I was expecting just a literal continuation from the last game, with the only difference being new areas, but I was wrong. Not by a lot, but still. They added a couple of things like adding more unique abilities (such as Arthur being able to repair stuff) and some quality of life changes, the biggest and best by far for me was how the new polyjuice potion works.
Unfortunately most of the flaws of the original remain, like your team members getting in the way of the annoying targeting system. Bosses are still one of the worst parts, but now instead of all bosses being a simple "press square and toss item back" minigame they've added a new boss method, which is a dueling system that's pretty neat at first but ends up being way too slow and easy to do it as much as this game does. And to make it worse, boss fights will tend to use a combination of BOTH of these so boss fights are both incredibly easy and even more dragged out than before.
The first mission kinda misleads you into thinking this game will be more daring with new gameplay ideas, as the very first mission involves a flying segment unlike anything seen in the first game. It never shows up again even at places it could have (thestral flight to London?), and the amount of tweaks in gameplay remains way too small, with most stages still just being "click things until you are able to use wingardium leviosa for the way forward". Even some of the "new" things are just repeats of old ideas, like the new parsletongue system being a 1 to 1 copy of the rune book system, which is still in this game so why bother with both? While it's better than the first in terms of creativity in mechanics, it's still way too low for what it could be, especially when the scope has opened up so much due to all the new types of environments.
And speaking of new areas, this one definitely stands out more in that regard even if it was bound to just due to the nature of the books.
Once again, music pulled from the movies which for me is just an automatic great soundtrack.
The puzzles are still super easy in this game, albeit maybe a biiit harder. But the combat is actually a lot harder, at least when playing solo as it's clear many sections are made for co-op so trying to multitask killing enemies while completing tasks can be pretty tough. The thing is...there's literally no downside to death in this game except losing a bit of money; you just instantly respawn where you were. So even if you do die more than the first game, it only really sets you back mere seconds than it would by not dying.
Decent enough game for a HP fan. Probably best played co-op with a younger person who is less experienced with games though.
Unfortunately most of the flaws of the original remain, like your team members getting in the way of the annoying targeting system. Bosses are still one of the worst parts, but now instead of all bosses being a simple "press square and toss item back" minigame they've added a new boss method, which is a dueling system that's pretty neat at first but ends up being way too slow and easy to do it as much as this game does. And to make it worse, boss fights will tend to use a combination of BOTH of these so boss fights are both incredibly easy and even more dragged out than before.
The first mission kinda misleads you into thinking this game will be more daring with new gameplay ideas, as the very first mission involves a flying segment unlike anything seen in the first game. It never shows up again even at places it could have (thestral flight to London?), and the amount of tweaks in gameplay remains way too small, with most stages still just being "click things until you are able to use wingardium leviosa for the way forward". Even some of the "new" things are just repeats of old ideas, like the new parsletongue system being a 1 to 1 copy of the rune book system, which is still in this game so why bother with both? While it's better than the first in terms of creativity in mechanics, it's still way too low for what it could be, especially when the scope has opened up so much due to all the new types of environments.
And speaking of new areas, this one definitely stands out more in that regard even if it was bound to just due to the nature of the books.
Once again, music pulled from the movies which for me is just an automatic great soundtrack.
The puzzles are still super easy in this game, albeit maybe a biiit harder. But the combat is actually a lot harder, at least when playing solo as it's clear many sections are made for co-op so trying to multitask killing enemies while completing tasks can be pretty tough. The thing is...there's literally no downside to death in this game except losing a bit of money; you just instantly respawn where you were. So even if you do die more than the first game, it only really sets you back mere seconds than it would by not dying.
Decent enough game for a HP fan. Probably best played co-op with a younger person who is less experienced with games though.
This review contains spoilers
First Lego game I ever played so I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. Turns out it's kinda like a point and click game with more control. None of the combat, platforming or the puzzles provide any real challenge, so the game is basically entirely about the charm of seeing the world in lego, seeing the creativity they can pull off with it, and seeing the story mimed out in a comedic way. To that end I'd say it's a pretty fun experience, albeit one that I could only ever recommend to somebody who is a big fan of whatever franchise is being represented.
It's basically just a whole bunch of fanservice. One thing I really liked was how the characters had different traits that fit in the world and story. E.G. Hermione can use Crookshanks who can dig, only characters of their house can open their dormitory doors, only Griphook can use a safe key, some obstacles can only be taken down by characters who use dark magic etc. It made unlocking certain characters with those traits a real treat as you know you can now go and tackle those areas that were locked off before.
The game has a whole bunch of collectibles, which is kinda good and bad in a way. Good because obviously it's more content, and it provides reasons to explore everywhere, return to old areas when you get new spells etc, but bad because you start to see just how much is reused. You'll find many of the same "puzzles" used to get many collectibles. Half the time it's not even a puzzle, it's just "hit or active a certain item 3-10 times on this stage to get a thing". Or it's just a very forced kind of extra content, where an item is in plain view in the level but it can't be opened by the story characters so you're forced to come back to the stage in free play to use a character who can open it. That's it, no puzzle connected to it, just a box that can only be opened with dark magic so you replay the level so you can open the box.
And since you're replaying all the levels and areas you're losing out on that initial charm that made them so fun the first time.
I think the game could have benefitted from a few more gameplay mechanics. We only really get two moments that switches things up, one being an underwater level and one being a short vehicle chase section. You don't play any quidditch matches, the chess game in the final level of year 1 is done in the most boring way possible (it basically just plays itself as you "click" on the pieces, and you can't click the wrong ones). Even the majority of the boss fights are just "wait until they throw something you can use wingardium leviosa on and throw it back".
Casting spells can also be a problem as when you try to aim at something you'll accidently aim at your other characters who constantly get in the way.
I did love the music pulled straight from the movies, although certain pieces can get replayed way too much as you roam the halls.
It's less of a game and more of an incredible virtual lego toy box. Which I guess is the point, so don't worry about my lowish score, it does what it means to perfectly, it just so happens that what it means to do isn't the most fun thing for me.
It's basically just a whole bunch of fanservice. One thing I really liked was how the characters had different traits that fit in the world and story. E.G. Hermione can use Crookshanks who can dig, only characters of their house can open their dormitory doors, only Griphook can use a safe key, some obstacles can only be taken down by characters who use dark magic etc. It made unlocking certain characters with those traits a real treat as you know you can now go and tackle those areas that were locked off before.
The game has a whole bunch of collectibles, which is kinda good and bad in a way. Good because obviously it's more content, and it provides reasons to explore everywhere, return to old areas when you get new spells etc, but bad because you start to see just how much is reused. You'll find many of the same "puzzles" used to get many collectibles. Half the time it's not even a puzzle, it's just "hit or active a certain item 3-10 times on this stage to get a thing". Or it's just a very forced kind of extra content, where an item is in plain view in the level but it can't be opened by the story characters so you're forced to come back to the stage in free play to use a character who can open it. That's it, no puzzle connected to it, just a box that can only be opened with dark magic so you replay the level so you can open the box.
And since you're replaying all the levels and areas you're losing out on that initial charm that made them so fun the first time.
I think the game could have benefitted from a few more gameplay mechanics. We only really get two moments that switches things up, one being an underwater level and one being a short vehicle chase section. You don't play any quidditch matches, the chess game in the final level of year 1 is done in the most boring way possible (it basically just plays itself as you "click" on the pieces, and you can't click the wrong ones). Even the majority of the boss fights are just "wait until they throw something you can use wingardium leviosa on and throw it back".
Casting spells can also be a problem as when you try to aim at something you'll accidently aim at your other characters who constantly get in the way.
I did love the music pulled straight from the movies, although certain pieces can get replayed way too much as you roam the halls.
It's less of a game and more of an incredible virtual lego toy box. Which I guess is the point, so don't worry about my lowish score, it does what it means to perfectly, it just so happens that what it means to do isn't the most fun thing for me.
This review contains spoilers
Better than the first part of the DLC, this time having an actual story to playthrough (however short). But this DLC's story still has it's own little developer time-saving twists that you'd expect from this game by now, such as skipping the first SSj Blue Goku vs Freeza fight, and removing the new Freeza Force characters entirely. But hey, there are a few really nice looking cutscenes now, like in the main game, whereas the Beerus "story" had still images for the God ritual itself.
Funnily some of the things they did that were clearly done to cut costs were actually kind of a bonus. Seeing Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Chaozu at the scene of the Freeza battle was pretty neat, and depending on who you picked for your party they'd even get small but unique one liners before the fights with the Freeza Force members. Speaking of which, reusing Dodoria, Cui, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force instead of putting in the effort to make the new characters allows for some more banter of established characters whereas the new ones didn't really get any interaction with the heroes.
The 3 subquests were all pretty fun, although they fell into the exact same two types of quests as the game has always done (collect stuff or fight), but it's really always been about the dialogue in these quests that make them worth it. Goku's wish in that first quest really had me laughing.
This time we get two max level boss fights, in the form of Beerus (again) and Golden Freeza. Personally I found them to be far easier than the DLC 1's Beerus fight though. I beat Freeza on my very first try, while Beerus only caught me off guard with his clone technique, which I think is new to this DLC? I don't remember it anyway. The last DLC made the Beerus fight feel like a true endgame challenge, this time it felt like beating two strong, but otherwise unnoteworthy opponents.
Horde battles are a new type of battle here that really over emphasise just how much of a button masher this game is, as if that wasn't already obvious. Buuut I think it works because easily spamming through hundreds of mooks is exactly what that part of the movie was about.
Overall I enjoyed the DLC for what it was. It felt like a true expansion to the game, even if it was kinda short. After the lackluster first part which was basically just two new fights repeated dozens of times, in a single empty location with next to zero story, this gives me hope for the third and final part of the DLC which is supposed to be an original story for the game.
Funnily some of the things they did that were clearly done to cut costs were actually kind of a bonus. Seeing Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Chaozu at the scene of the Freeza battle was pretty neat, and depending on who you picked for your party they'd even get small but unique one liners before the fights with the Freeza Force members. Speaking of which, reusing Dodoria, Cui, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force instead of putting in the effort to make the new characters allows for some more banter of established characters whereas the new ones didn't really get any interaction with the heroes.
The 3 subquests were all pretty fun, although they fell into the exact same two types of quests as the game has always done (collect stuff or fight), but it's really always been about the dialogue in these quests that make them worth it. Goku's wish in that first quest really had me laughing.
This time we get two max level boss fights, in the form of Beerus (again) and Golden Freeza. Personally I found them to be far easier than the DLC 1's Beerus fight though. I beat Freeza on my very first try, while Beerus only caught me off guard with his clone technique, which I think is new to this DLC? I don't remember it anyway. The last DLC made the Beerus fight feel like a true endgame challenge, this time it felt like beating two strong, but otherwise unnoteworthy opponents.
Horde battles are a new type of battle here that really over emphasise just how much of a button masher this game is, as if that wasn't already obvious. Buuut I think it works because easily spamming through hundreds of mooks is exactly what that part of the movie was about.
Overall I enjoyed the DLC for what it was. It felt like a true expansion to the game, even if it was kinda short. After the lackluster first part which was basically just two new fights repeated dozens of times, in a single empty location with next to zero story, this gives me hope for the third and final part of the DLC which is supposed to be an original story for the game.
1998
Played this as the unlock bonus in the 2019 remake. It's a neat reward but playing it directly after said remake can make it feel even more aged than it already did. Many of the points I made in that review stand here
As for the main differences, other than graphics:
-You can now only equip one weapon at a time. I thought this'd be a pain in the ass, but it's surprisingly quick and the enemies pause while you're in the menu so it never puts you at a disadvantage. Plus the remake actually had a small issue where switching between the two equipped weapons would lag a bit and not equip them straight away leaving you defenceless at times. On the plus side this version actually separates your items into stuff like weapons and key items etc instead of one long line of items like the remake.
-Controls are much more slippery. In most cases this isn't actually a problem as the levels seem designed in a way to not need much precision, but in the two lake levels it was a huge pain in the ass.
-The camera is god awful now.
And honestly I think that's about it? There's a few other tiny things, like the books that give you lore or clues are always open here while in the remake they only open when they've been read, making it easier to keep track of what you've done. There's also no prompts for when you can use key items, which can be a pain for first time players but the clues give you enough direction to work it out (though admittedly I skipped all the optional text this time since I literally just beat the game and knew it by heart).
And unlike the remake the extremely shallow combat is excusable here, and unless I'm mistaken I actually think you take less damage to compensate for the lack of good defensive options, while the remake bumped the damage up while giving you no new tactics to use AND keeping the general "enemy touches you and you get hurt regardless of if they're in an attack animation" clunk in. Might just be imagining that though.
Obviously in 2020 there's no real reason to play this version over the remake outside of a novelty, but relative to the time they were released I think this one would have stood out more. Plus even having never played the original back in the day, I still got big PS1 nostalgia from this.
As for the main differences, other than graphics:
-You can now only equip one weapon at a time. I thought this'd be a pain in the ass, but it's surprisingly quick and the enemies pause while you're in the menu so it never puts you at a disadvantage. Plus the remake actually had a small issue where switching between the two equipped weapons would lag a bit and not equip them straight away leaving you defenceless at times. On the plus side this version actually separates your items into stuff like weapons and key items etc instead of one long line of items like the remake.
-Controls are much more slippery. In most cases this isn't actually a problem as the levels seem designed in a way to not need much precision, but in the two lake levels it was a huge pain in the ass.
-The camera is god awful now.
And honestly I think that's about it? There's a few other tiny things, like the books that give you lore or clues are always open here while in the remake they only open when they've been read, making it easier to keep track of what you've done. There's also no prompts for when you can use key items, which can be a pain for first time players but the clues give you enough direction to work it out (though admittedly I skipped all the optional text this time since I literally just beat the game and knew it by heart).
And unlike the remake the extremely shallow combat is excusable here, and unless I'm mistaken I actually think you take less damage to compensate for the lack of good defensive options, while the remake bumped the damage up while giving you no new tactics to use AND keeping the general "enemy touches you and you get hurt regardless of if they're in an attack animation" clunk in. Might just be imagining that though.
Obviously in 2020 there's no real reason to play this version over the remake outside of a novelty, but relative to the time they were released I think this one would have stood out more. Plus even having never played the original back in the day, I still got big PS1 nostalgia from this.
2019
This review contains spoilers
I never played the original PS1 game so I don't know how much this improved upon it, but the remnants of the ps1 era are definitely here. Combat feels very underdeveloped, with enemies not really needing to attack you so much as just running into you to chip away at your health. Defensive options are limited to a shield that breaks after a couple of hits, meaning 99% of fights are just you tanking damage as you hope to kill your opponent first. The lack of feedback on hits from both you and your opponent doesn't help the feeling of cheapness.
However this game in general just has so much charm. Every level feels unique, the bosses feel memorable (as soon as I fought the stained glass demon I knew I would love this game), the music is great, the dialogue is humorous. There's such an amazing framework for a game here and all they had to do in this remake was improve the actual gameplay, but it seems that was the one thing they left in the ps1 days.
There's a couple of other things that bugged me. Some frame rate dips, no way to fast travel on the world map.
If I played this game on the PS1 when this level of jank was acceptable, I think I would have adored it and it would become one of my favourite games of all time. This remake however lags behind massively compared to current games. Don't get me wrong though, despite the problems with gameplay, it's still more than playable which let's the actual great parts shine through, so I think a weak 4 star rating should do for me.
However this game in general just has so much charm. Every level feels unique, the bosses feel memorable (as soon as I fought the stained glass demon I knew I would love this game), the music is great, the dialogue is humorous. There's such an amazing framework for a game here and all they had to do in this remake was improve the actual gameplay, but it seems that was the one thing they left in the ps1 days.
There's a couple of other things that bugged me. Some frame rate dips, no way to fast travel on the world map.
If I played this game on the PS1 when this level of jank was acceptable, I think I would have adored it and it would become one of my favourite games of all time. This remake however lags behind massively compared to current games. Don't get me wrong though, despite the problems with gameplay, it's still more than playable which let's the actual great parts shine through, so I think a weak 4 star rating should do for me.
1996
I appreciate what they tried to do here by making so many variations in gameplay levels. The very first level has you falling from the sky and just taking out any enemies along the way, which is already a departure from anything the original game did. There's other gimmicks like tank levels, or rollerblade levels. They really tried to make this sequel stand out rather than just feel like an expansion pass or something.
Unfortunately not every one of those ideas work. The rollerblade levels were cool in concept, but they make a game that already requires cat-like reflexes to deal with enemies popping onto the screen and attacking you into something impossible without constant stopping and starting, which seems to go against the entire point of having the speed-boosting skates.
There's a bunch of new enemy types now. None of them really change up the gameplay or require any different strategies to beat (not that you could really innovate that much with a simple style of gameplay like this), but there's far more of those infinitely respawning bugs and flying enemies now, which are such a pain in the ass to deal with with limited aiming.
When it comes to comparing this to the original I find it really hard to say which is better. The first one definitely is a more consistent experience, but this one never felt like it was overbearing with its new additions, so when you're not having fun with them they don't stick around for long. The increase in annoying enemies certainly hampered my experience with this one more than any of the gimmicks, but the increase in levels and the new gameplay styles that do work give this one the content bonus between two games that play very similarly.
One place this game definitely falters behind its predecessor is the final boss. In the original it felt like an entire event worthy of being the last challenge. In this game you might not even realise it is the final boss due to it feeling like any other random boss and having the most basic attack as its only moveset as the boss itself never actually moves.
Unfortunately not every one of those ideas work. The rollerblade levels were cool in concept, but they make a game that already requires cat-like reflexes to deal with enemies popping onto the screen and attacking you into something impossible without constant stopping and starting, which seems to go against the entire point of having the speed-boosting skates.
There's a bunch of new enemy types now. None of them really change up the gameplay or require any different strategies to beat (not that you could really innovate that much with a simple style of gameplay like this), but there's far more of those infinitely respawning bugs and flying enemies now, which are such a pain in the ass to deal with with limited aiming.
When it comes to comparing this to the original I find it really hard to say which is better. The first one definitely is a more consistent experience, but this one never felt like it was overbearing with its new additions, so when you're not having fun with them they don't stick around for long. The increase in annoying enemies certainly hampered my experience with this one more than any of the gimmicks, but the increase in levels and the new gameplay styles that do work give this one the content bonus between two games that play very similarly.
One place this game definitely falters behind its predecessor is the final boss. In the original it felt like an entire event worthy of being the last challenge. In this game you might not even realise it is the final boss due to it feeling like any other random boss and having the most basic attack as its only moveset as the boss itself never actually moves.
2018
Super addicting. The constant sense of progression through permanent power-ups, along with the temporary run-only power-ups make each run feel completely different from the last while maintaining a sense of progression, which is pretty great for a game that literally had you redoing the same 30 minutes over and over.
The way the dialogue between characters changes dynamically based on your actions shows such great attention to detail and makes everything feel alive.
Gameplay feels smooth as hell. The various enemy types all require different playstyles and are harder/easier depending on the build you end up with for any given run. The pacts you can unlock to make the game harder.
Admittedly once you get to like your 50th run you kinda just know what boons you want and runs do start to feel repetitive...but it's STILL super fun to play even when you kinda find that one playstyle you keep going to.
I just have nothing but praise for this game.
The way the dialogue between characters changes dynamically based on your actions shows such great attention to detail and makes everything feel alive.
Gameplay feels smooth as hell. The various enemy types all require different playstyles and are harder/easier depending on the build you end up with for any given run. The pacts you can unlock to make the game harder.
Admittedly once you get to like your 50th run you kinda just know what boons you want and runs do start to feel repetitive...but it's STILL super fun to play even when you kinda find that one playstyle you keep going to.
I just have nothing but praise for this game.
1995
Solid run and gunner. Feels smooth to control. Very nice aesthetics for the sega mega drive/genesis, particularly the stage art.
The graphics can make some enemies quite hard to see coming though, especially the little bug-like robots that swarm all over.
The TV system is a really nice way to give identity for the game. Breaking the various TVs throughout the stage can reward you with various things like points, health, lives, a permanent extra hit point, temporary gun power-ups, or even transformations. Finding a TV and blasting it to see what you'll get out of it is always fun. Even though 90% of the time it's just something useless.
Some cool bosses too, my personal favourite being the group of vector-people who transform into various objects like a spring, or a bigger vector-man.
One of my least favourite parts was that each level is timed, despite the fact the aforementioned TV-hunting system seems to encourage players to explore as much of the level as possible. It feels weird to have half the game telling you to take your time and explore, and another half telling you to hurry the fuck up.
It also suffers from some problems that many games from this era did, like enemy placements that just fuck you over before you can really see them (though far less than many others of its type), or the lack of continues (God bless save states).
But it's a generally positive experience overall. Feels good to play, feels fun to explore and find the secrets as long as you don't watch that timer too much.
The graphics can make some enemies quite hard to see coming though, especially the little bug-like robots that swarm all over.
The TV system is a really nice way to give identity for the game. Breaking the various TVs throughout the stage can reward you with various things like points, health, lives, a permanent extra hit point, temporary gun power-ups, or even transformations. Finding a TV and blasting it to see what you'll get out of it is always fun. Even though 90% of the time it's just something useless.
Some cool bosses too, my personal favourite being the group of vector-people who transform into various objects like a spring, or a bigger vector-man.
One of my least favourite parts was that each level is timed, despite the fact the aforementioned TV-hunting system seems to encourage players to explore as much of the level as possible. It feels weird to have half the game telling you to take your time and explore, and another half telling you to hurry the fuck up.
It also suffers from some problems that many games from this era did, like enemy placements that just fuck you over before you can really see them (though far less than many others of its type), or the lack of continues (God bless save states).
But it's a generally positive experience overall. Feels good to play, feels fun to explore and find the secrets as long as you don't watch that timer too much.
I liked the part where you just walk down a street for like 10 minutes in hopes that a note will finally appear so you can play another shitty ass minigame
It's a pretty good lore-focused story and the Crown Tundra itself is decent to roam around.
It doesn't seem as focused on QoL upgrades as the Isle of Armor (things like resetting EVs or Dynamax soup). Instead they added an entire new game mode, which is basically boss rush of raid battles. It's pretty neat, and a great way to get any legendary in any Pokéball of your choice.
It also has more new Pokémon than Isle of Armor. Though I really really wish they put more non-legendaries than just Galarian Slowking.
It definitely brings to light how much of a pain in the ass catching legendaries really is though when you need to do it 10 times in a row.
It doesn't seem as focused on QoL upgrades as the Isle of Armor (things like resetting EVs or Dynamax soup). Instead they added an entire new game mode, which is basically boss rush of raid battles. It's pretty neat, and a great way to get any legendary in any Pokéball of your choice.
It also has more new Pokémon than Isle of Armor. Though I really really wish they put more non-legendaries than just Galarian Slowking.
It definitely brings to light how much of a pain in the ass catching legendaries really is though when you need to do it 10 times in a row.
This review contains spoilers
The story part of it is pretty short, but in general it's a pretty neat addition. The area feels far more like what the wild area should have been in the first place, although the abrupt weather changes still exist and are jarring.
I like that there's some story and gameplay integration going on here. The super fast Slowpoke's have priority in battle, and another character cheats in a match by placing toxic spikes at the start of the match.
There's a decent amount of quality of life stuff here too, such as a character who will reset EVs to 0, a way to turn any compatible Dynamax mon into a Gigantamax mon, ability to make apricot balls etc.
Following Pokémon also make a nice comeback, although it feels a little unpolished.
It also suffers from level scaling. I guess it's supposed to be accessed directly after beating the champion in the main game, but due to when it came out, most people will have level 100's by now, making it a breeze to sweep through. They did get by this by making Kubfu the only Pokémon you can use in the final gauntlet, but it's so easy to get to 100 with EXP candy that grinding is no longer needed, kinda ruining the whole "bonding" thing you're supposed to do.
I like that there's some story and gameplay integration going on here. The super fast Slowpoke's have priority in battle, and another character cheats in a match by placing toxic spikes at the start of the match.
There's a decent amount of quality of life stuff here too, such as a character who will reset EVs to 0, a way to turn any compatible Dynamax mon into a Gigantamax mon, ability to make apricot balls etc.
Following Pokémon also make a nice comeback, although it feels a little unpolished.
It also suffers from level scaling. I guess it's supposed to be accessed directly after beating the champion in the main game, but due to when it came out, most people will have level 100's by now, making it a breeze to sweep through. They did get by this by making Kubfu the only Pokémon you can use in the final gauntlet, but it's so easy to get to 100 with EXP candy that grinding is no longer needed, kinda ruining the whole "bonding" thing you're supposed to do.
As I played through 100% of each of these games I realised how each one has a strength that if all put together would make the perfect game. Which is what happened when we got Odyssey.
2007
I feel like Galaxy cuts away from the roots of the open stage games and implements more linear classic Mario style gameplay, but unlike the 3D Land/World series the fact it still tries to keep a 64/Sunshine style means it doesn't do either one particularly great. It's still fun, but half the time it feels like I'm playing a platformer with far too much empty space and half the time I feel like I'm playing a restrictive open world game.
One thing it does do better than its 2 predecessors is far more variety in missions with less reliance on repeating the same thing in slightly different ways, or in Sunshines case, bloating the star list with crap like blue coins.
What it does far, far worse is the actual worlds themselves. The whole galaxy schtick ruined the personality of the levels as no longer are they fun, themed worlds, now 90% of the time you're just running around small globes with obstacles placed on them. Very, very few of the stages stand out because of this. And to make it worse, the controls and camera turn to shit when you actually make use of the gravity.
Mario Galaxy still has that main line Mario standard of quality. But while it added the things the last games were missing, it took out some of the things that would have made it perfect.
One thing it does do better than its 2 predecessors is far more variety in missions with less reliance on repeating the same thing in slightly different ways, or in Sunshines case, bloating the star list with crap like blue coins.
What it does far, far worse is the actual worlds themselves. The whole galaxy schtick ruined the personality of the levels as no longer are they fun, themed worlds, now 90% of the time you're just running around small globes with obstacles placed on them. Very, very few of the stages stand out because of this. And to make it worse, the controls and camera turn to shit when you actually make use of the gravity.
Mario Galaxy still has that main line Mario standard of quality. But while it added the things the last games were missing, it took out some of the things that would have made it perfect.
It's a game that gets more and more frustrating the closer you go to 100%. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing because the main game is an absolutely incredible platformer, and the increasingly difficult extra challenges are basically there for players to give themselves extra content that matches up with their skill level. Unless you're the kind of gamer who HAS to perfect everything no matter what, then the percentage of completion you want is basically a difficulty setting.
There's some truly great level themes and aesthetics far beyond platforming staples. Some pretty good set pieces in some of the stages too.
Cutscenes are very cartoony and fun.
The masks don't really do anything platformers haven't done before, but they do make use of some really fast paced, think-on-your-toes platforming challenges (honestly most of the game is like that even without the masks)
It has some of the best boss fights in the series by far, and some of the best in platformers I'd say.
N.Verted mode I'm more mixed on. Some of the effects are really cool - my personal favourite being the pure white one where you splash colours with actions - but others are just ugly and serve nothing but to make it harder to see things. I feel like it'd have been better if each world had a dedicated level for the effect, rather than having to play 4 or 5 versions of the same ugly filter.
The "Timeline" levels were my least favourite aspect of the game. It doesn't really have a story to justify having entire "how their paths crossed" levels, and sure enough this ends up equating to nothing more than playing 3 minutes of an extra character until you get to a point where a cutscene plays that reveals how a single platform ended up appearing in a Crash level, at which point you actually need to re-play that Crash section again for some reason. Tawna, Dingo and Cortex being playable is great and they all have their own unique playstyles, I just hate the way their levels are cut short just so we can replay one of Crash's sections.
Overall I think that just playing through the main game provides a challenging and fun experience, anything you do more than that can be extremely frustrating, but the best part is that it's only as frustrating as you want it to be. I accepted very early that I wasn't going to 100% it, and even as I played my goals aimed lower and lower (I initially wanted to unlock all skins and flashback tapes until I saw the requirements for the later levels). My advice is just play the game and only after you've beaten it decide how much further you want to go.
There's some truly great level themes and aesthetics far beyond platforming staples. Some pretty good set pieces in some of the stages too.
Cutscenes are very cartoony and fun.
The masks don't really do anything platformers haven't done before, but they do make use of some really fast paced, think-on-your-toes platforming challenges (honestly most of the game is like that even without the masks)
It has some of the best boss fights in the series by far, and some of the best in platformers I'd say.
N.Verted mode I'm more mixed on. Some of the effects are really cool - my personal favourite being the pure white one where you splash colours with actions - but others are just ugly and serve nothing but to make it harder to see things. I feel like it'd have been better if each world had a dedicated level for the effect, rather than having to play 4 or 5 versions of the same ugly filter.
The "Timeline" levels were my least favourite aspect of the game. It doesn't really have a story to justify having entire "how their paths crossed" levels, and sure enough this ends up equating to nothing more than playing 3 minutes of an extra character until you get to a point where a cutscene plays that reveals how a single platform ended up appearing in a Crash level, at which point you actually need to re-play that Crash section again for some reason. Tawna, Dingo and Cortex being playable is great and they all have their own unique playstyles, I just hate the way their levels are cut short just so we can replay one of Crash's sections.
Overall I think that just playing through the main game provides a challenging and fun experience, anything you do more than that can be extremely frustrating, but the best part is that it's only as frustrating as you want it to be. I accepted very early that I wasn't going to 100% it, and even as I played my goals aimed lower and lower (I initially wanted to unlock all skins and flashback tapes until I saw the requirements for the later levels). My advice is just play the game and only after you've beaten it decide how much further you want to go.
2020
An extremely strong foundation but it's missing any combination of things that could make it perfect.
The biggest problem I have is how often 1-1 and 1-2 show up. To put it into perspective, the game says I have cleared 1-1 84 times and 1-2 51 times. The third highest clear is 1-3 at 19 times.
I'm still not 100% sure what determines the course chosen, I assume the course you pick at the start adds that course into the pool, and most players are just picking 1-1 and 1-2, however I do notice that when there's fewer players more "hard" levels show up, which makes me think it might only choose courses from players still alive, however that can't be right as the course I pick not show up even in a 1v1 situation. Selecting a course at the start has no obvious impact at all from what I can tell.
Another problem with 1-1 and 1-2 spam is how easy those levels are to rack up time and coins. Both have easily accessible stars which are OP as fuck in this game for gathering time, and 1-1 in particular makes it super easy to get the fire flower, another OP item. Like seriously the difficulty of the enemy spam in the game is way too large depending on if you have a fire flower or not.
The endgame is way too long too. It gets to 10 players surprisingly fast, but those final 5 can last for 10+ minutes.
The way I'd improve it is to either make all the courses go in order, so you can't just spam the easy ones. That way there'd be both a benefit to moving faster (being able to send the stronger enemies to opponents before anyone else) and a downside since you also end up dealing with harder platforming. Right now there's no reason to get through a level as fast as possible because as long as you're on 1-1 or 1-2 it's so easy to keep your timer up and have easy platforming, compared to something like 1-3 which is a much slower stage.
Another way it could be improved is by not reseting resources in a level. So once you get those item boxes in 1-1 you can't farm them from there anymore, and once you use that star it can't be used over and over to get easy time.
If the game could just negate the ability to farm 1-1 and 1-2 all the time, and give more variety, it'd be so much better.
I'll also say it'd be nice to have more ways to interact with other players rather than just sending them fodder for their fire flowers. Something like items with various effects like speeding up the enemies on their screen.
A couple other changes I think might benefit:
-Remove the fire flower and stars from boxes in the game. They trivialise everything. Having only base Mario/Big Mario would make this so much more interesting and make the whole "sending enemies to the opponent" thing actually feel like a threat. This is in combination with the next point:
-Make the item roulette wheel go up in price every time it's used. It's so easy to rack up hundreds of coins in the early game so that when things do start getting harder you can just spam the wheel to keep refreshing your fire flower.
Unless any changes get made this is a fun way to play Mario Bros but is otherwise very repetitive and too simplistic to last. But maybe that's why it's a limited time release anyway.
The biggest problem I have is how often 1-1 and 1-2 show up. To put it into perspective, the game says I have cleared 1-1 84 times and 1-2 51 times. The third highest clear is 1-3 at 19 times.
I'm still not 100% sure what determines the course chosen, I assume the course you pick at the start adds that course into the pool, and most players are just picking 1-1 and 1-2, however I do notice that when there's fewer players more "hard" levels show up, which makes me think it might only choose courses from players still alive, however that can't be right as the course I pick not show up even in a 1v1 situation. Selecting a course at the start has no obvious impact at all from what I can tell.
Another problem with 1-1 and 1-2 spam is how easy those levels are to rack up time and coins. Both have easily accessible stars which are OP as fuck in this game for gathering time, and 1-1 in particular makes it super easy to get the fire flower, another OP item. Like seriously the difficulty of the enemy spam in the game is way too large depending on if you have a fire flower or not.
The endgame is way too long too. It gets to 10 players surprisingly fast, but those final 5 can last for 10+ minutes.
The way I'd improve it is to either make all the courses go in order, so you can't just spam the easy ones. That way there'd be both a benefit to moving faster (being able to send the stronger enemies to opponents before anyone else) and a downside since you also end up dealing with harder platforming. Right now there's no reason to get through a level as fast as possible because as long as you're on 1-1 or 1-2 it's so easy to keep your timer up and have easy platforming, compared to something like 1-3 which is a much slower stage.
Another way it could be improved is by not reseting resources in a level. So once you get those item boxes in 1-1 you can't farm them from there anymore, and once you use that star it can't be used over and over to get easy time.
If the game could just negate the ability to farm 1-1 and 1-2 all the time, and give more variety, it'd be so much better.
I'll also say it'd be nice to have more ways to interact with other players rather than just sending them fodder for their fire flowers. Something like items with various effects like speeding up the enemies on their screen.
A couple other changes I think might benefit:
-Remove the fire flower and stars from boxes in the game. They trivialise everything. Having only base Mario/Big Mario would make this so much more interesting and make the whole "sending enemies to the opponent" thing actually feel like a threat. This is in combination with the next point:
-Make the item roulette wheel go up in price every time it's used. It's so easy to rack up hundreds of coins in the early game so that when things do start getting harder you can just spam the wheel to keep refreshing your fire flower.
Unless any changes get made this is a fun way to play Mario Bros but is otherwise very repetitive and too simplistic to last. But maybe that's why it's a limited time release anyway.