I missed out on a lot of platformers after the fifth generation of video game consoles. Never owned a PlayStation 2 at the time. Thus, IP's such as Sly and Ratchet alongside a certain J. series. Were some franchises I never played. In order to rectify such a mistake. I decided to play another Naughty Dog(ND) platformer except in a 3D open-world environment. with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the first time.

Gone are the restricted side-scrolling segments we were forced to endure in Crash Bandicoot 1 and disconnected world through warping in 2 and 3. Jak feels like a natural evolution from the studio's PS1 days and wickedly refreshing with a narrative starting with an act of disobedience. Against the elders' warnings, the protagonists travel to a forbidden island. There the two witness mysterious figures who are sinisterly planning some horrible deed using dark eco and precursor artifacts. Knowing this is well above their usual tomfoolery the duo try to leave. However, before sneakily trying to leave the island... they were ambushed! The events that follow from here have the titular characters embark on a vital quest to fulfill for the elder, any side-missions to complete, and uncover what dastardly plans those two figures were plotting.

The world design is richly goofy. But has a certain serious aesthetic I like. To the extent I was venturing off the beaten path considerably to see what secrets lay in store for me. I bravely ventured into a diverse amount of biomes: A jungle with an old ruin, murky swamp, underwater laboratory, volcano with a spider-cavern, and a snowy peak, with huge snowballs rolling down a path to riding a hoverbike on racing segments and one larger zone to go ham. Reminded me heavily of Spyro using a skateboard. Seems ND was a fan of that and devised their take on a particular basin. Battled a wide assortment of foes from goofy but deadly frogs, drill enemies, shield dudes, not cute at all blue jumping rabbits, long centipedes, and the good old regular animals, but naughty dogified in every biome. Worms, bats, spiders, rats. You name it! Sooner or later they shall appear! Heck faced quite a bit of environmental hazards from falling to my death, being shot by smog, lava deaths, or shocked to a crisp. Not quite quicksand but quickmud. Encountered spiked traps, and spiked logs swaying from trees, and overcame countless jumping sections within. Not too hard and not too easy thankfully. Didn’t see much if any copy paste from the enemy design or world design. Everything was consistently varied and the final zone itself proved a serviceable final act.

Concerning the gameplay loop. I would say it’s consistently fun from the beginning until the very end credits. The open world without any loading aside from using fast travel when you need to is a plus. Allowing anyone to venture as far as they can within reason. The plot will stop you from venturing further until you accrue enough power cells. A collectible item and usually one that stops you from exploring more biomes until they reach a certain number. Didn’t have trouble getting these since I was already forgetting about the main quest to complete some side missions offered by NPCs here. Individuals who look similar to J-man. Although, he doesn’t look like a regular human. To me, he seems like a cross between a mad scientist trying to combine an elf and a human resulting in a humanoid with long ears and inheriting an athletic body to boot. Tasks can range from moving bulls into a pen, pushing an egg, doing a favor for a future mayor, or a fishing dude in a mini-game. I enjoyed finishing these day-to-day jobs since a majority are elderly. Didn’t feel right to leave them to their struggle. And I didn’t mind giving a helping hand for a power cell after the job was done. Thus, my reward felt adequate for my services rendered. Aside from the cells, you can also come across other collectible precursor orbs. Think of these like the apples from the Crash series you’ll often find on the paths, tucked away around the corner, nooks or crannies. Except, you can amass over a hundred to trade them in for a cell. Additionally, scout flies are in special boxes you need to slam into to release the flies. Gather seven of these spread throughout any major level to be awarded a cell. Kinda thankful they're here, so the player doesn’t amass orbs all day ya know?

Furthermore, the world has a varied amount of colored eco. These differ from absorbing orbs changing the gameplay formula in fun ways. They're a temporary power-up granting our main characters a wide array of elemental passives. Blue charges our dudes to move faster, jump a bit farther, and make it so easier to absorb collectibles nearby like a magnet. Red strengthens attacks and invincibility against exploding crates. Plus, a nice interactivity emerges when enemies die. Leaving off green residue for their remains. Once we accrue enough scraps, up to fifty to restore a ⅓ of our health points. In total, we have three health bars. And no finite life stacks to keep track of. Die and you respawn at a nearby point of a large level. Didn’t find too much trouble with re-spawning. They were fine for me. And the inclusion of colored eco’s is gratifying to add spice to the experience. An extra edge in both combat and traversal.

Usually, platformers(broadly speaking) offer some enticing gameplay to differentiate themselves from others in the same genre. To various degrees of enjoyment. Have you noticed other games conduct themselves around their mechanics through level design, encounter's and etc. Below are several examples I pulled from my limited experience in the genre.

- Ape Escape using the analog stick ingeniously. Left stick for movement. Right stick for your gadgets.
- Trine used the stick to coordinate with your allies. The thief can shoot a bow & arrow and a grapple hook in any possible direction when applicable, the knight can block enemies with his shield in any direction, and the wizard can conjure different objects by drawing to help them overcome obstacles or fall on unsuspecting enemies.
- Super Mario 64’s long jump, triple jump, wall jump combined with grabbing, kicking, running, swimming, crouching and etc. proved to be a simple, yet effective formula to endorse player freedom in the whole world.
- Pac-Man World’s shift from the classic game into a 3D landscape works oh so well. Heck P-man can interact with objects, solve puzzles and use new abilities!
- Spyro & Crash's basic movesets were frequently used and tested in various large levels from a hub to straightforward linear segments. Overcoming multiple obstacles both vertical and horizontal. Calling back once again if it ain't broke, don't fix it with sequels largely staying true to the same moves.
- Mirror's Edge smooth parkour capabilities lends itself well into the whole level design employing minimal visual aid to your destination.

Aside from the slew of other platformers. And returning back to Jak. Story-wise I felt the narrative had a stop-and-go momentum. Perhaps owing to the fact, that I completed sidequests along the way while not truly investing in the adventure, making the pacing slow to a crawl. However, the beats in the narrative were like a slow burn in a good way. I think this could be intentional to convey an absence of agency from an immediate save-the-world aspect vs. uncovering a devious plot. Allowing player freedom vs. player urgency to flourish for the former rather than the latter. As someone who adores freedom a great deal in games, such an aspect appealed to me greatly. I don’t like being rushed. Therefore Jak 1 succeeds at least for me in creating a freshly wacky fun world to navigate and a decent story. Unreasonable to expect a masterpiece in the first entry of a new franchise. However, the attempt to do so is noteworthy.

As someone familiar with several PS1 games in the same genre. Although, not an expert or veteran, I was pleasantly surprised how Naughty Dog did not regress in the sixth console generation and boldly made a new IP direction to positive acclaim. Back in the day, I felt plenty of rigidness in their earlier works in how levels were constructed and punishing in a way. Jumping on scaffolding, but hold up we got countless traps, and obstacles to drop us dead. Sure I could use Aku-Aku help, but hey it sucks having to redo a segment ‘x’ amount of times. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Crash series to the point I replayed them in the remastered trilogy. By comparison, Precursor Legacy in my opinion eliminates the rigidity in favoring a more open-freedom in gameplay and combat. The power to go anywhere you physically can is a compelling motivation to fulfill a wanderlust. Exploring what is on the horizon and saying “Oh I can go there.” Busting my athletic skills to their limit. Fluidity at work too. Where I didn’t experience much clunkiness from controlling J & D as one character. Weighty animations from his spin-to-win moves felt satisfying. The long almost Falcon punch from a select Nintendo IP has an immensely awesome feel to wham enemies. Uppercutting and ground slams extend the combat capability of our heroes. Blessing us, a nice reactivity to enemies dying.

Concerning my feelings on platforming. I was initially apprehensive due to the fact I am super horrible at managing timing, and the right jump distance, and easily frustrated if I have to restart a whole level after almost completing a dungeon/level. So after seeing the end credits and witnessing the 100% mark. I couldn’t believe I had the patience and perseverance to keep going. Perhaps owing to the fact the re-spawning mechanic and save system felt very generous, not punishing with ease to let players keep trying. The former mechanic felt quick and would make the duo spawn near the start of a level or a certain point within a zone. Usually after overcoming a major obstacle. The latter on the system feels very safe. In addition to saving at any time. Whenever our main character receives a cell, an autosave will occur. Considering there are over a hundred of these to collect I didn’t find much trouble losing progress upon dying or returning to the original point of death.

I usually die plenty in the Bandicoot games far more in the first and second. Consequently, I was holding my breath and mentally strengthening my willpower if I encountered similar levels of difficulty. To my sheer delight, most if not all platforming levels, sections, and areas are relatively easy to medium in challenging. Some examples I came across were: jumping on dais floating above water and above in mountainous regions. Sometimes moving while the water below is filled with electricity. Falling and rotating in some respects. Camera shifting to a traditional side-scrolling segment. Navigating through falling debris, snowballs, and slides while avoiding exploding crates. Maneuvering through a section to unlock switches, and levers and thus unlocking a new path. Add in timers to complete a task and you may have to think of an optimal route to beat the clock. Trick players into venturing into a dark room and force them to utilize unconventional crystal lights to persevere. Combine these elements in a lesser manner during riding segments and you have a recipe that tastes better as you eat more of the dish. With an excellent difficulty curve for beginners and a nice incline for enthusiasts looking for a challenge to master every level by acquiring everything.

Despite the praise I’ve been sprouting, I do have some mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, but some concerns I had during my playthrough I think should be important to note.

In the beginning, I had trouble adjusting to the inverted controls for the camera. But, ultimately got used to the control scheme as an hour or two passed. I felt meaningful collectibles were lacking in rewards. Could be a better incentive to introduce various extensions to temporary powers, permanent move sets, or classic increasing the player with more health would work wonders. Furthermore, I think having a timer for different eco uses is weird. I had to rush constantly to gather new types to utilize during combat. I propose a different alternative. Make the gathered amounts a stock type. Depleting when in use and able to switch between different types when the situation calls for it. Also, I didn’t know there was a secret ending upon gathering everything possible only to reveal a pretty underwhelming scene in the end. Therefore, going for 100% can be a chore in some respects since the collecting aspect doesn't seem to affect the overall gameplay by rewarding the player to search for them. Lastly, the game has a weird texture pop-in. Some textures in the far distance have muddy paint adorned. But upon closer inspection would magically reveal the appropriate textures. And I couldn’t help but feel the game dipped at times. Wonder if there is a definitive version out there to play the series… Well lo and behold OpenGOAL does. A fanmade PC port to play the series with higher fidelity. Currently, at the time this review was published, the team is working on Jak II. Here’s a comparison video I. Am. Amazed. At the difference in quality. While internally slapping myself why I didn’t start the first game with OG’s version. As a result, I recommend checking out the version differences from PS2, PS3, PS4, and unofficial PC port. And select the best one depending on your preference.

Ultimately, despite some minor mixed feelings I had. The overwhelming positives outweigh the concerns by a great deal. Jak’s seamless goofy yet serious, open world is a refreshing 3D experience without being too difficult and not too easy to deter newcomers and veterans. Resulting in a nice curve of challenge in approaching cool-level design. A solid fun gameplay loop kept my interest for a long while and doesn’t overstay their welcome by having enough of their own identity. Distinct from the Bandicoot days. Temporary elemental passives provide a nice spice to the movesets and offer interesting resolutions to tackle both enemies and obstacles. A decent story with a great sense of freedom brings a bright smile to my face constantly. Bringing relief with a generous save system and a painless re-spawn mechanic. Heck, your ottsel companion will incentivize the player upon dying with various quotes. “Don't worry, I'll avenge you! Not...!” “Hey, Jak! Can I, uh... have your insect collection?” Yeah… Oddly motivating.

Still for what it's worth I enjoyed my playthrough with the first installment. Chuckling in amusement at times at the silly things our heroes undergo. I'm looking forward to what awaits me in the franchise. Maybe I’ll dive into Daxter or Jak II next! Anyways! If you’re looking for an excellent platformer from the PS2 days. I recommend Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Watch how a young foolish duo starts their adventure with an act of disobedience. Tsk tsk. What a naughty d-

8.2/10

References & Additional Material:
Jak and Daxter - PS2 vs PS3 vs OpenGOAL Graphics Comparison
Jak & Daxter PS4 VS PS3 VS Vita VS PS2
Fifth generation of video game consoles
OpenGOAL Jak Project

Now THIS is the Devil May Cry I’ve heard so much about. Fast paced and full of style, energy and character. The combat sandbox is fluid, satisfying and allows for a fair bit of improvisation. I do think the style system is a bit rigid, I would’ve loved to combo the Trickster’s aerial warp with the Swordmaster’s aerial combos, but even as is the system has a lot of depth, and each style offers something for every playstyle. Against that is a diverse assortment of creative enemies that get more and more challenging as you progress, and not through just reskins with health and damage turned up, they’ll actually behave in more challenging ways, they’ll flank you, they’ll rebound and counter attack, etc. Dante himself is such a goofy, shit-talking, pizza loving frat boy, someone who loves to show off, perfect for a game about kicking everything’s ass in the most stylish way possible. Vergil as well is a great contrast, cold, self serious, he and Dante play off each other well. The story itself isn’t some masterpiece, but it is well structured and implemented in the context of the game, with Vergil, getting strong enough to beat him, hanging there as your ultimate goal through everything.

As great as this game is, I did still have a couple flaws with it. A couple of missions I found really obtuse, #15 in particular I had to look up a guide for after running around like a headless chicken for a half hour. The camera, while a vast improvement on 1 and especially 2 solely for the fact that you can actually adjust it this time, did still sometimes dick me over, sometimes it was in too tight and I couldn’t see all the enemies around me, sometimes it would drift into an awkward spot in the middle of the action, when I couldn’t focus on adjusting it back. I also thought some of the bosses were a touch weaker than others, Arkham was an especially underwhelming runner up to the true final boss.

As a whole, this game was great. I can easily see how it set the standard for this type of game and in many ways still does. I’m looking forward to playing DMC4 and 5 somewhere down the line.

I'm gonna play this game so much my 9 month old baby is gonna think Bryan Fury is his uncle.

Review Chapter 1:
Baldy's Basics

Yes, I play as Bryan (and I am NOT good at taunt cancelling yet) but you play as Reina so stfu. I do have some legacy skill since I've played Bryan before; he really became my guy when his beautiful bald head graced the voice-synthesized schoolyards of Tekken Tag Tournament. But I'm only here writing because I just went on a truly legendary losing-streak, dwarfed only by that time I lost one trillion SF6 player matches in a row against (fellow-backloggder) Maradona.

I beat both campaigns of Tekken 8 (The Dark Awakens and Arcade Quest) two days ago, and I meant to review it then but I've been so busy getting demolished in ranked matches to remember. Okay and taking care of a baby. Conbaby plays Eddie Gordo so 1. Scrub 2. Has to wait for the DLC.

Review Chapter 2:
Devil Inside, the Devil Inside, Every Single One of Us, The Devil Inside

The Dark Awakens is one of the best fighting game campaigns ever. Mostly focusing on formerly-likable character Jin Kazama trying to forget about the story of Tekken 6. He's just like me fr. Tekken 8 goes the balls-to-the-wall anime approach, and as someone who has been playing these games casually since I was a wee babe, it's hype.

The dialogue is certainly expressive, with characters yelling or gruffly whispering platitudes non-stop, but it manages to ride that line between corny and cool quite well. No spoilers, but there's also more gameplay variety than I expected. The overall Jin focus keeps everything from going off the rails (in terms of story cohesion) and there are plenty of major moments with the rest of the cast. Most of them. The one big Netherrealm style plot convenience was Azucena's; they came up with a fun coffee heiress character but had no idea how to get her into the story.

Review Chapter 3:
Pokkén Tournament

Arcade Quest is a way stripped-down version of SF6 world tour, serving as a tutorial for the basics of Tekken. The plot is straightforward and the dialogue is skippable. It's an inoffensive little mode if not for the fact that you play as those ugly Xbox Live Mii knockoffs, but there’s an online lobby where you chat and run around. It’s kinda fun.

Review Chapter 4:
The AI Version of Myself is Better than Me at Tekken

The practice stuff in this game is crazy; I thought Street Fighter 6's training was bananas, but this is next-level. Aside from the normal suite of training-mode options, you can train an AI of yourself (or any other player) to fight against, and you can pause any of your replays and drop into it (as either fighter) to see what you (or your opponent) could have done better. The amount of options new and old are almost overwhelming, but you're gonna need to utilize at least some of them to get anywhere online.

Review Chapter 5:
Reina and Kazuya

As for the multiplayer, it's great. The netcode is way better than Tekken 7's- still not to SF6 levels but much appreciated. I haven't had any issues, but I do use a wired connection so your mileage may vary.

Playing Tekken online is like getting beaten-up in real life. "I almost had her." Reina and Kazuya seem like the Kens or Scorpions of this game right now, at least in the lower ranks. More Victors as I’ve gone higher. I've played a couple hundred matches and have not fought a single Raven, Lars, Lee, Jun, or Bryan in Ranked (I don't know if it tries to filter out mirror matches.) I don't think Reina and Kaz are overpowered or anything, but they're obviously popular. It doesn't have a huge impact on the enjoyment, as it's good practice. I say practice but it's just me losing ranked matches.

One week post-launch edit: Reina, Victor, King, Dragunov. Kazuya has faded into obscurity.

Review Chapter 6:
I'm Dragging this out to 8 Chapters

I know we're not very far past release, and some of that excitement is sure to wear off, but the amount of fun I'm having is undeniable.

Review Chapter 7:
Sight & Sound

This game looks stunning. Tekken 7 probably looked good too but I wouldn't know because the Xbox version looked like beer goggles.

The music for Tekken 8 is fine, but you can put any Tekken song from any Tekken game on any stage, as well as the different menus. One major omission is "Black Winter Night Sky", the Tekken 2 console opening cutscene song. Where is it Harada? Why is it never included in anything? It's not on iTunes with the rest of the soundtracks, best they've got are stinky cover versions.

Review Chapter 8:
Tekken Ball

TEKKEN BALL BABY! WE'RE SO BACK! GON DLC WHEN?? TEKKEN BALLLLLLLLL!!!! PS TEKKEN BALLIN!!!! Tekken Ball Tekken Ball gonna go play some Tekken Ball to the beach music from Tekken 4

"Review Epilogue" DLC coming soon

Hellblade:Senua's Sacrifice is a beautiful story about a woman dealing with psicosis in the viking era. You can see their dedication and passion in creating this game and being as faithful as they could to actual psicosis, which is a plus for me.
The accessibility was a great improvement in comparison to some AAA around, even though it failed some times - during fights, while exploring, the "voices" kept talking, giving hints on what to do, but there were no subtitles on screen.
The combat sucked though. Too much of it and clearly not the center of the game and I wished they didn't add so many sequences of it.
However, still recommend it for anyone that wants to see a proper work on mental health.

Nunca pensei que caçar monstro fosse tão divertido e viciante!

Monster Hunter já apareceu pra mim muitas vezes mas eu sempre ignorei essa franquia, até porque quando tentei jogar o World a um tempo atrás, o jogo não me pegou. Me deixou uma sensação meio ruim sabe de desconforto, pareceu um joguinho meio bobo pra mim, mas hoje eu vejo que eu estava totalmente errado, e esse jogo me mostrou que atualmente eu amadureci e mudei completamente de personalidade.

Dei uma chance ao Rise pois ele me chamou muita atenção, gostei muito da estética dele, seus gráficos mais cartunescos e caricatos me encantaram mais do que o World, que já tem uma pegada gráfica mais próxima ao realismo e menos simples ao ver. Quando entrei nessa maravilha eu não tava conseguindo me adaptar direito aos controles, sério, realmente MH tem um tipo de controle diferente e que nas primeiras horas é um inferno pra se adaptar, mas fica tranquilo que depois ali de umas 3 horinhas ou 2 jogando você consegue manjar melhor do estilo do jogo.

E falando sobre estilo, MH é um jogo sobre caça de monstros e pra caçar monstros você precisa de um equipamento! E as armas são o destaque principal da franquia MH, pois tem arma pra todos os gostos, seja pra quem gosta de algo mais lento, mais rápido, equilibrado, até mesmo pra quem gosta de coisa a distância ou de da tiro (existe um fodend* fuzil nesse jogo), e não se engane nessas coisas de qual arma é melhor ou qual da mais dano, todas em igual consegue matar muito rápido, é só questão de gosto e de se adaptar, algumas demoram mais tempo pra você mestrar e outras nem tanto.

Uma coisa que eu gostei muito também desse jogo foi os preparos antes de uma caçada, tu comer tua comidinha, preparar teus equipamento, comprar os suprimentos.. tem todo um processo muito foda antes da caçada (claro que não são necessários, é opcional) que te favorece bastante na hora que tiver pau a pau ali com o queridão.

Eu não posso dizer muito sobre as criaturas desse jogo, porque de fato este foi o primeiro que joguei a sério, a única criatura que reconheci ao ver assim foi o Anjanath e o Rathian, que aparentemente são clássicos da franquia (me corrijam se eu estiver errado), enfim, eu AMEI o design de cada bixo desse jogo e o moveset deles, é tudo muito bem trabalhado, da um certo tesão conseguir atingir o golpe neles e finalizar tua missão, uns são mais rápidos outros mais lentos, uns mais fáceis e outros mais difíceis. Só sei que meu bixinho favorito de caçar é o Tigrex, e ele vai ficar no meu coração pra sempre.

Falam que o Rise não é o MH ideal pra se iniciar, mas sendo sincero eu gostei de ter começado por esse aqui, o único problema é que ele ainda não é um MH finalizado né eu acho, dizem que ainda vai ter mais atualização (pelo menos até a data desta análise), eu ainda não matei la todos os bixos, mas fiz os principais da campanha e da DLC, agora só me restou os do RM 20 pra cima pra concluir tudinho do jogo até agora mesmo, mas como estou sofrendo com um problema de crash dei uma certa desanimada.

Mas enfim, ta ai galera é um jogão do caramba, mesmo se não gostarem do que ve por ai na internet, deem uma chance, aproveitem que o jogo base ta na gamepass (infelizmente sem a DLC que dá um upgrade insano pro jogo), experimentem monster hunter! Pode ser que a sua primeira entrada nesse game, seja um ponto pra você embarcar na franquia toda !

Not a perfect game, but a game of so many perfect moments.

My GOTY for 2023. After the massively personally disappointing 'appeal to everyone, zero identity' Tears of the Kingdom, FFXVI boldly goes in the opposite direction with a 'game made entirely for a smaller group of people that will truly love it'.

I am so sick of the 'play your way' games that just devolve into mass appeal, egocentric gamer pandering. This game doesn't try to be everything. Hell it doesn't even try to be very many things. But what it does go for, it does with so much heart and grandeur that I fell in love with it.

I feel like even with its more focused approach it was still a bit too broad and suffered somewhat for it. The side quests and quality of animations are such stark contrasts to the main set pieces that it's pretty jarring. The upgrade paths for weapons are very tokenistic.

All that said, the art direction, voice acting, music, and boss battles are absolutely incredible in this. The combat is so satisfying and versatile. The visuals feel like an actual next gen game and playing on an OLED TV was a borderline spiritual experience.

I do not own a ps5, but bought this game and played it to completion on my brothers console. I will be buying this again for PC and excitedly going for 100%. Beat in ~36 hours focusing primarily on the main story and enjoying the atmosphere.

Not for everyone, but if you enjoy the NieR games (aka, somewhat awkward pacing, limited world, but fantastic atmosphere, music, and heartfelt story), this is a game made exactly for you.

Seems like a twisted joke that one of the action games from this era that ends up controlling the most fluidly is the one where you’re piloting a spider-tank- it’s the humans of this generation that you’ll need to get a license to operate. Finds a very particular balance between rigidity of tank controls and the ease of circle strafing, and combined with the ability to transition between (almost) every surface, it’s ended up being some of the most fun I’ve had just controlling a character in 3D space. Came away really liking the conspiratorial feeling of dodging enemy fire by totally inverting my angle-of-approach and entering fights by walking in on the ceiling (would love to see another game pick up where this left off).

Think the highlights are some of the densely-packed later stages, which hold up remarkably well thanks to the fact that the game will seamlessly transition from 3rd to 1st person if the area you’re in gets too cramped, and an early-game level where you’ll race against the clock to destroy explosive barrels in an open-ended environment. The timer here is tight enough that there’s some genuine decision-making in finding the best ways to cut through the level and in deciding what shot type to use: spend a few seconds and charge your lock-on or use a limited-use grenade to clear the objective? It’s a great pressure that’s surprisingly absent in the rest of the levels, free to move through them as cautiously as you want. Doubly weird given how the narrative keeps presenting these ticking clocks, with escaping suspects to catch and reactor meltdowns to avert, that have no bearing on the scenarios themselves.

Speaks to a general sense that this great movement was slotted into a game that didn’t quite know how to test it: Hard to believe that the fight against a rival Fuchikoma, which can scale walls as nimbly as you can and cycles through a number of projectile attacks that can track the player, is in the same title where so many of the bosses only entail that you circle-strafe around them and hold the lock-on button to win- not even leading their shots to throw off the player’s movement: just complete non-entities.

It’s further illustrated by its last level, a straightforward gauntlet through a bunch of enemies and a final boss that could function in almost any other action game, none of the hazards capitalizing on the unique qualities here. Probably a lot to expect from a licensed game, but the action is so far removed from any facet of the Ghost in the Shell series that I sort of wished that the devs had been able to ditch the IP entirely, free to construct whatever abstract and outlandish obstacles they wanted.

As with a lot of the middle-of-the-road arcade games I’ve talked about, the fact that its best ideas are still lying dormant isn’t some cardinal sin; start this in the evening, and let its novel movement system and pulsing DnB soundtrack hold you over till sunrise- maybe daydream about what it could be in the aftermath.

Enjoyed this one a lot more than I remembered, and I think that's helped by the fact this was a couch playthrough with two of my best friends, with whom I could laugh with the game and shoot the shit through the whole romp. Mario RPG stands as a fantastic example of comedic timing and localization changes working to the benefit of the audience in mid-90s RPGs. Massive shout-out to the legendary Ted Woolsey, as this game includes some of his best work.

Another massive name that deserves to be given praise here: this is easily my favorite Yoko Shimomura soundtrack, so vibrant and exciting at every turn. Considering how many samey towns came about in games like Final Fantasy IV and VI at the time, Shimomura's soundtrack ensures each and every location contains an earworm to recall it by.

Gameplay here is dead simple but you can see the foundations of both successor series forming here with staple power-ups and items with their relative assigned roles, as well as timing mechanics which would branch off into their own respective evolutions in each following Mario RPG series. Still, Mario RPG finds a way to keep things interesting the whole run, such as group battles or gimmick bosses like Bowyer.

Best of all - it's over well before it can outstay its welcome. This game is perfectly paced for what it is, something even the mighty Chrono Trigger slumps at in its final third. Immaculately timed, purely fun, and just an all-time classic. Beyond stoked for this upcoming remake.