It's got some neat ideas and worlds, but it also has a lot of really rough aspects that feel trickled down from earlier games. Going from the command deck in Birth by Sleep, which I thought was fine, to this was kind of weird in my opinion. That coupled with the main gameplay mechanic being a weird pokemon/smt/ buddy sim, this felt like the kingdom hearts where I really stopped thinking about combat and just mashed. Birth by Sleep using the command deck to make themed decks that turn into different command styles is a pretty fun feature. Here its just kinda slapped in with little payoff and any duplicate spells you get go into a creature creation process I didn't pay much attention to and didn't feel too much of a need to do so playing on normal mode. Also flowmotion is a super fun to use mechanic, too bad it almost feels like it just shits on any attempt at level design since you can just do stuff like infinite wall jump up to high up locations and disregard any rails or other platforms leading up to it. It was incredibly funny getting glide 80% of the way in despite the fact there's so little need for it when you just have the most insanely implemented movement mechanic in kingdom hearts right from the first world.
Story wise its still that kingdom hearts brand stupid-fun-enjoyable-cheesy amalgam the other games are but this game did make me have an epiphany. I no longer care about any prospects of Sora getting into smash. I want Riku instead that guy's pretty cool. Really glad this game gives you the chance to play as him in a game that isn't Re:CoM. (sidenote: it didn't take me until I was almost done finishing this review that I remembered twewy characters were in this, really odd they're here for like <10% of the game ngl)
Also a lot of the post-game completion just seems really redundant. Probably one of the easier games to 100% skill wise but takes a lot of time with regards to how skills work, special portal drop chances, buddy raising, etc.
Lastly, fuck flick rush.
It's still a pretty enjoyable time with some good fan service thrown about, but a lot of the new mechanics charm wore off after the first few worlds or so, leaving me kinda disappointed.

+from the get-go a lot of the charm and wit of the rhythm heaven series is present here, which speaks to how skilled these developers were already and how strong of a concept this was from the beginning. seeing as much of the warioware staff was on this game from R&D1, there is a lot of similarities in the graphics and overall minigame design as well
+this game has 25 unique stages and a full set of repeated stages, which surprised me as rhythm heaven on ds has more or less the same amount
+lovely sound for a GBA game, which considering the hardware is no small feat. solid vocal samples as well
+they go out of the box quite a bit with some of the minigames, and there's gems here that are worth checking out. the quiz game is repeat-after-me with a fantastic framing, toss boys has a lot of depth with excellent visual/audio cues, and this game's version of built to scale does a great job emphasizing rhythmic independence between the two hands

-there's some pretty boring games in here as well, it's not all winners. when the game's at its worst, it usually pairs a possibly-interesting theme with lackluster rhythm gameplay, usually just matching very simple on-screen cues. some of the games go nowhere in terms of difficulty progression as well
-the limitations of the GBA sound hardware keep this one from greatness, in a way. songs will often abruptly end or only have a single repeated section. the remixes are also not quite as creative as later ones, and you can tell they often struggle with how to map a different song to one of the games beyond doing the simplest thing imagineable.
-some of these games are sorely missing practice. I understand why they chose to throw the player in blind, but I prefer knowing exactly what I'm getting into, and letting the rhythms they throw at you surprise me instead

highly recommend a look-see if you're into the rest of the series, since it's very short and pretty easy to get into if you're already familiar with the series. I didn't want to list it as a negative since it's not their fault, but the lack of localization has made some minigames more difficult (though the fan translators did a great job regardless). if you're new I would steer you towards a later entry

+this game alone is the most influential in terms of zelda dungeon design from my perspective. virtually all of them are based around finding a particular item in the first half to solve puzzles in the second half, with plenty of interlocking room layouts and smart backtracking. many of the lttp dungeons felt more like gauntlets with less critical thinking involved, whereas these dungeons require the player to think about the dungeon as a whole, where to go to next, and how the item they just got affects the area around them. eagle's tower particularly stood out for me: though the mirror shield is not used much within it, the ball-throwing puzzles to drop the fourth story down really stood out as a smart puzzle that required thinking through the layout of the whole dungeon
+really useful QoL upgrades, with sword always being available, pegasus boots and shield getting their own shoulder buttons, and two item slots to work with on top of that
+the game is pretty good at telling you your next objective; a useful side effect of how linear the game is compared to lttp and even oot. having hint centers all over helps significantly as well
+very manageable trading quest. it's well-planned so that as long as you keep up with it you'll always be near the next place you're supposed to go
+I like how the overworld is segmented behind item unlocks, so that more and more opens up as you progress
+jumps are much appreciated. it can be hard to remember to use them because I'm not used to using them in a top-down zelda game, but when it's incorporated well it's really good
+item variety overall is very smart, as it retained all the good ones from lttp while removing the more situational ones. I also thought it was smart that the bombs/bow are in the shop from the get-go, so as to put focus on the other items

-this remake has poor frame pacing and it's extremely noticable. I don't even think the bloom effects look that good... why didn't they just disable it entirely?
-the overworld is intricate to the point that it can be difficult to find out where you are supposed to go, especially around the halfway point. not so much because the world is confusing, but rather that the warps are limited in scope and backtracking can be very tedious due to your lack of movement options. really dampened my impression of the game thanks to this
-in relation to the above point, I really did not feel pushed to re-explore parts of the world I had already been to thanks to how slow it is to get around sometimes. the world isn't very large but even so I often just wanted to move on instead of revisiting areas to possibly find new collectables
-dampe's dungeon maker looks stupid. didn't even bother setting foot inside
-would have really liked d-pad support, since this game is 8-way movement only. would have also appreciated being able to remap one of the shoulder buttons... I don't use pegasus boots all that often since many room layouts don't work well with it
-thanks to the much higher resolution of the switch over the game boy, it makes many of the areas seem oddly small since you can often see what were previously multiple rooms all at once. the cutesy art style is very appealing as well but it removes some of the unsettling atmosphere as well

the dungeons really blew me away here after being unimpressed by those in lttp. however, I still had some reservations on aspects of it outside of the dungeons, and this port has some notable issues that really should have been taken care of, especially since this is not grezzo's first rodeo. I still have yet to play the gbc version outside of the opening sections, but overall I would say this is definitely a solid modern way to experience the original, with a lot of the positives (and some negatives) poking out from below the new coat of paint.

I can't really think of a full pros/cons chart because I actually played this game quite a while ago (I think late 2019/early 2020) and only just now got around to finishing the final boss. I appreciate good-feel's decision to significantly alter the gameplay of the yoshi's island series after their by-the-numbers yoshi's woolly world, but this game really does not hit the mark. the game attempts to draw from the 2.5D gameplay seen in yoshi's story on n64, where yoshi can move on paths into the foreground and background when the game allows. yoshi can also hit objects in the foreground and background with his eggs, and by proxy this means that yoshi's aiming has now become a controllable cursor rather than an automatically-moving one as in previous games. this slows down the pace considerably and can feel unreliable due to the many targetable objects on each stage. the stage gimmicks fail to use this in interesting ways and instead provide an odd mish-mash of concepts that mostly confuse rather than excite.

other than the main gameplay, the collectables endemic to yoshi's island have proliferated far beyond the bounds of reason, with some stages hitting a flower count in the double digits if my memory serves correctly. these now serve as a block for further progression, so simply ignoring them will not allow you to proceed (usual YI challenges like having full health at the end of a level or getting all red coins also give a flower). much like woolly world, the puzzles and challenges for getting these flowers are repeated often and become tired quickly. there are also several minigame levels; nothing too crazy but also not really annoying either. for side content you can play each level in reverse searching for poochies, and you can also replay levels searching for specific objects in the background to hit. neither set of missions hold any particular interest for me. otherwise this was a suitable podcast game and nothing more. I definitely recommend you listen to at least something else in the background, as the music is absolutely off-key/horrid and tracks are repeated often. not a great game to be honest.

+the level design in this game is so wildly varied between stages, with unique enemies in each stage + environmental hazards that will surprise you even deep into a level. it's all bolstered by the fact that the first stage is yours to choose out of five initial planets
+really great tunes in this one. had a friend in college who kept telling me that this was some of the best music ever, which is definitely hyperbole lol but it definitely stands up proud against other genesis soundtracks
+the graphics are unquestionably amazing, especially in terms of framerate stability and the number of sprites on screen at once. this is a pre-snes game and yet when later ported to said system it performed much worse than it does here. the parallax scrolling is also excellent, and the multi-jointed bosses are quite a sight to behold. technosoft were definitely one of the first to start squeezing power out of the genesis
+the pacing for each level is the perfect length to allow someone to learn a stage without it being too long to get a feel for, while also not trivializing the difficulty. it also helps that you only lose a single weapon (and your options) upon death, so you still have your other weapons to work with

-difficulty curve is pretty flat overall, and honestly I'd say gorgon (the usual second stage) was the hardest for me at the end of the day
-final boss felt a little limp, tho this is a really minor nitpick because I also enjoyed not having to try the final boss more than a couple times

after a few weeks of playing through a genesis game a week, this is the first one that's really unquestionably impressed me. I already knew I liked this game quite a bit after trying it here and there over the last year, but finally playing through to the end felt so rewarding. standout shooter of the era and a reminder of why the genesis was so dominant for shmups

+I can't think of many other games where you get to play as a character moving this fast through a 3d environment. quickly moving objects tend to wreck havoc in 3d engines, and having such an object be player-controlled is just asking for trouble
+sonic's campaign here is probably the best ~2 hours you'll get out of any of the 3d sonic games (barring the unskippable cutscenes lol). so many different setpieces and hazards throughout the stages, reflecting the philosophy of the genesis era games
+one of the best looking '98 games, and I honestly still like looking at it quite a bit. it has not aged as well as much of the dreamcast's early 00s catalog for sure, but it's fascinating seeing a late 90s example of (at the time) high resolution 3d graphics, long draw distances, and high quality textures all moving quickly with a solid framerate
+so much content in this game. six campaigns, a rail shooter minigame, chao garden, optional missions for each level, hub worlds, two full pinball tables, npcs with their own storylines, it's a surprising amount of cotent for a game of this era
+the gamma level hot shelter is another high point. his levels are shooter stages on a time limit, and this stage in particular leans into putting a ton of shootables on screen at once, with a great train setpiece in the middle where you jump between cars in two trains moving at separate speeds
+I think the knuckles levels are ok, maybe not the best but emerald hunting is an easy enough formula to get right
+it's hard to ignore how forward-thinking this game was on many levels, and how it reflects sega's AAA strategy from this point on. where sega excels is making games with many different engines and flavors rather than honing in on a single gameplay style, and this game shows both the best and the worst of that technique

-basically every other campaign other than sonic's just rehashes his levels, sometimes with the same level layout. some go as far as repeating boss fights as well
-the tails campaign is the laziest of them all, since his levels are snippets of sonics with the added ability to fly. said ability makes traversing trivally easy, and makes his whole campaign feel pretty lackluster. having to replay the Tornado rail shooter levels from sonic's campaign is also a bummer
-amy feels terrible to play as due to her low top speed and poor acceleration. while there are some interesting bits spread throughout her levels, and the constantly-being-chased concept is interesting, it just doesn't hit the mark here
-most of gamma's campaign feels unfinished. apart from hot shelter, most of his levels are under a minute long, making the whole "gain extra time by shooting more things" moot
-big the cat... I don't need to say much here, because yea the fishing mechanic is rough. a little shocking that it wasn't better given sega's excellent fishing game pedigree. may have been better serviced as an optional minigame
-super sonic controls so poorly during the final boss segment. he's constantly snagging on things, which is rough considering he needs to be going a certain speed in order to deal damage to perfect chaos
-in general the game is extremely buggy. unpolished physics would become a hallmark of sonic team's platforming output, and I can excuse it a little considering this was the first game, but it doesn't make playing the game any easier. you will spend most of your time learning how to not break a given level versus learning its mechanics and obstacles, sadly
-the cutscenes are extremely rough in this game, though this would get fixed in sonic adventure 2. animations are poor, framing is shoddy, the story is laughably bad, and cutscenes are completely unskippable on dreamcast

I have a huge soft spot for this game since I grew up playing it on pc/gamecube, but it's hard to ignore the flaws present here. thankfully, this feels like the best game for me to just jump in to a sonic level when I'm in the mood thanks to the variety and depth of sonic's campaign. actually wading through the rest of the game is a different story, however. at the very least, it was fun for me to play through this one on dreamcast thanks to the sterling VGA output and retro feel, and if you're into the old sega consoles it's worth sitting down and playing around with.

What a crackin' wee game. It's so frantic and chaotic. A short and sweet thing that crashes through your window, slaps you about, and is gone before you're fully aware of what happened.

The initial moment of "My lady, the votes have all been tallied.." then just straight into you being the president of New Japan while still in high school. The fuckin' building immediately opening up and you diving into a mech to go fight the enemy. Hype as shit.

It hits just all the right notes that get me going, and does it in such a good amount of time that I feel comfy recommending it to anyone.

I grew up with this game and spent many hours playing it as a kid, but if you take off the nostalgia goggles, this is probably the worst Mario Kart. Its racing mechanics are lacking, the tracks are hit-or-miss, and it just feels behind the times compared to its contemporaries. Given that this was the height of the kart racing genre, a lot of people just assume that this is a classic entry in the franchise, but it's really not. Diddy Kong Racing is your best bet on the N64, but the best kart racer of this era (CTR) isn't even on a Nintendo console. Thankfully, they more than made up for it with Double Dash.