Penny's Big Breakaway is pretty awesome and just might be one of the highlights of this year. The movement, while it takes some getting used to, is very satisfying and fun to play around with once you figure it out, and it really plays hand-in-hand with the awesome level design. Combined with the eye-catching visuals and the awesome soundtrack, Evening Star really knocked it out of the park with this one. My main criticisms are that I think the boss fights could have been done better and I wish there were at least 2-3 music tracks per world, but aside from that I'd still consider this game to be one of my favorite 3D platformers in recent memory and one of my favorite games released in 2024! If you're a fan of platformers, you should go check out this game if you haven't already. 9.5/10 for me.

Sonic Adventure 2 might just be my favorite Sonic game, from the style, soundtrack, replay value, and the story. The main highlights as expected are Sonic/Shadow's gameplay which is great. The addition of rail grinding is a pretty cool addition, and while not perfect, it has an interesting premise with how you have to try to stay balanced on the rail and the trick system. While the level design might be more linear compared to its prequel, the stages are still a blast to play from the likes of City Escape, Radical Highway, Final Rush, and Sky Rail. What really changes everything is the addition of the ranking system, which is a great way to encourage replayability and homing your skills at the game. The main issues I have with the speed gameplay are Crazy Gadget and Final Chase where the latter especially feels very janky, having the bounce attack and the Light Speed Dash mapped to the same button, and the spindash delay though that's a nitpick. Now here's where things get interesting. Unlike SA1 where you could choose which playstyle you wanted to play as, in this game you are forced to play as the alternate playstyles. While I am someone who doesn't mind this change as someone who enjoys all of the playstyles in SA2, it's not too hard to see why someone might dislike this change and prefer SA1 as a result. Aside from the gameplay I can get behind this change as it makes the plot easier to follow. I also feel like the alternate playstyles are implemented better because in this game the levels are fully designed around each character's unique abilities unlike SA1 where the characters would be plopped into existing levels for the most part. There's also no Big or Amy so that's cool. The treasure hunting gameplay with Knuckles/Rouge to me isn't that bad and can actually be pretty fun once you know how to utilize the hint system to find the treasure instead of purely relying on the radar. The nerfed radar where it only tracks one treasure at the time does suck, and while I didn't mind it [I]that[/I] much, it would have been really helpful in a level such as Mad Space. Another thing that makes me prefer these stages over SA1's is that the controls are more refined and feel great to play around with. Overall, my favorite hunting stages are Meteor Hurd, Pumpkin Hill, and Dry Lagoon, while my least favorites are Mad Space, Aquatic Mine, and Death Chamber. Onto the mech gameplay with Tails/Eggman, which might be my 2nd favorite playstyle. The gameplay loop of racking up combos to get a high score is simple yet addictive. The level design is also pretty fun to navigate through and solve puzzles, though platforming without the hover upgrade can feel clunky, and a few of the enemy placements can feel cheap. My favorite stages were Hidden Base, Cosmic Wall, and Weapon's Bed, while my least favorites were Iron Gate and Prison Lane. Now onto some more general stuff. The bosses were alright and engaging enough, and at worst they're just inoffensive. Particularly the character battles got a massive upgrade as they require a bit of strategy instead of just being a massive joke. Some of my highlights were the King Boom Boo fight with how it utilizes Knuckles moveset, and the final boss is pretty solid as it can be fairly challenging, and the spectacle is just cool. The cutscenes were a major step-up from SA1 in where they actually feel watchable, although some of the mo-cap animations can look a bit awkward and the sound mixing is especially poor in the 2012 digital releases. At the end of the day, even if SA1 might arguably do some things better such as the speed stages or the soundtrack, I think SA2 is better as an overall package, but both are great in their own right. If you're considering checking out SA2 via the 2012 PC port, I recommend checking out the mods in BlazeHedgehog's video on the definitive way of playing SA2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHt5PP3abfE&

My feelings towards this game are odd, since there are several aspects I prefer over Advance 1, such as the refined controls, the graphics and level themes, the music, the bosses, and Cream is a welcome addition to the cast. The main thing that brings down the game for me however is the level design. I feel like because of the addition of the boost mode (a nice one), some of the early game levels feel very "hold right to win." And then there's some of the late game stuff which can feel needlessly unforgiving due to the large amount of death pits everywhere, and the cheap spike/enemy placements. Another somewhat minor thing is that if you game over, you have to start back at Act 1 even if you completed Act 2, which isn't how it usually works? Last thing I'll end off with are that the way you access special stages can be very challenging, considering you have to get all of the SP Rings in a level and not die otherwise you'll lose them. The stages themselves are not too bad though. Overall, due to the weaker level design, I'll give Advance 2 a 7/10, even if I think almost every other aspect is better than its prequel.

Sonic Heroes is a pretty interesting game to me. First thing I’ll start off with is that the cartoonish art direction is great and still holds up today, with the environments oozing with color and the levels feel like an actual place with cool set pieces and whatnot. The soundtrack is also great per usual though even if i I probably prefer the Adventure OSTs, there’s still some great stuff here. Now onto the gameplay. I think the team mechanic is great and adds a lot of depth to the gameplay. No character necessarily feels left out and it just simply feels fun to play. A common issue is that that the controls feel slippery, and I only find this part true for the speed characters. When the levels design asks you to do tighter platforming you can use the flight characters for that and the power characters for exploration. The level design is pretty solid, with some of my favorites being Seaside Hill, Grand Metropolis, and Frog Forest. But I despise Casino Park as the pinball sections are more annoying than anything. The main issue I have is that the level design can feel a bit repetitive with the number of poles you swing up and the fans you fly up, and moments where I thought “this seemed done again.” I don’t really mind the longer stages here as well, though I can see why someone may not be a fan. The combat is fine though it becomes faster once you level up the characters. The Lv. 2+ thunder shoot is especially powerful and makes longer range combat easier. Though with the power characters it does suck accidentally sliding off a platform when attacking normally and dying as a result. The boss fights however are a mess. They all boil down to either glorified button mashing, somewhat boring enemy rushes, and tedious team battles. Overall, somewhat better than SA1 bosses but worse than SA2 bosses. Last thing I’ll touch upon for now are the special stages. The way of accessing them are fine, where you have to find a key and take it to the goal without taking damage. At least you can get a couple extra keys if you lose one. The stages on the other hand while they’re neat in concept with how you have to fill up the boost meter to catch the Chaos Emerald, it all completely falls apart due to the controls being very sensitive and the wonky camera. Overall, I'd give the game about a 7.5/10 for my experience as Team Sonic as it was still a pretty decent time overall. Don't feel too pressured to go back to try out the other teams as of me writing this, but maybe later.

A really good Sonic entry overall minus the bosses and a few Dimps™️ moments here and there in the level design. Even had enough fun with how special stages are implemented that I decided to go for all of the Chaos Emeralds. The main highlights for me being the awesome soundtrack, Blaze being a welcome addition to the cast, the fun level design (minus Mirage Road for it's pacing at times and Altitude Limit for the amount of instakill hazards), the story is pretty solid, and more that I can't be bothered to list off. Not sure if I would call it one of my favorite 2D Sonic's but it's still a really good time overall.

Definitely one of the best 2D Sonic games minus the forced replayabilty for grinding materials, and the sailing might not be what you'd want out of a Sonic game, but I didn't mind it too much. Rush Adventure basically improves on everything from the first game such as more fair level design with there being less bottomless pit spam, and the boss fights are some of the best in the series as it perfectly adapts the classic philosophy of the bosses being faster the more skilled you are and vice versa, unlike in Rush where you just have to wait around just dodging attacks before you get another chance to hit the boss. The only part that the first game really does better in aside from pacing, is the soundtrack, though that's debatable. I prefer the Rush 1 soundtrack but Rush Adventure still has some great stuff! Overall a fantastic game in general; would highly recommend this one if you haven't played it already.

Sonic Unleashed is definitely one of the more polarizing entries in the series, and it's easy to see why. The 2 gameplay styles clash so hard to the point that you're playing 2 games in 1, so it's easy to heavily prefer one style. But the despite that, I still really enjoyed this game for what it is, so here's why, with positive and negatives. Let's start of with the presentation. The presentation of this game is phenomenal, and it still holds up to this day for a game made in 2008. The Pixar-like art direction and the awesome global illumination effects does a great job at making the world feel alive and fits really well with the world adventure theme of this game. Same thing goes for the soundtrack, which is easily one of the best in the series due to how much variety there is and just how darn catchy and fitting it is. The story is also more on the lighthearted side, which is pretty fitting for the world adventure theme of this game. The opening CGI cutscene does an awesome job at setting up the story, and I think the theme of light vs. dark is a pretty neat idea. My main criticism with the story is that I kinda wished there was more that happened between the beginning and the end. At least it somewhat makes up for it with really good character writing, and the voice acting, primarily with Sonic as Jason started to get much better with his performance as the character. Now onto the gameplay! The daytime stages just might be some of the best 3D Sonic gameplay in the series. The sense of speed you have is exhilarating, and the levels are a blast to run through, with some solid enough platforming, and obstacles you have to quickly react to in order to stay alive. As a result these levels can feel incredibly rewarding to master, but they can also be kinda frustrating if you're playing these on your first time, cause some of the later levels can feel a bit trial-and-errorish. It's like the desginers were aware of this, since the levels hand out lives like candy just in case. The controls can also feel slippery but nothing you can't get used to after some time. Now onto the night gameplay! Yes, it is indeed strayed far away from what you'd expect from a Sonic game, but what's here is fairly competent. really enjoy the platforming sequences from swinging on poles to grabbing onto ledges, and it can feel good once you start to get a good flow. The combat is solid enough, though you'll need to level it up quite a bit to get a bigger moveset and power. The puzzles are pretty basic and not anything special, but they aren't offensive either. As a result, my favorite night stages are ones such as Cool Edge and Skyscraper Scamper Act 1, while my least favorites are Dragon Road and Arid Sands Act 1 due to how repetitive those stages are with combat. Some other criticisms I have are that the controls of the Werehog could be a bit tighter, and the lack of a proper drop shadow can make certain sections such as beam balancing ones much harder than they need to be. Overall, I think the Werehog is pretty solid for what it is, but I can't blame others for being fully against the idea. This was clearly something added for padding, as Sonic Team knew that game with just day stages would be extremly short otherwise. As for the boss fights, I think the day ones are pretty good with how you have to boost into the bosses in order to knock them over while dodging their attacks, though they can feel kinda samey. I'll have to give a slight edge to the night bosses, as they all have something to set them apart with how you have to expose their weak point, then attack. Last aspects I'll touch upon for now are the hub worlds and pacing. I think the hub worlds are pretty good and they do a solid job at adding worldbuilding, and it's not too hard to figure out where you have to go. The pacing on the other hand is a pretty major issue, primarily because of the forced medal collecting you have to do in order to finish the game. The medals aren't too much of a problem in the night stages as you're meant to take things slower, they're an issues in the day stages, because you are running by so fast that it is very easy to miss medals. Doesn't help the fact that some of these medals are hidden in REALLY obscure places. While it is something that does become less of a problem on repeat playthroughs, it can be pretty demoralizing to encounter the first time and can absolutely drive away new players from the game. Despite the major flaws, this just might be one of my favorite Sonic games. As for recommending this one, I would NOT recommend this game to anyone trying to get into 3D Sonic. I'd suggest playing Colors and Generations first to get used to the Boost formula, and then ask yourself how much can you tolerate alternate gameplay styles in Sonic. If you have a high tolerance for them, I'd say give this game a shot if you don't mind having to deal with medals. If you don't meet these recommendations, perhaps this isn't the game for you.

(written on April 28th, 2024) Ugh... I just do NOT like this game. While I think the first half is just boring and inoffensive, the 2nd half is so infuriating to me with the amount of bullshit such as the torch puzzle in Labyrinth, the bottomless pits at times and the classic Dimps level design trope of "you'll only go fast when we want you to." Combined with Sonic not being fun to control due to missing basic properties such as not being able to properly roll down slopes, no proper momentum and Sonic weirdly being able to stop on a dime at times, you have a game that's not really fun to play and one of the worst Sonic games IMO. The bland visuals and soundtrack also don't help anything. 3.5/10, don't play if you value your sanity. I felt like the only reason I was somewhat sane playing was that at the same time I was watching ATLA (ofc the good one) on another monitor.

This is a 2D Sonic game that exists. The 2D Sonic of all time if I may add. IDK I just didn't really feel that much playing this game due to just how easy I found it to be, the level design being just average, average visuals idk. The game controls as you'd expect for a 2D Sonic game and work fine enough, though something I find weird is that after the first boss Classic Sonic gets the homing attack, which I find weird as it makes the 2D playstyles less distinct. At least in HD Gens it was an optional unlock so it was fine there, but it doesn't really make sense here. The special stages here return from Sonic Heroes, except the controls actually work so they are more fun, it's just that the stages are fairly easy, as I got all of them on my first try. As for the bosses, they're also just fine, particularly I really liked the character battles being races, though racing Metal Sonic in Casino Night and Silver in Tropical Resort are extremely out of place. Seeing Biolizard again was pretty cool, though it's a bit weird that Sonic fights the one that Shadow did on his own. The final boss is at least better than the one in HD Gens as I actually know what I’m doing, but it’s also just alright. Overall I’d score the game about a 5.5/10, like I said it’s not terrible but it’s so average to the point that I'd pick almost any other 2D Sonic game to play over this one. You've probably heard it before, but Gens 3DS in general has a lot of missed potential, as they could have instead opted to represent the history of Sonic on handhelds. Personally, I think it would've been really awesome to see a level such as Music Plant from Advance 2 or Blizzard Peaks from Rush Adventure to return. But alas, we didn't and thus the game is just average.

(Reviewing the base game singleplayer, 100% not 1000%) Enjoyed this campaign alot and I think it's somewhat underrated. Yes, the plot kinda sucks, the final boss is a huge letdown compared to S1's, and yes, I agree that 1000% is a tedious task. Even though how similar it feels to Octo Valley at times, (coming from someone who replayed 1 and 2 hero modes from back to back) I still think it had enough new ideas such as ride rails (the coolest), dash panels, and bouncy pads to keep me interested. I even like how some of the S1 ideas are reused, like how the Octoling levels for example has a more open and less linear progression due to the 8 Mini Zapfish scattered around. I really love the look of the level environments, and the overall level design of the game, feeling more expansive than the first game. Marie’s (and to some extent Sheldon's) dialogue is pretty well written with the overall puns and great writing all around. A downside I somewhat have with this is that it makes things a bit more tedious if you missed a collectable and have to replay the level. (Especially if it's an obvious one) The Sheldon Request mechanic is a neat idea since it fits the more tutorial style and overall keep things somewhat fresh, but I could see why some aren't a fan of the mechanic. How the overworld is done here I prefer to Octo Valley where each sector design feels distinct from each other as you progress lower into the canyon. I especially love the more mysterious vibe that Cephalon HQ gives off. I also think it's neat that there's some exploration for some collectables, though that idea fully realized in S3's singleplayer. The bosses (minus Neo Octostomp and Octavio to some extent) were pretty good albeit easy. OST is also really great like always, and I like how the brainwashed Callie vocals are implemented. Overall, I think it’s a somewhat underrated campaign all around. Not to say that it’s some kind of hidden gem, since I can see why completionists who want to 1000% may not like it, and it does feel like a glorified tutorial. Even then, I rank it as my 2nd favorite campaign behind Octo Expansion, and still think it's worth playing at least once. (Provided you don't want to go for 1000% unless you really want the hero weapon replicas)

Easily my favorite of the classic Genesis games. Same great qualities as usual such as the amazing visuals and music. The main thing that stands out the most to me are the practically seamless transitions from zone-to-zone and act-to-act that does a great job at making the world feel connected than feeling like just a bunch of levels. There are also a lot of moments that really caught me off-guard, such as Angel Island on fire or the different seasons of Mushroom Island. In return the levels are a blast to play through minus a few stinkers like Marble Garden, beginning, and Launch Base to an extent. I really like how the special stages are implemented, where you have to seek out the special ring in the level, and Blue Spheres is just really fun with how it gets faster the more spheres you collect as a fun challenge. Overall like I said in the beginning, this is my favorite of the classic Genesis trilogy, and this is absolutely worth playing.

One of the (Sonic) games all time, do I need to say anything else? The plot while a cool idea, is a mess in terms of execution, the dialogue sucks (cough Tails being a coward), the levels are boring and too short, Classic Sonic sucks in terms of controls, the art direction is kinda boring, and the bosses are boring to name a few things. There are some redeeming qualities like the soundtrack being pretty good and the idea of having your own OC. While there is some fun to be had and the game does have polish, the game is so painfully mediocre that it's just boring. Game's like a 4.5 or 5/10, only buy on sale.