There were some things in my video game canon that felt absolute. That were either set in stone by the truth of their existence, or by my stubbornness to consider an alternative.

"Final Fantasy IX is my favourite JRPG" was one of those absolute truths. I've played loads of JRPGS since I first played FFIX as a 10 year old. I've always compared them against the measuring stick of Terra and Gaia. But now? Now I have played Persona 5, and nothing will be the same for me again.

I think this is a near perfect video game. Just throwing that out there now. I think it's an all timer. It's my favourite JRPG, that's for sure. Is it my favourite game of all time? It is far too soon after finishing it to say, but it's certainly up there.

I could go into how compelling the world, characters, story, music, and systems are. But honestly, all I can say is that this game took over my mind in a way games rarely do these days. It filled the spaces of all my idle thoughts, it pressed on me and pressed on me until it left it's imprint, firm and forever. It took my heart, fully.

Recently, I had a thought that is purely speculative. It feels to me that anyone who will tell you they love a specific SNES game will also follow that up with "And it STILL HOLDS UP!" Like, think about it, if anyone you know talks about Mario World, they'll likely add "And I 100%'d it during lockdown and you know what? Still holds up!"

Anyway, I don't feel like I've ever heard anyone say that about Donkey Kong Country! I've never played DKC, so I thought I'd play it to see if, well, it holds up.

It does not.

I played through this on my Miyoo Mini, which obviously allows for save states. I'm not one of these cunts that says "Ah, but if you used savestates/rewinds you didn't really beat the game" because I've known satisfaction in my life from things that aren't video games. However, because I was specifically trying to see if it felt fun to play in 2023, I tried to play it "legit". No save states or rewinds. Fuck me what a slog. Just a horrid experience.

Dunno if it was cause I played this off the back of Persona 5 Royal changing my life, but this ended up doing nothing for me. God the combat is SO boring, and fights take SO long. Just standing there watching timers. The different classes feel like they make very very little difference to what was going on. After playing Bravely Default 2 a few years ago, with it's fun and inventive job system, XC3 just felt like "You can be a tank with a Green jacket, or a white one?", and that's SHITE.

Was holding on for the story but honestly, it just didn't have enough to keep me going. A shame really.

With Tears Of The Kingdom hype at maximum I knew I had time to squeeze in one Zelda game before it comes out. Coincidentally, hacking your 3DS has never been easier, and I've lent my copy of Link Between Worlds to someone a long time ago and I don't even remember who.

I've long made the argument that I'd rather play a top down Zelda that a full 3D one, and I more or less stand by that, although BOTW has certainly muddied those waters. What you get in Link Between Worlds is a sort of Zelda Literacy Test. Nothing is overly challenging, dungeons can be breezed through quite comfortably. I played the majority of it with my children perched on my shoulders like two shrieking demons and it was fun to see what elements that are so powerfully obvious to me were indistinguishable from magic to them. Oh yeah, that blank bit of wall with two bushes 1 tile apart next to it? Check this shit out kids, boom, look at that, fairy fountain. I'm like a god to them. An almighty games wizard.

My favourite Zelda remains Link's Awakening, with all its weird quirks and strangeness, but LBW is probably the peak top down Zelda, by sheer virtue of being all the best bits from all the top downs smushed together.

My sons are obsessed with Sonic at the minute. Between the film, Sonic Boom, and Sonic X, they've been watching loads of Sonic stuff. My 3 year old likes to run about the house going "IM BLACK SONIC!" and despite being told many many times his name is Shadow, it's always "Black Sonic"

Anyway, I started a playthrough of Sonic 2 on the Switch's Mega Drive collection to show them it. It's the first time I've properly touched Sonic 2 in probably a decade and I hit that groove with it quickly in the early stages. The boys were cheering and going nuts as sonic loop-de-looped, launched himself miles over the stage, ran through the half pipe collecting rings, the full Sonic experience. They weren't the only ones, I was having a grand time.

We stopped for dinner right as I reached Hill Top Zone and I saved my progress thinking "I will finish this run later, on Daddy's time". Christ, I wish I'd not bothered. Sonic 2 just hits a powerful nose dive at that stage and never really recovers. I think I realised what makes a good Sonic game, for me. Gimmicks. I like the chaotic, hard to control areas of Casino Night Zone cause it's a gimmick! I like that the Ruins has loads of underwater bits, making momentum tricky and different. But the gimmicks after that are just so shit. Uninteresting from a game play stand point and also just ugly and boring.

And then there's fucking Metropolis Zone. HATE it man, HAAAAATE it. I'm strongly in favour of a platformer ramping up in difficulty but metropolis zone is just filled with bullshit that lurks off screen to launch attacks that require Matrix level dodging, even when taking it slowly and meticulously. Plus it loops and feels labyrinthine in a boring as fuck way. Where am I going, there's no indication, I don't feel like I'm exploring or blazing a trail, just faffing about. And there's 3 stages of this shit!!! The only zone to have 3 acts and it fucking stinks!! Why??!!!

God, the amount I played sonic 2 as a kid, and all this time I didn't realise how much I didn't like it. Why did I even have a mega drive. I wonder if I'd be a happier adult without Sonic. It's a possibility, certainly.