DKMode
This review contains spoilers
Everything great about Sonic Adventure 2 is represented here functionally (movement and jumping that feels good when the camera is behaving, big levels with various routes through them, the way that it follows a racing game-esque progression where later levels are more about picking the spots to not go full-speed on) and aesthetically (butt rock with on-the-nose lyrics at pivotal moments, a dope-ass super saiyan final boss fight). Doesn't really have the budget or manpower to get all the way there - and struggles to find a reason to keep the combat mechanics from the first game - but damn does it get close, especially considering it was largely made by one guy.
Everyone who said this is the best 2D Sonic is 100% correct. Wildly confident, clearly a team firing on all cylinders with all they learned throughout the console's lifespan, and it's got a pretty generous save system so you can just play it normally and have a good time. Blown away.
2012
Gets kinda boring once you start getting guns but making a hand-to-hand GTA game was smart as hell and there's some really good character writing in this. sleepy dawgz.
1992
This was the first game I ever owned so I have a lot of inherent good feelings about it. In any case, it's a really confident step from the first one and holds up wonderfully. The level design is so much better on a moment-to-moment level with a new interesting gimmick in every zone - plus, tightening those up to 2 acts instead of 3 forces them to fill each level with cool ideas. Cannot be overstated how vibrant this one looks and sounds too. Much less bullshit in this one too, there's ample opportunity for extra lives and continues and even though I used save states liberally I was surprised at how completeable it all felt (at least until the final level which is still kinda bullshit). Had a good enough time to roll right into the third one.
yuffie's so cool
1987
Understand why this is iconic but doesn't have the sauce yet. Would've hated playing this without save states!! The Wily levels are good though.
2005
Gun to my head this is probably my favourite game.
2001
Still hits! Mechanically simple but still feels really good to kill 4 dudes in one slow-mo dive. Stylistically a lot of Remedy's tricks are already here - genre pastiche, little bit of 4th-wall-breaking, moody environments, storyline that keeps you moving from one setpiece to the other and performances that straddle the line of intentionally over-the-top (I didn't really catch how funny this game was when I was younger) and legitimately good. You can see the beginning of the Ashtray Maze in this game's nightmare sequences (which are absolutely awful and the main reason I never finished this game back in the day, so thank god they got better at this sort of thing). Shout-out to the comic book cutscenes which are so fun and stylish as well as an incredibly smart cost-cutting measure. Some bullshit levels and the plot gets really goofy but confident and impressive overall.
2016
This one doesn't really sit in my mind in any way but at the time it felt really nice and warm to play it after not having played any of these games in a decade. It's good!
Love love loved this game back in the day, it's so breezy. Unfortunately I remember almost nothing about it even though I played it a ton.
I remember this one being super hard in spots but that might just be because I didn't understand how to deal with RPG leveling systems in games. This is the one where they really start to nail it.
2002
Very solid start even though it's missing some of the characteristics of the series. The flipside of that is that it's not as focused on the shooting which means there's a pretty ideal mix of platforming-to-gunplay. Some really good kids game writing even if Ratchet is a dick for no reason in it.
On this one they go too hard with adding new gameplay styles - rather than three characters with their own movesets it starts to feel like a minigame collection. Still very breezy and playable but the weakest of the initial trilogy for sure.
Never actually beat this because the disc from the place I rented it was so scratched that it couldn't load the last level. Spent a whole weekend doing nothing but playing it though and felt the whole time that it was probably an all-timer. I've never gone back to check if that's actually true, I suspect it is "merely" very good. There should be more heist games.
Probably the game I replayed the most back in the day - breezy, great visual style and really smooth to play. The Ratchet games were "mine" in a way that this never was but always really enjoyed it.