This was one of the few major Sonic games I never played before so I decided to finally give it a try. The game starts out great, the opening stage playing as Sonic is very fun and was a great evolution of the 3D Sonic gameplay at the time. Then the werehog hits... and it wasn't that bad honestly. It was a light/worse version of God of War but it was pretty inoffensive. So I was feeling this game as I was plowing through stages.

Then I hit a road block and realized I would have to go back and find Sun and Moon medallions... okay okay I can make. Using some YouTube videos I was able to get through these roadblocks without too much issue. Continuing on the game was still fun, but the Sonic levels were getting a bit more frustrating with the camera and controls, with the levels punishing you for going fast?, and the werehog levels were getting longer and more drawn out. Nothing horrible but not as good as before.

Then the final section is just horrendous. Excruciating platforming with the wonky controls, an even more reliance on lightning fast QTEs with extreme punishments for messing up, and some long painful fights as the werehog where I encountered multiple glitches. I was just happy for this game to finally end at that point, which was sad given a lot of the rest of the game did at least have some charming fun to it.

Gameplay is the same as the first two Layton games, pretty simple moving around and speaking to people like a point and click adventure game but filled with brain teaser type puzzles. The story in this one is absolutely elevated though, the first two games had really fun mysteries but this game ramps that up to 11. It also throws in a shockingly emotional personal element as well, I felt like for the first time in the series we got to really know Layton as a character as well as his past. The whole cast has great moments as well it was nice to see them all again.The cutscenes are beautiful in this HD port so I’m very glad I went with this version for that alone, I really hope the other games get this sort of treatment eventually.

A throwback to the gamecube/ps2/xbox era of platformers, I had a good amount of fun with this one. Going in I was expecting a similar experience to Battle for Bikini Bottom but that was not like that at all. Instead of a collectathon this is essentially a linear 3d platformer, and a solid one at that. Gameplay is solid, it controls well and actually has a lot of combat which I didn't expect. It mixes it up a bit with minigames and things but for the most part it's a lot of jumping (woohoo!). There are some collectables and a hub world but they are very underutilized, you essentially are just going from point A to point B but that isn't necessarily a bad thing since it was fun almost the whole time.

Spongebob destroys reality by making wishes and has to rescue all his friends who are trapped in other realities. This leads to some fun creative levels like a karate movie set or cowboy world, then you get to see alt reality versions of some of the characters. The writing obviously isn't anything to write home about but there were a few moments I laughed at.

This was an interesting gaming experience. At it's core this is a fun unique game with an amazing vibe that I got pretty into, finishing the game in two sittings.

However, this game does not hold up very well at all. Collision issues, confusing map, moving itself is a challenge, and trying gain speed and keep momentum is a struggle. Also the fact you are trying to spray tags while tons of enemies you can't do anything about gets too be very frustrating.

But somehow it was still a fun time (when I wasn't hating it!), so if you can handle some intense rust there is fun to be had here. I would be interested to see how the sequel holds up.

As a big fan of the original Doom games this game was super up my alley. Taking place in and around a city overrun by Lovecraftian demons/possessions you run through tons of different environments fighting tons of enemies types with all sorts of weapons. The gameplay is just like old doom games, fighting enemies and looking for keys to open different colors doors to allow progression to the next stage. While a few of the stages were a bit confusing and a map would have been nice ultimately I found each level to be a lot of fun to explore. Having the stages set in so many different locations helped, going from farms to caves to cities to labs and so many more (the third and final episode had some especially cool locations I won’t spoil). This game is also very atmospheric, there were even a few times I jumped when something surprised me!

If you like horror and that classic Doom style shooter then this is definitely worth your time!

A surprisingly good 3D Sonic game, while it isn’t as fully fleshed out as the Adventure games it follows a similar formula with linear levels that you replay multiple times with different objectives. What is a fun twist is there are 6 playable characters split into three types that shake up the gameplay just enough to keep it fresh, and you often can hit swap mid level to find secret routes. Playing with a controller I had no issues and it felt good to play, minus a few camera issues (not a new issue in Sonic sadly). Also shout out the new character in the story, I liked the whole concept of the game and the comic cutscenes were a nice touch.

This game is a short and sweet 2 hour action thrill ride that I couldn’t get enough of. The gunplay is lightning fast with tons of different ways to attack situations: 4 guns with 2 firing modes each, a sword, deflecting and parrying, and a slew of telekinesis powers. Having so many options keeps the game feel fresh and fun through the whole roller coaster of a campaign. Some very cool set pieces were appreciated too, though the stealth section left a lot to be desired. The story was…. there? Definitely was an afterthought but the game was so fun to play I didn’t care.

A fun beat-em-up/shoot-em-up/platformer where you play as a genetically modified cat trying to take down the evil scientist who created you and their dog army. As with most games in this style the runtime is pretty short, you can beat it pretty easily in one sitting, but would certainly be fun to run through multiple times trying to get 100% collectible completion on all the levels. The gameplay is more platformer oriented than most beat-em-ups but you’ll still be punching and shooting tons of enemies and some fun boss fights. The story is silly and fun too.

This was such a unique idea for a game: make a minigame collection where the games are based off the mobile game ads we’ve all seen countless times. Move the parked cars out of the lot? Check. Pull the pins to get the explorer to the treasure safely? Check! The 5 different games each have anywhere from 25 to 100 stages that mix up the formula, but your enjoyment will vary between those 5 game types. I wish the stage balance was a bit more even because the game I liked most (the cars) didn’t have nearly enough stages. Clever idea for a game, had fun for sure and now I don’t have the urge to click those ads as much as before…. for now