Franken is a great RPG. I beat it in under two hours.

Love is a very important aspect of the game making process. It's not something you can or should give a numbered score, but you know when it's there and you especially know when it isn't. You don't need to take your game seriously to love it, but you do need to respect it.

Franken, in more ways than one, is a game about love. It's a game that loves the fact that it exists. With simple and entertaining combat, vibrant and beautiful artwork, equally hilarious and engaging writing, it loves that it is an RPG. It has its fair share of satire on the genre yet it never feels like an admonishment of these aspects, but rather quirks that it wears proudly on its sleeve. It takes everything you love about RPGs and compresses them down into their most concentrated forms. Love is in its themes as well, from wanting love and wanting to be loved, grief, and pirated anime music during the big climactic boss fight. Okay maybe that last part doesn't fit, but *I* loved it. It brought back feelings of a bygone era of fangames and early game dev in general. I only wish that it didn't cost the developer the ability to make any money off of the game directly. (btw you should definitely give her money for it indirectly https://twitter.com/splendidland)

Is this a lot to say about a game that's only a couple hours long? Maybe! It truly did touch me in a way that I was not prepared for, though. Once I started I didn't want to put it down, and once it ended I was truly a different person for having played it. It was much-needed reminder, as silly as it sounds, that games are as much or as little as what you make them. If the game in your head is only and hour or two long, or even 30 minutes, make it. As long as you're loving making it, because that love and excitement will shine brightest above all else. Thank you, Splendidland. Thank you, Franken.

Aside from a shit weapon selection, legitimatey the best kart racer out there.

A modding scene so powerful it could only be down to the sonic community is a lot of that - turns out blasting past your friends as Mido from zeroranger, blasting the "o-ok lets go" sample from Third Strike on a fucking Collums 3 inspired map is way more fun than anything mariokart has ever been able to manage.

But maybe the key to SRB2K is how just smooth it all is. A lot of games who's power relies on Mods are such an absolute pain in the arse. In SRB2k you just put the files anywhere in the folder, and if you dont have them it will download them like a TF2 map when entering a room. And those multiplayer rooms are so malleble and allow options like just straight up pausing the whole thing.

When i first heard about SRB2K i thought "damn this is going to be frustrating", but the user experience is just wonderful, really. And thats such a great thing for any "mod platform" game to have.

The only really contentious thing i'd say is the handling, which I like as it leans way more towards super mario kart than mario kart wii onwards, and makes it easier to appreciate the more technical track designs as even basic tracks are quite hard to drive. Compared to modern mario kart which is so easy to drive its a joy, and its nice to actually have to think whether to drift or not in a kart racer again.

Very, very few complaints. Remarkable fan project and probably the best sonic game.