Whoa! This update is everything I actually wanted from Sifu to begin with! It warns you straight off the bat that it's intended for experienced players who have actually finished the game and it actually kinda delivers on that promise - it's testing you on more skills and mechanics than the base game fully utilizes. And, uh, there's plenty more in the way of famous references, if that's what you're here for.

For the record, don't go into this expecting large missions with shortcuts and secrets and bosses like the base game. This is an update substantial enough that some would sell it as DLC, but it's still just a set of escalating challenges across a handful of arenas.

If you want a narrative, of course, the main campaign still exists. But the story introduces all sorts of mechanics that are barely used (remember how you scramble up a fence once at the beginning and basically never touch that function again?) and allows you to skate by without testing you on subtler skills (managing space, target prioritization, etc). The first set of arenas mostly comprises a bunch of dudes running at you, which is certainly fun in its own way, but it's not putting all its cards on the table until the new objectives and restrictions appear. How do you capture zones as quickly as possible when there are too many enemies to kill? Are you going to be as successful when you can't break your enemies' posture for an instant kill? I've replayed Sifu several times now and this update is the point at which the group fights feel like they're delivering on their full potential.

I wouldn't buy the game for this alone - it is not fundamentally re-imagining itself - but if you were waiting for this game to have a little more meat to it (whether you're a new purchase or making a return trip), consider taking another look.

have been coming back to this one lately after stalling out back in 2021 and wow is it disappointing that they don't do anything more interesting with the slavery plot. setting up a free excuse to go absolutely apeshit on the baddies and instead they do nothing with it, like the writers mistakenly thought that "slavery" is the name of a schoolyard bully or a big cartoon dragon and not, uh, something that is responsible for incalculable real-life misery. it's just... that's kinda a heavy concept to wield when the rest of the game is so ankle-deep. it feels like they were totally bored with the idea before you even make it to the second boss

i do sincerely like the combat though! as someone who barely touches JRPGs i had some issues with not being genre-savvy enough (mostly as it pertains to buffs/resource management) but other than that? i had an unreservedly good time with this chunk - dog, look at those boost strikes! pure shounen action schlock (i say this affectionately). shame that everything even tangentially related to the story is completely toothless!

Stretches the definition of "remaster" a bit, but I think in this case that's for the best. I referenced Need for Speed's identity problem in my review for Unbound, seeing how two years after 2010's Hot Pursuit came out, Forza started pulling NFS' identity as "the fun one" out from under them with each new entry in the Horizon series.

("The fun one" isn't meant to suggest that other games like FlatOut or Burnout didn't exist, but if you were in it for the racing or the licensed cars - not the destruction physics - Need for Speed was the safe bet, the game popular enough that you could talk about it with acquaintances. It's also worth pointing out that Burnout hasn't had an original, mainline entry in the series since 2008, and FlatOut has received 2 sequels since then that have both disappointed series fans.)

Hailing from a pre-Forza Horizon era, Hot Pursuit still feels confident. The game is a playable car commercial. Not the ones about how your car will stop you from turning pedestrians into tomato paste, but the ones about how buying a new minivan can help you re-discover the joy of driving on an impossibly well-paved road winding along a cliff by the sea.

If the playable car commercial was indeed the inspiration for this entry in the series, then it executes on it admirably well. I'm not going to claim that the race designs are groundbreaking, but each one has a concept that keeps the whole affair from becoming a checklist despite the total lack of a story to guide the campaign. The roads are just wide enough and the traffic just sparse enough that you'll have to remain vigilant, but worry not - you'll be frequently rewarded with opportunities to fully open the throttle and just let loose on the open road. The voiced introductions for each car (played alongside the roar of its engine) are dramatic, sure, but they fit so well with the game's aesthetic and the narrator speaks so authoritatively that you'd be forgiven for thinking that something as mundane as the Nissan 370Z could play a pivotal role in automotive history, "redefining what an affordable sports car could be".

There are conventional races, there are time trials (mostly used as an opportunity to let you drive a Bugatti way earlier than normal), but the game is at its best when the cops show up to a race and you're clawing for first place while everyone involved - including you! - is flinging spike strips and EMPs all over the track. Where this game's slightly larger, straighter roads might make another racing game boring, you'll need the space to be strategic when the intensity is cranked this high. Otherwise, you'll find yourself cornered by a spike strip that has drifted into your path, still trying to come to a stop after being deployed at 240 mph. The large roads and the limited usage of player gadgets means that the emphasis is on driving skillfully first and foremost, and the simplicity of those gadgets keeps the mental load light while doing so. It still skews closer to straightforward NFS titles than a kart racer, but it does so without feeling rote or unfocused.

Except, uh, if you know this game you know I've been mostly talking about one half of it. I'm not nearly as enamored with the cop missions, which are typically going to task you with taking down racers before they finish a race or a certain amount of time elapses. There's just not enough present here to make the cop missions feel like anything more than a distraction, comparatively. The big distinction between cops and racers is the focus on a deadline, but the abilities that are unique to cops can't sell the fantasy of being the cat in a game of Cat & Mouse when the racer abilities do a better job of conveying impact. Helicopters and roadblocks are more fun for racers due to the added tension, but racer abilities don't return the favor: Turbo feels like you're piloting a missile for a few seconds, but from a cop's perspective, your target just gets faster? You're not getting the same sensation. This isn't to say that cop gameplay totally lacks excitement, because on a fundamental level you're still racing, you're still using gadgets (and spike strips still pack a punch), but you lose ~20% of the Racer campaign's thrill when you're not chasing a podium while staring down the barrels of two different factions trying to turn your car into tinfoil.

I suppose now is the point where I admit that I'm more than a little biased. I didn't realize I'd be so sentimental about this whole thing until I fired it up and realized this (or rather, the original version of this game) is the last game I remember being excited about before I started racking up adult responsibilities, and this is the first time I've picked it back up in 13 years. So uh - take all this with a grain of salt?