if WIIIIIIILLD WOODY had some tighter controls and better collision detection, then we'd be calling it an overlooked gem

the cutscenes and music need no introduction (they're incredible) and as it stands the level design is still a hell of a lot more coherent than the majority of its labyrinthine contemporaries which the 16 bit era was so plagued by for some reason. the sketch mechanic is fun too albeit underutilized

if you can accept the jank it's fun enough to blast through. just make sure to use the load button after game overing - it's actually a continue option

context is why this collection thrives

whether you grew up with atari games, you find their primitive nature to be charming, or you kinda fucking hate them and claim they're boring as sin - atari 50 has something for you

this isn't a hollow game collection - it's an interactive museum. many of the titles on here are backed by interesting concept art, corporate documents, and even developer interviews. it's so fascinating to see the rise and fall of atari chronicled so honestly from the people that saw it eat shit firsthand. the whole presentation really enriches a lot of the games on here. arcade inlays and side panels are replicated, shitass controls are optimized for controllers, and some classics are even remade faithfully from the ground up

my only gripe is that this strain on the historical angle means some more fun and exciting picks were left out. this especially is noticeable on the jaguar selection. there's not a single cd-based pick on here, and a lot of more interesting titles (attack of the mutant penguins for instance) are omitted in favor of absolute fucking trash like atari karts and club drive. not the end of the world since emulators exist, but an oversight nonetheless

insultingly bad barring two zones

the issue isn't that sonic is slow - he is fucking immobile. most of the obstacles aren't even platforming challenges but rather just waiting for blockades to move. proof that marketing is everything when your audience is dumb kids

thankfully the sequels introduced speed to the series... what a novel concept

jump to the bottom of this review for the optimal physics settings. game is ass without them. thank me later

frustratingly close to being the best sonic game ever. with proper momentum there would be little contest, but thankfully the freeflowing open world promotes speed and precision above all else. if you're playing the game as it's intended you won't really ever be standing still, and thanks to sonic's, well... speed - frontiers may be the only open world game in the past ten or more years to actually justify its own vastness

regardless, the lack of momentum is still a problem during the few sections that are strictly 2d. i have no idea why there are levels that depend on inertia in a game where your character literally grinds himself to a halt every time you're not holding forward. all of this could be fixed if sonic only stopped after gradually losing speed or when holding a braking button or something, but because nothing like that is in place there's a few especially jarring sequences here and there

momentum aside, my only other complaint is the deceptive progression and noticeable lack of budget. i was really eager to see all five islands and what kinds of biomes they'd cover or what other characters may pop up. unfortunately the last two are pretty disingenuously labeled. think of the actual zone count as 3.5 and you wont be too underwhelmed - the first three are pretty massive areas anyway. i just wanted more. it's been a while since i've played a 30+ hour game that i didn't want to end

i'm incredibly eager to see what comes next. i hope sonic team picks up on frontiers' slack and puts out the actual best game in the franchise next time

optimal settings:

starting speed: 60
initial boost speed: 90
turning speed: 100
boost turning speed: 20
top speed: 100
steering sensitivity: 100
acceleration: 50
bounce height: 100

the most important things here are the third, fourth, and sixth options. sonic steers like a fucking tank otherwise. i'd recommend dropping the camera distance to 40 and upping its speed to 70ish but that's up to preference

edit: with the update this all stays the same. you'll just want to also turn deceleration completely off and keep the deceleration rate somewhere around 90 to 100 depending on what you prefer. i'm not a fan of stopping completely on a dime, but anything below 90 gets real stupid real fast

what a colossal fucking disappointment

star ocean has always been a fairly niche series built more on its mechanical depth and replayability than storytelling. however most games in the series at least manage to be entertaining, whether for plot or character driven reasons there's always something to care about besides just the gameplay

enter the divine force - where, uh, that's really not the case at all. i'm not sure i've ever played a game to feature a more boring cast of characters in my entire life, which is a huge problem because unlike in the 16 and 32 bit titles this game prides itself on homaging nobody here ever shuts the fuck up even when the only dialogue they have to contribute is a rephrase of the same thing they said 15 minutes prior and will say again multiple times over within the following hour

almost nobody grows or develops. there are attempts at emotional moments that all fall completely flat since the chemistry between cast members is roughly comparable to the relationship a cashier has with their customer. it's all so formal, lifeless, and downright unbelievable, but if your suspension of disbelief doesn't shatter in half there, the stiff cutscene animatronics a la ffxiv (2010) will sever any and all possible connection you could have ever had to this very inspired plot about a ragtag group fighting an evil space faction (which isn't properly introduced until over halfway through the game)

next i'd like to take a moment to discuss the soundtrack:

combat is the only point where the divine force ever shines, and even then it's still frequently mishandled. welcome to the worst targeting system in the series, (there is no fucking hard lock-on!) and possibly the most braindead ai ever seen in any arpg. on galaxy (normal mode) you might not even get to notice since it's so damn trivial that some bosses can die to a single buffed-up attack. but on universe (hard) and above most of the difficulty comes from not running out of revival items for your dumbass party members who keep sprinting into the same overtly telegraphed, mmo-style, circular kill-zones (and sometimes using their own abilities to warp you into said kill-zones for good measure)

party tactics are pretty much nonexistent. you can tell the ai to focus on separate enemies, the same targets as you, or to "do whatever you want lol". there's no "stay put" option, which means there's no efficient way to coordinate combos between characters. you can't even really buffer moves and then switch because the ai will typically just cancel whatever you were doing and run up to get slaughtered some more. it's a shame because with some basic commands (or even a really stripped down gambit system) this could all work perfectly. but instead everything is a giant clusterfuck and certain bosses on harder difficulties are either solo chipfests or cheesy washouts depending on the player's willingness to grind the crafting system for broken equipment

outside of combat there's pretty little to do. sidequests are about as bland as bland gets. wanna go to that place you just left and grab an item in exchange for some other item? or better yet - find some little girl's cat? then go for it i guess. otherwise between the action you're just going to be aimlessly gliding for exp crystals and battling it out with townsfolk in the most insultingly mindless minigame (es'owa) i've ever seen. triple triad this is not. still, you'll probably end up grinding your civilian opponents to dust anyway just because the rewards for doing so earn you some good accessories. oh boy!

by now you're probably thinking i hate this game, and, well, you may be correct! i went in with fairly high expectations, and while they were certainly tempered after playing the demo i still had hope that the characters would improve and the combat would have more to it than first impressions let on... and then after around 15-20 hours of the full release i ended up running so3 intermittently to remind myself that this series wasn't always a soulless husk of itself

sure it's fun to play at times, but there's so much wrong here that i can't in good faith recommend this game unless you're a diehard star ocean fan who intends to skip all the cutscenes or you're just craving mid and your diet is insatiable

john carpenter's "the thing" right down to an equally underwhelming ending

but seriously - when did it become the norm to start paying $20 for things like this? carrion is about as complex as a flash game you'd find front-paged on newgrounds circa 2012 and plenty less fun at that

it's pretty rough around the edges and not particularly cleverly designed. there's a couple mildly satisfying puzzles, and level progression is simple and linear enough (barring optional backtracking which is a pain) but combat is boring and the flashback bits are incredibly pointless. i have no idea why they exist beyond some dire attempt at padding

want to be a villainous, fleshy monster with a penchant for killing? then download bluemaxima's flashpoint and play miami shark or something. don't bother with this unless it's on sale

a sadistic exercise in problem-solving and masochism

i can't sing enough praise about this game's exploration. so instead i'll post a warning: take notes meticulously, and do not slack. i started thinking the difficulty was overhyped, and began writing fewer notes. that came back to bite me in the ass during the last third, and i needed to look up hints just to understand where to go next. don't let up or these ruins will fucking eat you alive

what i won't applaud so much is the combat side of la mulana. the bosses are all fair, but not all that fun or memorable in many cases. there's exceptions (mostly in the endgame) but generally i found myself just blowing them away with expensive pistol rounds to save the hassle

looking forward to running the sequel with no external help. my notes will be unparalleled. those ruins are fucking mine

thanks ps+, i sure do love being thrown immediately into the endgame of an mmo with little to no prior exposition at all whatsoever!

finally, after sifting through like 20 vague tutorials i've been greeted with some warframe knockoff that features some of the limpest dickest melee combat i've ever experienced

pity unto whoever bought the original release