Woefully unbalanced and broken and that is precisely what makes it so chaotically enjoyable. Everyone gets access to the same ridiculous weapons of destruction to the point it becomes fair again, no two races are the same. The skill ceiling, mechanics and physics are so much more advanced than other MKs that everything else pales in comparison for me. There has never been movement as good as the bikes in this game since. It also has the best new tracks (which were all BUTCHERED in 8) and selection of characters. And of course, a thriving online scene that still plays the game every day and are creating custom tracks for it 15 years later. The GOAT Mario Kart no contest

(Played using BetterSADX, Dreamcast Conversion and JP Retranslated mods)

"Aged poorly" is a meme phrase at this point but SA1 genuinely has. It must not be forgotten that these graphics and setpieces were mind blowing compared to the competition in 1998. It was well recieved in its day. The stage design and mechanics are a genuinely great adaptation of 2D Sonic to 3D no matter what Nintendo YouTubers said about "rocky transitions", it shows a dramatic emotional story from 6 different connected perspectives and has a killer soundtrack. At this point the Sonic series went full shonen. But playing it today you're really gonna feel the extreme jank, the emptiness of hub worlds, the pathetically easy boss fights, the awkward animations and timing in cutscenes, the lifeless English voice acting.

Most games that get remakes don't need them - I have never truly desired for something to be remade more than SA1. It has so much heart and should be able to wow people again. Today's Sonic Team are not the ones capable of doing it justice though

very flawed game in structure, but like... when you have a game that feels THIS good to play, i can forgive it. sometimes i just boot up mario sunshine just to run around for a bit because its that much fun to me. and to be honest, i find fludd to be really cool a lot of the time. i think a lot of the ideas they had with fludd were really fun and inventive, and the hover doesnt feel overbearingly handholdy. the game was very clearly designed around having it, and it doesnt make the game feel any easier. which is an important thing to mention, because this game is HAAARD. sunshine will kick your ass harder than any other 3D mario in my opinion, especially with those blue coins. and like i said previously, the structure issues with this game mean that you cant just skip a level if youre having issues with it. you gotta beat the 7th level in EVERY area, no questions asked. (unless we're talking about GBS) going back to positives, though, MAN is this game atmospheric. i feel like videogames peaked when they looked the way mario sunshine did, its my benchmark for if a game looks "good" to me. and with areas like noki bay, sirena beach, and pianta village, the relaxing atmosphere of this game REALLY come out. and the world just feels so lived in, you can see every area dotted with houses and buildings and little bits of detail that were not necessary, but are absolutely a great addition. SMS is a flawed game, yes, but i still love it for what it is. i just wish someone could like, make a rom hack of this game to fix the progression issues, and itd be an easy 5/5 for me.

I checked in on my accumulating heap of little bastards everyday for like 3 months straight in the loneliest period of my life. I had like 60 miis by the end, perfectly split between OC's and esoteric media figures. I developed plot lines, heated rivalries, villains, bizarre love triangles and a bunch of guys I'd just chill out with to support the fictions of my mindscape. It's like Zodiac signs for the gamer girlies in how you see a character's actions and either dismiss it or decide "That makes so much sense coming from them". Wayne Hylics and myself IRL eating pizza together at 3AM is now a core gaming memory. It's realistically mediocre outside of it's quirk factor, with little left to see after 10 or so hours, but I fell in love with my utopia.

I have no idea why this is considered "the good one", this is so horribly designed compared to World on PS1 which was a decent little platformer. What happened?? First thing you realise is the view is no longer fixed to the side and you are immediately hit with the worst free camera possibly ever. Initially the levels seem a bit more open, trying to be more like Mario with the metal cap and underwater stuff, or Crash Bandicoot with levels that have you running towards the camera. After the 2nd boss the quality goes down the toilet and you are surrounded by bottomless death pits at all times, either trying to find your way through confusing pitch black mazes or just going down a straight line jumping over more death pits / swimming on rails. Very boring level theming all round. 100%ing this could pass as a form of torture