It's peak! Platforming is god tier and the story is very surprisingly good.

A masterwork that cements Shovel Knights status as the defining indie game of the past 10 years.

The worst pokemon games of all time and the worst game I have ever played to completion in my life. I like the soundtrack and the elite 4 was cool (but I had to force feed my pokemon herbs to suppress affection and make it any degree of interesting) and there was occasionally a nice looking environment when my eyes weren't actively bleeding, so there's your half a star. What a complete joke.

I made it to the fire Gym and gave my borrowed copy back to my friend, lol. Maybe one day I play it to completion and turn my opinion around, but I'm never ever going to fork over the 90 dollars they're somehow still asking me to pay for the full experience.

My little friend can follow me around and snuggles me when I talk to him, your argument is invalid.

People who complain about the number of cutscenes always ignore the fact that the actual content of said cutscenes is good. Like yes, it is bad game design that they're unskippable, but I don't personally care because I'm engaged. If they added some kind of a fun challenge mode patch, this would be five stars and my definitive favorite in the series.

Listen, I get it. Every common complaint and criticism of this game is pretty much correct, and I know that just because I have nostalgia for this game, that doesn't suddenly erase those issues.

But come ooonnnn, it still passes the bar for a good game. Did it mark the start of a rise in bad trends for the franchise? Yes, but it is still a perfectly good time on its own.

I think there's some level design flaws that too many people glance over, but it's pretty good. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it a bit more than I did.

I don't know if I'm joking anymore..

Narrative is nothing special but better than most give it credit for. First off, the cutscenes are inoffensive at worst, imo. But more importantly, most people conflate narrative in games with just cutscenes and dialogue, while ignoring the "storytelling" that can be present in gameplay. Every throwback and new spin on old ideas, every remix, every rocket propelled truck invokes more in me than all of the dialogue in Colors and Unleashed combined. It's an aspect of game narrative I wish people talked about more.

Anyways, level design is the best in the series and some of the best I've ever seen in any game period, which is the real reason the star count is five.

People are entitled to their opinions, but I just cannot for the life of me have fun with this game, no matter how hard I try. Control wise and mechanically, this is the worst boost game in the series*, the levels are too short to leave an impression other than distaste when they're bad, which is at LEAST half of them, and while yes, a good narrative isn't mandatory for a good game, this one isn't really helping.

This is basically just Sonic Rush 3, and it marks a return to what made that game great while also incorporating extra content better than Rush Adventure did. Only blemish is that the level design in asteroid coaster is really bad, with a sudden and out of nowhere spike in BS difficulty that wasn't present in the rest of the game. Infinitely better than the Wii game with the same name.

The actual narrative is bad, but I like the tone. The extra content and overworld elevates the game from feeling like a series of levels to a full on experience. Boost gameplay is pretty good, though I'm of the opinion that generations is what perfected it both mechanically and in terms of level design. The werehog is the werehog. Combat is fine, just kinda mind numbing, but the platforming is genuinely bad as the werehog. It's a mixed bag and I won't gas it up the same way other fans do, but I'm actually really glad I played it.

I got pretty far into this game, but never made it past the submarine level. I really respect the attempt to deliver a more fleshed out experience, truly I do, but instead all the additional content feels more like its getting in the way and tampering with the perfect simplicity of the original. Also, no Hideki Naganuma is an entire star removed on its own. It can't be understated how much his music carries the first game.

Sometimes, the style IS the substance.