Historically, shoot em up games that focus on dodging and shooting as the central mechanic have not really appealed to me. To be fair, I probably haven't given them enough tries, but this game makes me want to because it is a lot of fun all the way through. Not to mention the land battling that contains a lot of the game's complexity and strategy.

The flying sections which are the most similar to traditional shoot em ups were actually some of my favorites in the game. I'll get into the controls later but they actually feel pretty comfortable during these sections. It feels like they were designed for the flying and not the land battles. Gliding around the stage while aiming at demons is a great rub-your-tummy-pat-your-head kind of challenge that I enjoyed refining as the game went along. The levels and visuals are really beautiful during this sections whether it be gliding over a human town at war, exploring an outer space stronghold, passing through Viridi's nature depots, or whatever wacked up idea the devs had. I appreciate how the levels typically open with these sections due to Palutenna's limited power of flight. It gets me excited to play each level and creates a solid structure for the experience. One criticism of the sky sections I do have is that the enemy variety does fall off towards the end to where it feels like I am shooting the same cacophony of demons, forces of nature, and aurum troops over and over again.

The land battles are where the bulk of this game takes place and is also where most of the challenge comes from. This is where the wacky controls start to really be a factor. They take some time to get used to honestly cause a little bit of pain and numbness if you play for too long. I appreciate that they are very unique and very functional once you get the hang of them though. The land sections are where the game gets a lot of it's personality. Each level and location carves out a unique environment, identity, and personal storyline that the characters discuss and get you interested in. There are often a handful of enemies that get introduced that build to this feeling as well. Then, obviously there are bosses to each chapter that are mostly exclusive to the ground sections. Most of them are interesting and build to the identity that these chapters build for themselves even more. There is decent gameplay variety and strengths and weaknesses to most of them as well. My one main complaint would be that most of the bosses are actually much easier than the levels themselves. However, this is partly due to my biggest pet peeve of the game though, the death descending difficulty slider.

In general, I really prefer not to choose my difficulty, just set the game at a good difficulty level and let me enjoy it with hopefully a solid level of challenge that is uniform for all players. If you want me to choose a difficulty at the very beginning, fine I'll pick one and we ball, but this game makes you pick one every level with collectibles locked behind certain difficulty intensities that you don't even know before hand. Not only that, but if you die and don't want to restart the level the game LOWERS the difficulty. Whatever happened to gritting it out and trying to power through a tough challenge. This basically means if you lose to a boss the next time you face it, it's going to be a little bit easier, so it leaves me wondering did I win because I played better or because the game made me lower the difficulty. Overall, I just really don't like how ever present the difficulty slider is. On the positive side on design choices, I found the Sakurai menus and staples to be charming and functional. I also enjoyed fusing my weapons and experimenting with all the different different cutomization options even though sometimes I did fuck things up.

The story is actually pretty fun as well. The voice acting within the levels goes a long way in building up individual storylines as well as a broader narrative that comes together at a few different climax points. I like a lot of the main characters, despite sometimes being a bit cringe. Pitt and Palutenna's discussions are great background to kill demons to and characters like Magnus, Viridi, Hades, and a lot of the bosses add so much to the experience. Lastly, I want comment on how creative the game is. They took a game series with not much to work with and challenged themselves to get crazy with it. There are so many cool ideas. The chapter where you play as a little girl, a dog, magnus en route to killing Pit exemplifies the success of their experimentation.

Overall, Uprising is a really creative, beautiful, and unique experience. Although, the controls can quite literally be painful at times (I actually paced myself by taking a lot of breaks) and the intensity slider kinda pisses me off. That does not soil what is a tremendous game that experiments with a variety of different ideas and even gameplay styles.

My Backloggd goat cooked up one of the greatest rom hacks of our generation. People will be talking about the custom Lakitu sprite for a very long time. The intense difficulty of the hack only proves to show the expertise, intelligence, and skill of its creator. Pretty inconcievable that this game only has three backloggd plays. Its a hidden gem, no a hidden gold mine, to be sure. There is so much meaning hidden under the surface of this game as well. Just look at its title. Gravity Machine. It aims to upack the very force that pushes against us at all times of the day, and not just in a physical way but a spiritual and emotional way. I think we all see ourselves in Mario as he sifts through the labyrinth of the Gravity Machine. He falls, he trips, he bonks, all on his way to what he believes to be his greatest triumph, 4 stars in the machine. It is then that he realizes that he has achieved nothing at all. He must steel himself for the true final test. He must defeat gravity once and for all, a feeling that is innate in all of us whether it be in our personal, professional, or spiritual lives. As we journey alongside Mario we learn not only about him but ourselves which makes the gravity machine such a beautiful and enchanting experience.

I kinda dig this game. It controls super well. The music is fantastic. Bosses are spot on and, without using heals, hit the difficulty sweet spot for me. The mix of platforming and combat is at a good balance. The platforming sections are fun to complete and evolve as you collect more power-ups, and there is a decent amount of enemy variety to make the combat fun in the moment to moment. Also, I kinda like that the combat is fairly simple. The options they give you complement the movement well and are pushed to their limits by the bosses of the game. There are a few sections that feel enemy-spammy which is one of my gripes. I like the way this game structured its gameplay loop as well. You can always count on going from mingling in Scuttletown to exploring and getting a feel for the new area to hitting the palace and fighting boss of the region. I enjoy it. There are some sections that require some backtracking, but most of the time they made it make some sort of sense and it at least expanded upon the world. Its also got a fun story that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Sure, it doesn't have the best visuals ever, but it did enough with its music, world, and gameplay to keep me interested all the way through 100%ing it.