Tedious backtracking in the last part of the game, boring locations, annoying NaviCust programs that must be swapped all the time, shitty dungeons, terrible gimmicky boss fights like BubbleMan and DesertMan, a crazy amount of BugFrag grinding necessary if you wanna truly 100% the game, Serenade's time trials are a bigger test of luck than skill, you are FORCED to get TeamStyle to get ONE V4 Navi Chip and you are also forced to play the White version to get the Mistman chips.

No idea how this is considered the best game in the series.

The passage of time hasn't been kind to Streets of Rage, reducing much of the appeal to its atmosphere and excellent soundtrack. This is true of a lot of early Genesis games, which were altogether a lot more rough than what Nintendo launched with on the SNES, but they still have their own undeniable charm.

Streets combat is fairly bare bones. You'll see others compare it to Final Fight, usually despairingly, and they aren't exactly wrong. Gameplay is a lot more shallow and enemies are fairly repetitive. The difficulty ramps up in a pretty harsh way that doesn't feel great, too. And yet, I just keep coming back to this thing. The music is phenomenal and probably the single biggest stand out feature of the game. These tracks hold up, it's a soundtrack you can easily throw on and just listen to, and it perfectly captures the mood of the dirty neon lit streets you brawl your way through.

As with any brawler, I'd suggest playing with a friend. This is especially true if you want to enjoy the twist ending, which I won't spoil in the off chance that you aren't already aware.

At this point, there is little I can add to the conversation. This game is a masterpiece and one of my favorite games of all time. Having said that though, I highly disagree with the notion that the franchise needs to stick with the turn-based gameplay to be good. I have three reasons for believing this.

Firstly, if you include Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, this was the fourth Mario RPG in a row with the same gameplay and structure. It's likely the developers wanted to try out different kinds of strategic gameplay while still keeping the features that made Paper Mario unique from other RPG franchises (unique chapters, witty dialogue, and a straightforward goal). In fact, when this game originally came out, some people criticized it for feeling too familiar to Paper Mario 64, which already had a lot in common with Super Mario RPG.

My second reason is that despite my love for this game, it is not a flawless masterpiece. All of the Paper Mario games have issues. The backtracking in chapters 4 and 7 are obnoxious and it makes little sense for most partners in these games to keep following Mario all over the place or to not say anything unless you happen to have them selected. Good characters or partners in RPGs come from good dialogue and considerable screen time. In Paper Mario, however, the partners act like items in a Metroidvania, used to progress through otherwise inaccessible areas.

My final reason is that there have been good Paper Mario games that didn't use TTYD's gameplay. Super Paper Mario was a lot of fun and its shortcomings weren't caused by not adhering to its predecessor's gameplay, but rather not fully developing its own gameplay. It also helped that its story was perhaps the most complex of any Mario game to date. Paper Mario: The Origami King was similar. It rose above its flaws through powerful storytelling moments that I didn't think the developers were capable of.

My point is that Intelligent Systems has found ways to pleasantly surprise me with this series despite a lot of strange business and design choices. I am still very upset with Nintendo's restrictions on character designs. And yet, I still loved most of the time I've spent with Paper Mario. It doesn't matter that TTYD is one of my favorite games. What matters is that Intelligent Systems refuses to play it safe with the world's most successful gaming mascot. For that alone, they have earned my respect and I can't wait to see where they will take Paper Mario next.

A technical masterpiece, full of great visuals, detailed backgrounds and perhaps the most amazing motion-capture I've ever witnessed. We're finally getting into next-gen stuff.

I'm not into movie-like games that much, where there are loads of cutscenes and little-to-no freedom to take, it's really not my cup-of-tea, although this game was quite enjoyable, with interesting character lines and decent plot (with some twists on it's way). The gameplay was the highlight to me, though.

SantaMonica Studios did it again, but with all honesty, I rather stay with my obscure, middle of the road japanese exclusive PS2 games.

I still think 'Stray' should win GOTY, but since this marvel-like, story-driven games are liked by the masses, this game might take it this year.