As a certified zoomer, my dad's ps1 was my first console. On it, we had Spyro, Symphony of the Night, Neversoft's Spiderman, and MediEvil. I played all of them, but not MediEvil for some reason. I wish I had, because this is the kind of game that I would play the first few levels of over and over again as a kid because my child brain didn't have the IQ to get through harder levels. After playing this as an adult, I felt like I did as a kid all those years ago playing ps1. This game is really fun and makes me nostalgic despite having never played it before, though many of its mechanics haven't really aged well in some regards.
The atmosphere and soundtrack are impeccable, especially for the Halloween season. It's the perfect game to play with a cup of coffee, an open window to let in the crisp autumn air, and a pumpkin spice candle burning on the counter. This coziness is helped by its Tim Burton-esque art style and sense of humor. I'll bookend this with the story - it's nothing to write home about. It has a really funny premise and there are even some moments that I'd dare to call epic. It's satisfying seeing the former coward Daniel Fortesque getting over his mild disability of being dead and slowly accruing more power to defeat Zarok.
The levels themselves can be fairly hit or miss. Many of them are fun to explore and traverse, and have intuitive puzzles and level design, but there are some like the Ghost Ship and Asylum which can be infuriating.
I thought this game would be a lot harder than it actually ended up being, because the earlier sections were very difficult due to the combat system's tendency to feel really weird and awful. It's really hard to kill enemies without getting hit since they more or less ignore your strikes until they're dead, and don't usually stagger. The best way to get through the combat in the earlier parts of this game is to run around like a cokehead and slash at everything that moves. If you're anything like me and got the chalices the first time going through each level, you'd know about the magic sword that never loses its charge towards the end of the game that makes all of the combat trivially easy, and the fact that you have many lives if you max out your health bar (which is another fairly easy task if you got all the chalices). The camera is an absolute nightmare though, and the controls make platforming a pain. This is a remake in the school of remakes that are a litte too faithful to the original, similar to the Demon's Souls remake, and keep annoying and outdated mechanics from the original release while providing just a graphical overhaul and a few quality of life improvements like more life fountains around the levels and certain advantages against bosses.
Overall, this was a good time that wasn't as painful as I thought it would be judging by first impressions, and is an easy game to recommend if you're willing to deal with some outdated mechanics.
The atmosphere and soundtrack are impeccable, especially for the Halloween season. It's the perfect game to play with a cup of coffee, an open window to let in the crisp autumn air, and a pumpkin spice candle burning on the counter. This coziness is helped by its Tim Burton-esque art style and sense of humor. I'll bookend this with the story - it's nothing to write home about. It has a really funny premise and there are even some moments that I'd dare to call epic. It's satisfying seeing the former coward Daniel Fortesque getting over his mild disability of being dead and slowly accruing more power to defeat Zarok.
The levels themselves can be fairly hit or miss. Many of them are fun to explore and traverse, and have intuitive puzzles and level design, but there are some like the Ghost Ship and Asylum which can be infuriating.
I thought this game would be a lot harder than it actually ended up being, because the earlier sections were very difficult due to the combat system's tendency to feel really weird and awful. It's really hard to kill enemies without getting hit since they more or less ignore your strikes until they're dead, and don't usually stagger. The best way to get through the combat in the earlier parts of this game is to run around like a cokehead and slash at everything that moves. If you're anything like me and got the chalices the first time going through each level, you'd know about the magic sword that never loses its charge towards the end of the game that makes all of the combat trivially easy, and the fact that you have many lives if you max out your health bar (which is another fairly easy task if you got all the chalices). The camera is an absolute nightmare though, and the controls make platforming a pain. This is a remake in the school of remakes that are a litte too faithful to the original, similar to the Demon's Souls remake, and keep annoying and outdated mechanics from the original release while providing just a graphical overhaul and a few quality of life improvements like more life fountains around the levels and certain advantages against bosses.
Overall, this was a good time that wasn't as painful as I thought it would be judging by first impressions, and is an easy game to recommend if you're willing to deal with some outdated mechanics.