thealexmott
BACKER
1992
Sadistic difficulty and a complete lack of level design? Yeah, that's probably how Star Wars fans deserve to be treated.
Do you get what I mean if I say this is a game with stages, but not levels? Each stage gets its own tileset and batch of enemies, and then you just move through repetitive areas without any sense of momentum until you hit a boss. You're just moving forward until you're not. The Mode 7 areas are even more direct with this approach, just waiting for you to kill a set amount of enemies in an boundless void until the quota is met.
I first played this at some random family's house that my parents made us visit in like 1997, and I remember beating the Sarlaac and thinking this game was incredible, but each time I've tried to revisit it, it shockingly has never brought back that dumb-kid-brain magic. Anyway, 27 years later, I've finally finished it! The visuals are great and the music is solid, but this is ultimately a lame early-90s side scroller wrapped up in cool IP.
Do you get what I mean if I say this is a game with stages, but not levels? Each stage gets its own tileset and batch of enemies, and then you just move through repetitive areas without any sense of momentum until you hit a boss. You're just moving forward until you're not. The Mode 7 areas are even more direct with this approach, just waiting for you to kill a set amount of enemies in an boundless void until the quota is met.
I first played this at some random family's house that my parents made us visit in like 1997, and I remember beating the Sarlaac and thinking this game was incredible, but each time I've tried to revisit it, it shockingly has never brought back that dumb-kid-brain magic. Anyway, 27 years later, I've finally finished it! The visuals are great and the music is solid, but this is ultimately a lame early-90s side scroller wrapped up in cool IP.
Me, mid-2021: "This combat is horrible and I hate it. I love the story and world, but am avoiding the dumb turn-based combat at all costs because I don't get it."
Me, three years later: "So obviously you've gotta keep Ichiban as the Hero class because he gets the best abilities that way but you need a good Freeze damage move, so getting him leveled up as a Host is crucial too and DON'T FORGET to do the business side mode, and YOU CAN PROMOTE EMPLOYEES, I nearly finished the whole mode before realizing that, I was making things so much harder on myself, and the big laser attack is so rad, I used the Brawler God's Mouthguard at all times to take the MP cost from 200 to 160, and you'll also get Eri this way, so if you pick up the extra Job DLC, setting her as a Matriarch will be the best thing you do, then you need to run Saeko as an Idol, her whole-team healing ability is OP in the best way, especially when partnered with Eri's Kiwami matriarch attacks and Ichiban's party-wide attack boosts, and the fourth spot rotated quite a bit, but Joon-Gi as a Host was my favorite in the end, just make sure to level him and both of the ladies up in a bunch of classes, especially to get them gun abilities so you can easily take out the weird cavemen in dungeons OH AND UPGRADE YOUR WEAPONS-"
We call that individual growth.
But seriously, this ruled. Couldn't put it down! Was going for every achievement until I realized the super true mega final dungeon requires all of your guys to be at their maximum level, and uhhhh yeah that's the only achievement that's staying locked! I had heard people complain about "required grinding" in this game, but I didn't have that experience at all until that point. If you really dig into the game and explore everything it offers you instead of just mainlining, even the OP bosses in Chapter 12 won't be a big deal. (I tried once, got bodied, finished the battle arena around the corner all in one go, tried again, and cleared the bosses on the next try, no sweat) It's becoming more and more apparent that Yakuza is an all-timer franchise for me, potentially second only to 3D Zelda, and I am SO HAPPY that the turn-based combat clicked for me this time. I actually think I might prefer it to the brawler combat?? Absolutely a shocking statement for me personally. What a game.
Me, three years later: "So obviously you've gotta keep Ichiban as the Hero class because he gets the best abilities that way but you need a good Freeze damage move, so getting him leveled up as a Host is crucial too and DON'T FORGET to do the business side mode, and YOU CAN PROMOTE EMPLOYEES, I nearly finished the whole mode before realizing that, I was making things so much harder on myself, and the big laser attack is so rad, I used the Brawler God's Mouthguard at all times to take the MP cost from 200 to 160, and you'll also get Eri this way, so if you pick up the extra Job DLC, setting her as a Matriarch will be the best thing you do, then you need to run Saeko as an Idol, her whole-team healing ability is OP in the best way, especially when partnered with Eri's Kiwami matriarch attacks and Ichiban's party-wide attack boosts, and the fourth spot rotated quite a bit, but Joon-Gi as a Host was my favorite in the end, just make sure to level him and both of the ladies up in a bunch of classes, especially to get them gun abilities so you can easily take out the weird cavemen in dungeons OH AND UPGRADE YOUR WEAPONS-"
We call that individual growth.
But seriously, this ruled. Couldn't put it down! Was going for every achievement until I realized the super true mega final dungeon requires all of your guys to be at their maximum level, and uhhhh yeah that's the only achievement that's staying locked! I had heard people complain about "required grinding" in this game, but I didn't have that experience at all until that point. If you really dig into the game and explore everything it offers you instead of just mainlining, even the OP bosses in Chapter 12 won't be a big deal. (I tried once, got bodied, finished the battle arena around the corner all in one go, tried again, and cleared the bosses on the next try, no sweat) It's becoming more and more apparent that Yakuza is an all-timer franchise for me, potentially second only to 3D Zelda, and I am SO HAPPY that the turn-based combat clicked for me this time. I actually think I might prefer it to the brawler combat?? Absolutely a shocking statement for me personally. What a game.
2019
This review contains spoilers
I took some notes while playing Gears 5 about 6 weeks ago and then forgot to make an actual review. Whoops! So uhhh here are my notes!
- You can keep your turret weapons when you go through doors now! And they added heavy ammo crates! Gears 5 has broken the cycle of anti-heavy weapon prejudice, and I will be heavily biased for this change alone
- Musical fight was great
- I've been marathoning the whole series with my wife, and riding the big drill platform through the mines was the first time this series tested our relationship
- The little Niles robot scuttling away in stage 2-5 made me laugh out loud, it was so goofy compared to the rest of the scene
- The Matriarch fight sucks big ones. It is so easy to get one-shotted, and we got so close so many times, we finally broke down and lowered the difficulty
- Big exploration levels good. More of this in Gears 6, please and thank you
- JD boooooo, least favorite protagonist
- I still miss the Booshka
- STOP TRYING TO HUMANIZE FAHZ, I WILL CONTINUE TO HATE HIM NO MATTER WHAT
- It's a really effective death choice at the end, because you wish it was Fahz, JD probably deserves it more, Del is rad, JD had just started apologizing, and you don't want to put Marcus through his son dying after everything else he's lost, and the fact that you chose what happened makes it more agonizing
- Oh and Jinn still sucks
- You can keep your turret weapons when you go through doors now! And they added heavy ammo crates! Gears 5 has broken the cycle of anti-heavy weapon prejudice, and I will be heavily biased for this change alone
- Musical fight was great
- I've been marathoning the whole series with my wife, and riding the big drill platform through the mines was the first time this series tested our relationship
- The little Niles robot scuttling away in stage 2-5 made me laugh out loud, it was so goofy compared to the rest of the scene
- The Matriarch fight sucks big ones. It is so easy to get one-shotted, and we got so close so many times, we finally broke down and lowered the difficulty
- Big exploration levels good. More of this in Gears 6, please and thank you
- JD boooooo, least favorite protagonist
- I still miss the Booshka
- STOP TRYING TO HUMANIZE FAHZ, I WILL CONTINUE TO HATE HIM NO MATTER WHAT
- It's a really effective death choice at the end, because you wish it was Fahz, JD probably deserves it more, Del is rad, JD had just started apologizing, and you don't want to put Marcus through his son dying after everything else he's lost, and the fact that you chose what happened makes it more agonizing
- Oh and Jinn still sucks
Absolutely worth picking up so you can make Eri a Matriarch. She quickly became the MVP of my party! Wound up keeping Adachi as the Devil Rocker too, but wouldn't say that's a must-use.
A surprisingly competent and fluid (in both animation and framerate) handheld port of Rampage 2. If I'd had this in 6th grade, I would have played it to death. As an adult with countless other options, it's not much more than a novelty.
I want a new one of these every year until the day I die. Chock-full of "Aha!" moments that other puzzlers could only dream of. Best played with a friend! The experience was elevated by talking things out together and discussing the characters like they're real people. Added to my list of favorite game endings, that epilogue connected all the story threads in a way that made me exclaim so loudly that I startled my wife.
2023
An inoffensive word puzzle game that comes with your Netflix subscription, but it gets repetitive awfully quick. There are only so many 3-5 letter words you can make with the same batches of letters. I naively thought, "Well I must be approaching the end of the game since it's getting so samey, let's see how far I've got left to go. I'm on level 148 out of... 6,070?!?"
2007
Each time I go on an XBLA or WiiWare kick, I realize a bit more that most games from that era really were just flash games on consoles
Titus Andromedon continues to be the greatest sitcom character of all time.
And now I can make him shirk responsibility and take a nap.
Played enough times to see every single option, including those you can select twice with different results. (Definitely call Donna Maria twice, and DEFINITELY listen to the whole song option the second time)
Everyone is so good in this. I'm now conviced that Richard Wayne Gary Wayne is the greatest role that John Hamm has ever played. I do wish there was more Mikey, though there's not really a natural place for him in the story.
KARATE RUN!!
And now I can make him shirk responsibility and take a nap.
Played enough times to see every single option, including those you can select twice with different results. (Definitely call Donna Maria twice, and DEFINITELY listen to the whole song option the second time)
Everyone is so good in this. I'm now conviced that Richard Wayne Gary Wayne is the greatest role that John Hamm has ever played. I do wish there was more Mikey, though there's not really a natural place for him in the story.
KARATE RUN!!
2009
A fun and wacky Katamari-esque game based around eating. Makes a great first impression, then gets old too quickly. Honestly, and this is not meant in a derogatory way, this would be a perfect first game for a five year old.
This review contains spoilers
I feel pretty strongly that this is a 4-star game, but I would be morally bankrupt if I didn't add on an extra half star for the ending cutscenes. I will spoil them later, so WATCH OUT
It is so refreshing to just play as Kiryu again. I enjoyed Yakuza 5 quite a bit, but resetting character progress and side stories over and over does get a bit old. The finale to Kiryu's story is focused, with significant restraint compared to previous entries, feeling leaner and tidier than Yakuza has felt in quite a while. Critically, Shogi and gambling are nowhere to be found. These barriers to completion had frustrated me throughout the series, so their sudden omission made one thing clear:
I was finally going to 100% a Yakuza game.
There is one big downside to Yakuza 6, but after that I kind of just wanna ramble about stuff I thought was cool, so let's get it out of the way. The combat had gotten more and more complex and involved, with a ton of focus being placed on leveling up individual weapon skills and buying/upgrading weapons. The one simplification of Yakuza 6 that I was not a fan of was the trivialization of weapons. You are no longer able to store weapons in your pocket, and any weapon you acquire in battle will break in about 3 hits. I miss carrying a giant frozen tuna in my pants and beating hooligans to death with it! It's a shame they made things so much simpler here, but the combat is still fine, and I admit the weapon leveling and mechanics got a bit bloated in the last game, so I understand why they went the other way. At least enemies aren't perpetually blocking like they were in Yakuza 3.
And this isn't necessarily a negative, but like... how long can we keep up this "Kiryu has never killed someone" charade? I have stabbed hundreds of men in the abdomen over the course of the series. I've emptied handguns and rifles into Yakuza, drunks, and ruffians. I've dropped motorcycles, oil barrels, statues and more on their heads. Yet we still have serious dialogue scenes with people telling Kiryu "No, your hands are still clean! You can't kill someone!! It would ruin your reputation!!" Like, where have you been?!? Kiryu has single-handedly expedited Japan's population decline crisis by slaughtering thousands of men in the streets. It's even worse than Batman "not killing" in the Arkham series!
OKAY ALL DONE. Yakuza 6 is largely a great time, and I'm gonna make like the mass murderer Kazuma Kiryu and start firing bullet (points) at random. Final cutscene spoilers below!
• The Ono-Michio mascot intro cutscene is the hardest I've laughed in the whole series. I love Ono-Michio-kun forever. Kiryu dejectedly muttering "...yoroshiku-michi" was hilarious. Then two of the kids in a later cutscene have full-on adult man voices and you get to beat up punks while wearing the costume, it's so good.
• The SCREAMS from NPCs when you bump into them have been ramped up drastically, I couldn't get enough of them.
• Beat Takeshi is in this!
• They fixed the karaoke timing UI! You can actually predict timing accurately now!
• Some great little moments include this insane late-game baby-related scene, the game saying "HURRY TO PROTECT THE HOMIES" but I thought "This is a good time to finally try spearfishing", STRUGGLING with Darts, Kiryu's most unhinged Karaoke yet, and Matsunaga slowly taking a gun off a villain, which happens in a critical and emotional (not to mention SPOILERIFIC) part of the story, but his body language made me burst out laughing.
• I know they try to make him lovable by the end, but I canNOT stand Nagumo. What a frustrating manbaby of a companion character! I appreciated Kiryu setting him up for bit punches in fight cutscenes, but that was Kiryu being a bro. Down with Nagumo!
• Someya making a point of not having a back tattoo legitimately made me angry.
• When the Secret of Onomichi rose out of the ocean... I kind of let myself think it was gonna be a kaiju for a second. I wish it was!
• The ENDING. The obvious impactful moment was Haruka firmly encouraging Haruto to walk, surrounded by her siblings at Morning Glory. I wasn't a big fan of fridging her in this game, but I think they handled that poorly-chosen story in the best way they could have, and seeing her firmly in the matriarchal role at the orphanage with her own son in tow, it made me so proud of her. That kid has gone through so much, I hope she has it easy from here on out!
• But when Kiryu said "...Daigo." I gasped. Daigo immediately referring to Kiryu as his father from that point on made me tear up. I loved it.
I've had such a great time catching up with this franchise. Even if I can't get into LAD's turn-based combat on a second try (I quit after 5 hours initially), I'll feel satisfied with the Kiryu series from 0 through 6.
It is so refreshing to just play as Kiryu again. I enjoyed Yakuza 5 quite a bit, but resetting character progress and side stories over and over does get a bit old. The finale to Kiryu's story is focused, with significant restraint compared to previous entries, feeling leaner and tidier than Yakuza has felt in quite a while. Critically, Shogi and gambling are nowhere to be found. These barriers to completion had frustrated me throughout the series, so their sudden omission made one thing clear:
I was finally going to 100% a Yakuza game.
There is one big downside to Yakuza 6, but after that I kind of just wanna ramble about stuff I thought was cool, so let's get it out of the way. The combat had gotten more and more complex and involved, with a ton of focus being placed on leveling up individual weapon skills and buying/upgrading weapons. The one simplification of Yakuza 6 that I was not a fan of was the trivialization of weapons. You are no longer able to store weapons in your pocket, and any weapon you acquire in battle will break in about 3 hits. I miss carrying a giant frozen tuna in my pants and beating hooligans to death with it! It's a shame they made things so much simpler here, but the combat is still fine, and I admit the weapon leveling and mechanics got a bit bloated in the last game, so I understand why they went the other way. At least enemies aren't perpetually blocking like they were in Yakuza 3.
And this isn't necessarily a negative, but like... how long can we keep up this "Kiryu has never killed someone" charade? I have stabbed hundreds of men in the abdomen over the course of the series. I've emptied handguns and rifles into Yakuza, drunks, and ruffians. I've dropped motorcycles, oil barrels, statues and more on their heads. Yet we still have serious dialogue scenes with people telling Kiryu "No, your hands are still clean! You can't kill someone!! It would ruin your reputation!!" Like, where have you been?!? Kiryu has single-handedly expedited Japan's population decline crisis by slaughtering thousands of men in the streets. It's even worse than Batman "not killing" in the Arkham series!
OKAY ALL DONE. Yakuza 6 is largely a great time, and I'm gonna make like the mass murderer Kazuma Kiryu and start firing bullet (points) at random. Final cutscene spoilers below!
• The Ono-Michio mascot intro cutscene is the hardest I've laughed in the whole series. I love Ono-Michio-kun forever. Kiryu dejectedly muttering "...yoroshiku-michi" was hilarious. Then two of the kids in a later cutscene have full-on adult man voices and you get to beat up punks while wearing the costume, it's so good.
• The SCREAMS from NPCs when you bump into them have been ramped up drastically, I couldn't get enough of them.
• Beat Takeshi is in this!
• They fixed the karaoke timing UI! You can actually predict timing accurately now!
• Some great little moments include this insane late-game baby-related scene, the game saying "HURRY TO PROTECT THE HOMIES" but I thought "This is a good time to finally try spearfishing", STRUGGLING with Darts, Kiryu's most unhinged Karaoke yet, and Matsunaga slowly taking a gun off a villain, which happens in a critical and emotional (not to mention SPOILERIFIC) part of the story, but his body language made me burst out laughing.
• I know they try to make him lovable by the end, but I canNOT stand Nagumo. What a frustrating manbaby of a companion character! I appreciated Kiryu setting him up for bit punches in fight cutscenes, but that was Kiryu being a bro. Down with Nagumo!
• Someya making a point of not having a back tattoo legitimately made me angry.
• When the Secret of Onomichi rose out of the ocean... I kind of let myself think it was gonna be a kaiju for a second. I wish it was!
• The ENDING. The obvious impactful moment was Haruka firmly encouraging Haruto to walk, surrounded by her siblings at Morning Glory. I wasn't a big fan of fridging her in this game, but I think they handled that poorly-chosen story in the best way they could have, and seeing her firmly in the matriarchal role at the orphanage with her own son in tow, it made me so proud of her. That kid has gone through so much, I hope she has it easy from here on out!
• But when Kiryu said "...Daigo." I gasped. Daigo immediately referring to Kiryu as his father from that point on made me tear up. I loved it.
I've had such a great time catching up with this franchise. Even if I can't get into LAD's turn-based combat on a second try (I quit after 5 hours initially), I'll feel satisfied with the Kiryu series from 0 through 6.
2016
Old Marcus Fenix looks like Fred Durst.
The 5th GOW game is a mixed bag. In terms of mechanics, Gears 4 feels great! New weapons like the Tri-Shot, Buzzkill, Embar, and Overkill are great additions to the COG arsenal, but the Marzka has been tragically nerfed after Judgment, and the Booshka is nowhere to be found. The game also spends way too long making you use your new toys on bullet-sponge robots, which don't exactly feel fulfilling to engage in combat. As the game progressed, skirmishes do improve quite a bit, with the generational leap in hardware seemingly increasing enemy AI by quite a bit. Enemy NPCs didn't feel anywhere near this aggressive in the 360 titles! I don't know if the game as a whole is inherently more difficult than what came before or if the difficulty levels have just been rebalanced, but this was a pretty solid challenge (though stages like riding the underground digging machine verged on frustrating).
Storywise, it's got quite a different tone than what came before, leaning a lot more on an MCU-esque sense of humor. JD and Del are quippier than I would have expected, with Marcus singlehandedly tying the game to the series' original gritty roots. There are a lot of overly serious scenes of loss and cruelty here, but when they're at odds with the jovial minute-to-minute banter of the main characters, it feels a bit unfocused. A huge chunk of the game is dedicated to a single misunderstanding with a political leader (Jinn SUUUUUUUUCKS), which was more frustrating than anything, and I worry specific moments (his HOUSE) won't actually be addressed at all in Gears 5.
But hey, they keep up what Judgment started with rehabilitating Baird so he's not impossibly whiny at all times, and you get to use a big mech for a bit of late game spectacle, so it's still a positive experience overall.
The 5th GOW game is a mixed bag. In terms of mechanics, Gears 4 feels great! New weapons like the Tri-Shot, Buzzkill, Embar, and Overkill are great additions to the COG arsenal, but the Marzka has been tragically nerfed after Judgment, and the Booshka is nowhere to be found. The game also spends way too long making you use your new toys on bullet-sponge robots, which don't exactly feel fulfilling to engage in combat. As the game progressed, skirmishes do improve quite a bit, with the generational leap in hardware seemingly increasing enemy AI by quite a bit. Enemy NPCs didn't feel anywhere near this aggressive in the 360 titles! I don't know if the game as a whole is inherently more difficult than what came before or if the difficulty levels have just been rebalanced, but this was a pretty solid challenge (though stages like riding the underground digging machine verged on frustrating).
Storywise, it's got quite a different tone than what came before, leaning a lot more on an MCU-esque sense of humor. JD and Del are quippier than I would have expected, with Marcus singlehandedly tying the game to the series' original gritty roots. There are a lot of overly serious scenes of loss and cruelty here, but when they're at odds with the jovial minute-to-minute banter of the main characters, it feels a bit unfocused. A huge chunk of the game is dedicated to a single misunderstanding with a political leader (Jinn SUUUUUUUUCKS), which was more frustrating than anything, and I worry specific moments (his HOUSE) won't actually be addressed at all in Gears 5.
But hey, they keep up what Judgment started with rehabilitating Baird so he's not impossibly whiny at all times, and you get to use a big mech for a bit of late game spectacle, so it's still a positive experience overall.
One hour in, I looked at my wife and asked "Is this the best one so far?"
Before I had even finished my question, she nodded emphatically and said "Absolutely."
Easily my favorite Gears game of the 360 era. Sure, the story/atmosphere aren't as memorable or impactful as 1-3, but sticking with Cole and a less-whiny version of Baird is a way better time than hanging around the CEO of Bland Surly Soldiers Inc., and the actual gameplay here is so much better than its predecessors that the story honestly doesn't matter. The Arcade-like level format is great, keeping things really snappy and well-paced, along with the added player stats at the end of each stage. I love stats!! After the campaign, the game even had like 45 pages of stats counting up every kill you did with every weapon, that stuff is like crack for me.
Critically, Judgment makes the biggest improvements when it comes to your COG arsenal. Grenades are on their own button like they always should have been, the Booshka and Markza quickly became my favorite guns in the series, and they finally added something to reverse their subjugation of heavy weapons: the Onyx Ammo Cache. Finding this green little box and being rewarded with full ammo for both weapons (as well as a grenade as a little treat) is just delightful, especially when you're hunkering down in one spot for a while. The inclusion of aspects of Horde Mode in the campaign was a brilliant idea as well, having to fortify areas against waves of enemies was too good to keep separate in its own mode.
Aftermath was fine I guess? I guess it was neat to see what Baird and Cole were doing during Gears 3, but it ditched the killer format of the rest of the campaign. LAME.
Before I had even finished my question, she nodded emphatically and said "Absolutely."
Easily my favorite Gears game of the 360 era. Sure, the story/atmosphere aren't as memorable or impactful as 1-3, but sticking with Cole and a less-whiny version of Baird is a way better time than hanging around the CEO of Bland Surly Soldiers Inc., and the actual gameplay here is so much better than its predecessors that the story honestly doesn't matter. The Arcade-like level format is great, keeping things really snappy and well-paced, along with the added player stats at the end of each stage. I love stats!! After the campaign, the game even had like 45 pages of stats counting up every kill you did with every weapon, that stuff is like crack for me.
Critically, Judgment makes the biggest improvements when it comes to your COG arsenal. Grenades are on their own button like they always should have been, the Booshka and Markza quickly became my favorite guns in the series, and they finally added something to reverse their subjugation of heavy weapons: the Onyx Ammo Cache. Finding this green little box and being rewarded with full ammo for both weapons (as well as a grenade as a little treat) is just delightful, especially when you're hunkering down in one spot for a while. The inclusion of aspects of Horde Mode in the campaign was a brilliant idea as well, having to fortify areas against waves of enemies was too good to keep separate in its own mode.
Aftermath was fine I guess? I guess it was neat to see what Baird and Cole were doing during Gears 3, but it ditched the killer format of the rest of the campaign. LAME.
This is one of the most creative and clever point-and-clicks I've ever played. Unfortunately, there's a large portion lampooning pay-to-win idle clicker mobile games, and the game's commitment to the bit turns that segment into a bad time, though the game recovers and ends quite strongly.
As the title states, there is no game here! Nope. Just a locked-down title screen. But while you're there, you might as well mess around to see if you can find something to do.
If you're a fan of classic Lucasarts or Sierra adventure games, and if you enjoyed the meta humor and story of The Stanley Parable, you should definitely go into this game without learning anything else! The story is fantastically clever and engrossing, and the whole thing is only about 4 hours long. I waited for a sale ($9 instead of $13) and I honestly feel stupid for waiting that long to save 4 dollars. This game is absolutely worth it at full price, though you can get it for $5 on mobile. Since the experience is mostly comprised of clicking and/or tapping, it shouldn't be an inferior experience on a phone. Just be ready for a tedious middle segment (in which the tedium is meant as a joke) that overstays its welcome a bit, and trust that the ending will absolutely be worth it.
As the title states, there is no game here! Nope. Just a locked-down title screen. But while you're there, you might as well mess around to see if you can find something to do.
If you're a fan of classic Lucasarts or Sierra adventure games, and if you enjoyed the meta humor and story of The Stanley Parable, you should definitely go into this game without learning anything else! The story is fantastically clever and engrossing, and the whole thing is only about 4 hours long. I waited for a sale ($9 instead of $13) and I honestly feel stupid for waiting that long to save 4 dollars. This game is absolutely worth it at full price, though you can get it for $5 on mobile. Since the experience is mostly comprised of clicking and/or tapping, it shouldn't be an inferior experience on a phone. Just be ready for a tedious middle segment (in which the tedium is meant as a joke) that overstays its welcome a bit, and trust that the ending will absolutely be worth it.
I played Jedi Power Battles on PS1 quite a bit in my early teens, and always thought it was incredible. When I revisited it recently, it hadn't exactly held up well, like the game was actively fighting against you. Disappointed, I decided to try out the Dreamcast port, and hey! It actually rules!
This is the superior version of Jedi Power Battles, full stop. The PS1 has a couple of minor details I prefer, like better-looking menus, a slightly grittier aesthetic, a controller with more buttons, and smashable computer consoles, but... does any of that really matter? I was a bit put off for the first 45 minutes or so, but once I stopped paying attention to the little differences, I was enjoying a reworked version of a childhood favorite that played better than what I had grown up with.
It runs smoother, movement and jumping felt lightyears better, and the visuals actually allow you to accurately see where you're jumping (the biggest pain point from the PS1 original). I wish this was the version I grew up playing co-op with my friends, it would have been much less difficult to convince them to keep playing with me!
This is the superior version of Jedi Power Battles, full stop. The PS1 has a couple of minor details I prefer, like better-looking menus, a slightly grittier aesthetic, a controller with more buttons, and smashable computer consoles, but... does any of that really matter? I was a bit put off for the first 45 minutes or so, but once I stopped paying attention to the little differences, I was enjoying a reworked version of a childhood favorite that played better than what I had grown up with.
It runs smoother, movement and jumping felt lightyears better, and the visuals actually allow you to accurately see where you're jumping (the biggest pain point from the PS1 original). I wish this was the version I grew up playing co-op with my friends, it would have been much less difficult to convince them to keep playing with me!