my opinion but quite frankly this game never once pushes it's powerup mechanics to their limit. Just thinking about how The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire in Rayman 2 pushes the plum/carry mechanics in that game to their absolute breaking point, makes Rayman 3's levels look like a joke. It's quite easy all the way through but not easy enough that it bored me or anything. I'm always engaged when playing through the game. Just not you know....challenged. The big improvement Rayman 3 has over 2 is the combat. Rayman 2 combat is kinda awful honestly. 3's combat is serviceable. It's okay. I kinda like it sometimes. It ain't awful. I didn't hate it. You get the point. It's nothing to write home about. Certainly not a highlight but it works well.

A big downfall for me in this game is the presentation and that's because it's almost so sick. It's all here. The soundtrack is good, the graphics are here, the sound effects got some heft to them and the boss fights got that spark. You know what I mean right? That little something that can tip a boss fight over the edge. The song starts and the beat picks up just at the right moment. All the while Rayman appears to be overcoming impossible odds. BUT! Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut. The execution is flawed. The ingredients are here, but it doesn't come together in the end. Audio clips play at the wrong time, the animation is too slow, the animation is too fast, the camera fucks up, the scene is cut too early, the scene is cut too late, the voice over sync completely shits the bed, some audio cues and songs straight up cut out or don't even play. I don't know what is was. They really had something here, but they didn't pull through for some reason. Maybe it was a lack of time, budget or talent but the end result stands. The soundtrack sadly can't compare to Rayman 2, neither can the atmosphere unfortunately.

In terms of levels and their design, it's quite competent. There are just some sections that could have been removed entirely or are just boring and slow. The shoe race for example. Which, of course, had to be repeated 4 times or maybe 5? I dunno my brain turns off during those sections. Some memorable stuff here but unfortunately again it can't compare to the amazing back to back to back to back banger levels of Rayman 2.

Honestly I could go on. But I won't. This game is amazing. I love it. Lot's of variety, fun characters, good writing and decent pace throughout. Never slows down, never falters in quality for too long.

It's definitely worth your time. I don't think it earns 4 stars, but I could never give it any less than that.

Hey.

You wanna play a videogame.
Like, a fucking videogame.
Play this one.
No fat.
No brain dead story, which tries way to hard.
No microtransactions.
Just mechanics.

Almost perfect as far as I'm concerned.

Holy cow! What a complete 180 from the first game.
The series suddenly has stakes, themes and amazing presentation. AC2 takes more time to setup it's world and characters, with good reason. Lucy becomes a character in this one and flees with Desmond from Abstergo, putting some kind of, maybe something almost like a story of some kind into motion. Desmond is cracking jokes and suddenly has hints of personality. There are 2 more chucklefucks introduced which play well off the other characters. Suddenly it's a guerilla fight against Abstergo. It's not Shakespear but it actually works. This all pales in comparison to Ezio, his family and the other characters he meets during his adventures though. Ezio is a brash kid who is just starting to become an adult. We see his exploits before becoming an assassin. His personality and his motivations are shown to us. The plot goes bold places in this one, not reinventing the wheel or anything but for a triple AAA title bold for sure. Narratively this game is a slam dunk compared to the first one.
The cities you can explore have been greatly increased in scale and substance. Florence, Venice, Tuscany, Forli and Monterrigoni all look fantastic and offer a ton of collectibles, sidequests and more. Monterrigoni is especially interesting as it serves as a hub of sorts which can be upgraded and expanded. A money sink of sorts.
The gameplay is much more rounded and nuanced this time around. The free flow movement works much better, combat has been adjusted to actually be some sort of challenge and there are actually more than 4 types of missions in the game.
This game is a quantum leap from the first one, hasn't aged perfectly but still worth a buy today.

It's impossible for me to get into the headspace of an MSX2 player from 1987.
I was still liquid at the time.
But now I am luckily solid, and so I played Metal Gear.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh boy did I play Metal Gear.

In my darkest, most cynical moments, I sometimes feel like Kojima really only had the one trick in the bag. Finally playing the original after playing and replaying most of the other Metal Gear games is a weird experience. So many little touches, mechanics, ideas and details litter this game which would come to fruition in later installments of the franchise. To say the later games retread covered ground is like saying "the sky is blue". Certainly accurate but there's more to it.

In interviews regarding Metal Gear Solid V Kojimas sometimes mentions that V was the game he wanted to make 30 years ago. This is something I can't see in Metal Gear, but I can certainly feel it. Something you could say about most Metal Gear games is that they are Stealth Action games with an uncanny amount of attention to detail and an anti-war/violence message.
(See link in case of confusion) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdJE_u7WsAAAGv_.jpg

All those things I just mentioned are certainly also true about Metal Gear. I can hardly imagine this game coming out while people just got done playing the hot new game Rock Man on their famicom. To say Metal Gear is complex and nuanced for its time is surely an understatement. Between the numerous mechanics and all new cutting edge stealth gameplay, what shocked me the most was the results screen. The beloved results screen makes its debut here. So do the special weapons in fact and the code name ratings. One of the items you're being rated on is straight up "Humans Killed", just in case you thought the anti violence message was not in place at this time.

Gameplay is perfectly serviceable, especially for the time. I find myself liking moving around the most. Navigating Snake is fun, like it always is. Stealth actually has some pretty interesting nuances. How enemies sight lines work being one of them. Figuring out they can only spot you on a specific line coming from their sprite is fun to find out and even more fun to abuse. Shooting is meh. The big highlight gameplay wise are the bosses. Bosses? Good? In Metal Gear? Nahhhhhhhh.
Find the right weapon for the job is a necessity. You are almost always outmatched, so finding the correct tool for the job and the right strategy to match feels like you won with your wits and not with the brute force of your arsenal.
(Kinda like in a Metal Gear game.)

The items and gadgets in the game are numerous, but mostly glorified keys. Thinking about it now, it's got some Metroidvania vibes going on. This wasn't entirely groundbreaking however, since the original Metroid released about a year prior. While the weapons and gadgets aren't all that interesting for modern standards, some of them have secret little secondary uses which aren't communicated to you at all. While it's fun finding those uses, it's a little less fun if finding this hidden mechanic is necessary for progression.

Elephant in the room time.

This game is bullshit. It's littered with 1980s gaming horseshit. Stand in this specific spot and use the radio frequency that one NPC told you about like 2 hours ago, fuck you. Stuff like that is all over this game. A lot of trial and error, so to speak. I actually got through most of the game without looking stuff up, but even I have my limits with this bullshit. Finding hidden rooms by blowing up random walls is a progress relevant task, multiple times. That shit's not for secrets, that's just mandatory my dude.
Oh, and don't forget, place your plastic explosives at Metal Gears legs in the following order:
R, R, L, R, L, L, R, L, L, R, R, L, R, L, R, R.
If you don't, Metal Gear won't take damage and you need 16 charges to destroy it, so don't mess up or show up unprepared. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I like it doe.
It's got some strange charm which I can't quite put into words.
I hear the second one if way better, so maybe play that one.

I have waited over 10 years for this game to come out.
To be able to say that I was not disappointed is probably the biggest compliment I can give this game. Suda and his Crew at Grasshopper actually pulled it off.
My expectations were thoroughly exceeded. I find it important to mention that this game does not try to imitate the first game nor replace it. I got the feeling that Suda realised that the original is untouchable. So he and his team opted to make a game which celebrated the series rather than try to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was No More Heroes.
This game is honestly a technical mess. But it's the good kind of technical mess. You can really feel the passion and love that was poured into this project. The technical issues feel like they exist due to budget and time constraints rather than a lack of skill. So the exact the opposite of a Bethesda game.
But enough words, start the game.

A fine game with a lot of effort behind it with some bad design decisions mixed in.
I really love 2D Metal Gear, which is probably why this game fell a little short for me. While I love some parts of this game, others really drag down the experience in my opinion. It all works, it all functions quite fine, some parts just overstay their welcome a little. Personally I think this game could have done with some pruning. My first playthrough took around 9 hours and I think about 3 of those could have been cut out entirely.

I felt that the cutscenes in this game dragged on for way too long and the dialogue itself, while funny in places, was nothing to write home about. It's very much self aware, this is played for laughs multiple times but if I'm being honest it started to annoy me in the last 2 to 3 hours of the game and I could never really get invested in the story. Which seems like a problem to me, because there is just so much of it. There's obviously a gag about Metal Gear having long cutscenes in here, but personally I think it falls completley flat. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for the MSX has a lot of dialogue but not nearly the amount this game has. MG2 is also around 5 hours shorter. But let's pretend the comparison is not invited and judge it on it's own merits.

The gameplay is a mixed bag for me aswell. Movement is very smooth and fun, the shooting works just fine and I really liked the inventory system. That being said I have mixed feelings about the stealth mechanics. Some sightlines seemed a little undercooked for me. Getting caught is usually either a game over or a healing item tax. There's no chase, no hide and seek. The level design rarely allows you too outwit the AI by finding a clever hiding spot or simply lose them in the corridors. There are items and weapons which can help you take out guards, however there are no items which help you to hide from them. Due to this every room becomes a simple game of "How was this room designed to be beaten?". During my first and sadly only playthrough I felt that the game offered very little in terms of player expression and creativity. Everytime I thought I outsmarted the game a text box appeared and told me: "Sorry, you can't do that yet." Lastly I thought that the leveling system felt completley tacked on.

I really wanted to love this game. But I'm afraid it's just gonna be that one playthrough for me. There isn't much reason to revisit it as far as I'm concerned.
Still if you are into 2D Metal Gear, I'd give it a look.