playing the first ratchet&clank again after sinking so many hours into the other games, this feels like a totally different beast compared to the later games in the series. not even meaning the whole expanded (and weirdly handled) lore and epic cinematic angle the more modern games went for, i mean even compared to Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal, R&C1 feels pretty different just in how it plays.

while the games after R&C1 would be more of "shooter with platformer elements", R&C1 itself feels more "platformer with shooter elements". yeah, obvious difference is that there's no strafe, but the game in general just feels more slower-paced than the later titles. weapons feel more like tools instead of solely a means to blast enemies, and you end up figuring out which weapons are best for which stages/enemies. the health system also makes things more challenging; all enemies take away a single sphere of health, but the amount of spheres you have (8 at max) gives combat a lot more of a risky venture, especially if you're just going to do a wrench-only run. ratchet can't rely on armor, he's only got clank, his weapons, and his natural lombax agility.

doesn't mean R&C1 is "bad" by any stretch, though it is weird to come back to after being so used to the later games. and i'm gonna be real, i don't think mikey kelley ratchet is as mean as people make him out to be; definitely a jerk to clank at times, but the guy nearly got stuck in a deathtrap because clank blindly trusted people, give him a little slack.

that being said, R&C1 isn't without its shortcomings. wasn't a big fan of hoverboarding (especially since the skillpoints related to it were nightmarish), flying segments are pretty dull, and honestly the whole game itself can be really merciless at times with the scarce checkpoints it gives. though the top offender goes to clank's slow-ass gameplay, and it took until the ps3 era for clank's areas to not feel like a complete slog.

still a fun time overall, and the presentation, music, writing, and visuals still stand proud alongside the rest of the series. okay maybe this game has a leg up on the later games' writing. look, i'm still iffy on the whole direction of making ratchet "the super special last of his kind" thing. let the guy just be a lil mechanic who likes guns, that's what i know him best as.

also tesla claw goated

i haven't played a modern mainline pokemon game since X and the last pokemon game i ever beat in full (and sank a lot of hours into) was emerald. gen 6 was the point where i basically fell out of pokemon because i felt like the formula just wasn't being shaken up enough for me to keep interest, even with sun/moon and sword/shield trying their best.

but dang, they took a gamble with scarlet esp with the rushed dev time, and even with a pokemon game destined to print money regardless, there's a whole lot that caught my interest in the release months enough for me to actually WANT a copy.

the open world isn't visually great, but it's a blast to explore with your bike lizard. not too fussed about the open world not scaling since i just approached it like morrowind in the case of "maybe don't come here unless you're properly prepared". like dang, i actually had a use for pokedolls this time around!

picnics are fun, autobattling is handy, story's fantastic for once, music goes hard, i'm bad at raids but they're fun, there's a whole lot of QOL stuff in terms of EV training and other stuff, but the big grab for me is tera types. teras feel like a drastic step up from the previous games in terms of gimmicks, since it doesn't just feel like "uhhhh pokemon/move but stronger" but actually has some interesting utility potential. you want a huge STAB bonus or a pure type change? maybe both? maybe neither but a different use? it's a fantastic game-changer which makes me angry that it's not going to be brought back for future gens.

obviously the game's not without it's flaws, but i'm sure everyone's brought up how the performance sucks and the stability ain't all that great. i'm just gonna say the "musou" segments for team star kinda suck, but at least the presentation for the bosses makes up for them. honestly the gyms are also pretty lacking, especially when compared to the FANTASTIC gym presentation in sw/sh. but sw/sh also didn't have a rapping gym leader with a dancing ghost dog, so that's one thing s/v has over sw/sh.

all in all, to me, scarlet and violet feel like coming home after a long break from pokemon. again, i haven't played a mainlike pokemon game in nearly a decade, but i sure wasn't expecting to sink as much time as i did, especially considering i never beat pokemon X back then. but man if this isn't a comfy time and i'm genuinely hype for future content for scarlet/violet.

man though can you imagine how even greater this game would be if gamefreak had an extra year of devtime on it

me, a fool: oh man it's been so long since i last played the original CTR and i haven't even touched it since nitro-fueled came out, is this going to hold up as well as it did decades ago?

also me, this time after humiliating oxide in glorious 240p: yeah this still holds up, no blue fire necessary.

hot air speedway still sucks