DoctorIssa
BACKER
1999
If there is any game that champions the "short and sweet" mantle, it is Pokemon Snap.
Pokemon Snap is the on-rails phototaking game one would expect from this genre, expect it's way more endearing since you're taking photos of Pokemon in their habitat.
What also puts Pokemon Snap above other games in this genre is the gameplay loop, which also makes it a semi-puzzle game. The gameplay loop will find you replaying levels using tools you've unlocked to uncover new Pokémon you might have missed in your first run, or new poses for existing Pokemon, resulting in a higher score and therefore more tools to uncover more secrets.
While fun, it is sadly short lived and can be fully completed in an hour. It feels like a concept for a much bigger game that would be developed decades later (foreshadowing). Although the replayability factor on this is great like star fox 64 where replaying to get the best scores can become addicting.
I would have been mad if I bought this for full price back in the day, but playing today as part of my NSO subscription service totally makes this game worth your time if you are a fan of Pokemon, and on-rails games.
Pokemon Snap is the on-rails phototaking game one would expect from this genre, expect it's way more endearing since you're taking photos of Pokemon in their habitat.
What also puts Pokemon Snap above other games in this genre is the gameplay loop, which also makes it a semi-puzzle game. The gameplay loop will find you replaying levels using tools you've unlocked to uncover new Pokémon you might have missed in your first run, or new poses for existing Pokemon, resulting in a higher score and therefore more tools to uncover more secrets.
While fun, it is sadly short lived and can be fully completed in an hour. It feels like a concept for a much bigger game that would be developed decades later (foreshadowing). Although the replayability factor on this is great like star fox 64 where replaying to get the best scores can become addicting.
I would have been mad if I bought this for full price back in the day, but playing today as part of my NSO subscription service totally makes this game worth your time if you are a fan of Pokemon, and on-rails games.
Nintendo fans have been waiting years and years for Peach to finally get the spotlight starring in her own console game. It's finally here, and was the wait worth it?
Princess Peach Showtime is overwhelmed with spectacle. So much spectacle which unfortunately leaves little room for substance.
The game is pretty much a Action/Adventure in the most restrictive sense, where I'm almost inclined to call it an on-rails game. Coming from the freedom and fun that was Super Mario Bros Wonder, Princess Peach Showtime is the antithesis of that where your hand is held the whole way through and are forced to partake in scripted segment after scripted segment.
Levels are structured like stage plays, each one having their own genre, where in each one Peach gets a cool transformation to suit the genre of the stage play. Cowboy, Ninja, Chef, Mermaid and much more. At a core level, all stages are 2.5D platformers, but some stages gimmick involve more unique gameplay like cooking or singing.
Showtime's biggest strength is in it's subtitle. The game is filled with glits and glamour. So many cool and amazing looking segments, I could swear the game had a bigger budget than Mario Odyessy. Unfortunately most of these cool segments you find in each stage barely qualifies as gameplay and is more of a cutscene where you are lucky if you're even given the opportunity to press a button.
I honestly feel like this game was targeted towards an even younger audience than the typical Mario game for all ages, which is fair, but honestly Peach deserves better.
One top of all of this, the game somehow runs even worse on the Switch than Tears of the Kingdom did which is baffling considering that this is a much smaller game in scope.
Princess Peach Showtime is one of those games I'll play through once and probably never pick up again. Once you've seen everything spectacular about it, there's no reason to go back and experience again as the gameplay itself barely has anything to offer.
It's still a well made game however... maybe this game was not made for me, but something your younger sibling might enjoy.
Princess Peach Showtime is overwhelmed with spectacle. So much spectacle which unfortunately leaves little room for substance.
The game is pretty much a Action/Adventure in the most restrictive sense, where I'm almost inclined to call it an on-rails game. Coming from the freedom and fun that was Super Mario Bros Wonder, Princess Peach Showtime is the antithesis of that where your hand is held the whole way through and are forced to partake in scripted segment after scripted segment.
Levels are structured like stage plays, each one having their own genre, where in each one Peach gets a cool transformation to suit the genre of the stage play. Cowboy, Ninja, Chef, Mermaid and much more. At a core level, all stages are 2.5D platformers, but some stages gimmick involve more unique gameplay like cooking or singing.
Showtime's biggest strength is in it's subtitle. The game is filled with glits and glamour. So many cool and amazing looking segments, I could swear the game had a bigger budget than Mario Odyessy. Unfortunately most of these cool segments you find in each stage barely qualifies as gameplay and is more of a cutscene where you are lucky if you're even given the opportunity to press a button.
I honestly feel like this game was targeted towards an even younger audience than the typical Mario game for all ages, which is fair, but honestly Peach deserves better.
One top of all of this, the game somehow runs even worse on the Switch than Tears of the Kingdom did which is baffling considering that this is a much smaller game in scope.
Princess Peach Showtime is one of those games I'll play through once and probably never pick up again. Once you've seen everything spectacular about it, there's no reason to go back and experience again as the gameplay itself barely has anything to offer.
It's still a well made game however... maybe this game was not made for me, but something your younger sibling might enjoy.
2002
Playing JSRF right after playing the OG, one of my favorite games I've discovered this year, and hearing nothing but praise for the sequel, I was disappointed to feel that JSRF took one step forward and two steps back.
Let me start by saying the original JSR's strength was not the gameplay. While fun if you mastered it, there was still a lot of room for improvement.
JSRF absolutely remedies this by fine-tuning everything that was needed with tighter controls, better physics, more tricks and options. Just objectively and absolutely devours the original game in the gameplay department. That is the one step forward and the best thing about JSRF.
The original JSR's biggest strength was it's style and soundtrack. Probably my favorite artstyle in videogames, and one of the best OSTs of all time. JSRF retains having a strong artstlyle and a good soundtrack... it's just not as good in my opinion. While the original POPPED, colors here are bleaker and have more of a depressing green tint to it. And this isn't some sort of "The future is bleak" commentary either, JSRF establishes that it's future is more advanced and hopeful than ever before. At first it is an interesting style choice, but over time you start to become bored of the game's visuals due to most areas looking very same-y in terms of color diversity.
The soundtrack is the more subjective take, but I definitely did not bop my head like I did when playing the original the entire time. There are some good tracks here and there but a lot of them become really grating as you hear them over and over again. Part of the reason the soundtrack suffers is how the game is structured, which I will get to.
The way the game is structured is another step back in my opinion. I loved the original for it's arcadey feel. You go into a level, complete the objective with the highest score possible, and you move on, kinda like a Tony Hawk game or Star Fox 64.
How JSRF is structed is basically a segmented open world, and it's LARGE. For many this is a popular structre. To me, it was a major flaw. You see, when it comes to arcadey fun games like JSR, I like to be put straight into the action. The problem with the open world is that it can take a while to get to your objective. There are many instances where you have to run through a section of the world that you have already ran through 5 times in order to get to a single objective. As an example, there are lots of times where you're at point A, and you need to get to point D. This requires you do run through point B and C to get to D. And then you need to get back to point A, so you need to run through point C and B again. I don't mind replaying a level with a different objective, the problem is the travel to the objective. It just becomes tedious. I will say, if traversal wasn't as fun as it was, this would be a major problem in the game and pretty much ruin it for me.
Having said that, with this structure in place, each chapter in the game will pretty much have 3 of it's own same songs in rotation, which you will be forced to hear over and over again while running through the padding this game likes to do. It really drives you mad.
I still did enjoy my time with JSRF and the first 2 hours gave me the impression this was gonna be an objectivley better game than the original. But the further you get through the more the tedium kicks in. And perhaps my expectations were too high after loving the OG and hearing all the praise this one was getting. Despite the flaws, JSRF is still a great game and I still recommend it if you loved the orignal. I even recommend it if you didn't like the original as for some people this is the only playable one (which I heavily disagree with).
Let me start by saying the original JSR's strength was not the gameplay. While fun if you mastered it, there was still a lot of room for improvement.
JSRF absolutely remedies this by fine-tuning everything that was needed with tighter controls, better physics, more tricks and options. Just objectively and absolutely devours the original game in the gameplay department. That is the one step forward and the best thing about JSRF.
The original JSR's biggest strength was it's style and soundtrack. Probably my favorite artstyle in videogames, and one of the best OSTs of all time. JSRF retains having a strong artstlyle and a good soundtrack... it's just not as good in my opinion. While the original POPPED, colors here are bleaker and have more of a depressing green tint to it. And this isn't some sort of "The future is bleak" commentary either, JSRF establishes that it's future is more advanced and hopeful than ever before. At first it is an interesting style choice, but over time you start to become bored of the game's visuals due to most areas looking very same-y in terms of color diversity.
The soundtrack is the more subjective take, but I definitely did not bop my head like I did when playing the original the entire time. There are some good tracks here and there but a lot of them become really grating as you hear them over and over again. Part of the reason the soundtrack suffers is how the game is structured, which I will get to.
The way the game is structured is another step back in my opinion. I loved the original for it's arcadey feel. You go into a level, complete the objective with the highest score possible, and you move on, kinda like a Tony Hawk game or Star Fox 64.
How JSRF is structed is basically a segmented open world, and it's LARGE. For many this is a popular structre. To me, it was a major flaw. You see, when it comes to arcadey fun games like JSR, I like to be put straight into the action. The problem with the open world is that it can take a while to get to your objective. There are many instances where you have to run through a section of the world that you have already ran through 5 times in order to get to a single objective. As an example, there are lots of times where you're at point A, and you need to get to point D. This requires you do run through point B and C to get to D. And then you need to get back to point A, so you need to run through point C and B again. I don't mind replaying a level with a different objective, the problem is the travel to the objective. It just becomes tedious. I will say, if traversal wasn't as fun as it was, this would be a major problem in the game and pretty much ruin it for me.
Having said that, with this structure in place, each chapter in the game will pretty much have 3 of it's own same songs in rotation, which you will be forced to hear over and over again while running through the padding this game likes to do. It really drives you mad.
I still did enjoy my time with JSRF and the first 2 hours gave me the impression this was gonna be an objectivley better game than the original. But the further you get through the more the tedium kicks in. And perhaps my expectations were too high after loving the OG and hearing all the praise this one was getting. Despite the flaws, JSRF is still a great game and I still recommend it if you loved the orignal. I even recommend it if you didn't like the original as for some people this is the only playable one (which I heavily disagree with).
2012
To me, Jet Set Radio is like Star Fox 64. A short but sweet game that is easy to pick up, but hard to master, which allows me to replay this treasure over and over again without ever getting bored.
I'm glad I FINALLY got to this game as it's been in my to-play list since I was like 10 years old. Who knew it would be one of my new favorites.
JSR is pretty much Tony Hawk with skates and style. And when I say style I really don't mean that lightly. This is probably one of the first games to really bring the STYLE to videogames that inspired the style you see in Persona and later Sakurai games.
While the artsyle is obviously responsible for bringing the style to the looks of the game, the style is really boosted by it's soundtrack. Probably one of my favorite videogame soundtracks of all time. There is nothing but really catchy sample funk here and ALL the songs are so good. And I can't wait to play the Sequel and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk just to hear the other tracks.
The stages are full of life and soul. Everything feels so detailed and cluttered in this iteration of Tokyo. Everything exudes a certain vibrancy that just invokes a feeling of happiness.
As for the gameplay, rather than chasing score like the Tony Hawk games, there are objectives in each level you need to complete in order to be successful, rather than just pass a score threshold. I prefer this so much more.
The controls are so simple, you will only ever push 2 buttons in this game. Jump and Tag. But the fact that this game has so many mechanics using just these 2 buttons shows how deep it can get. The skill ceiling is high here as you can either sumble your way completing levels just in time, or gracefully grind your way getting the high score while completing objectives.
It really takes a playthrough or two really master this game, but once you do it becomes an addicting itch that you want to revisit over and over again. As mentioned before, only one other game has done this for me which is Star Fox 64.
I'm glad I FINALLY got to this game as it's been in my to-play list since I was like 10 years old. Who knew it would be one of my new favorites.
JSR is pretty much Tony Hawk with skates and style. And when I say style I really don't mean that lightly. This is probably one of the first games to really bring the STYLE to videogames that inspired the style you see in Persona and later Sakurai games.
While the artsyle is obviously responsible for bringing the style to the looks of the game, the style is really boosted by it's soundtrack. Probably one of my favorite videogame soundtracks of all time. There is nothing but really catchy sample funk here and ALL the songs are so good. And I can't wait to play the Sequel and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk just to hear the other tracks.
The stages are full of life and soul. Everything feels so detailed and cluttered in this iteration of Tokyo. Everything exudes a certain vibrancy that just invokes a feeling of happiness.
As for the gameplay, rather than chasing score like the Tony Hawk games, there are objectives in each level you need to complete in order to be successful, rather than just pass a score threshold. I prefer this so much more.
The controls are so simple, you will only ever push 2 buttons in this game. Jump and Tag. But the fact that this game has so many mechanics using just these 2 buttons shows how deep it can get. The skill ceiling is high here as you can either sumble your way completing levels just in time, or gracefully grind your way getting the high score while completing objectives.
It really takes a playthrough or two really master this game, but once you do it becomes an addicting itch that you want to revisit over and over again. As mentioned before, only one other game has done this for me which is Star Fox 64.
Billy Hatcher is like if Mario 64, Glover, and Super Monkey Ball had a baby.
This is such a chaotic idea for a platformer and I'm shocked we never got more than this game despite Sega treating this like one of their mega franchises back in the day.
Coming from the team behind Sonic nonetheless, comes a platformer which is probably better than a lot of the 3D sonic games.
Billy Hatcher and the giant egg is structed like a 3D Mario game where you're given a couple of worlds with multiple missions where you need to collect a "Star". This time all platforming revolves around spherical oval that we tend to call an egg.
Billy relies entirely on the egg for platforming the same way Glover relies on a ball. When you have an egg, you roll it around kinda like a super monkey ball game, but you do many tricks such as bounce, dash, shoot, pound and throw (amongst other tricks). I'm sure if you spent a lot of time with the controls, movement would be found to be deep as hell.
The gameplay loop is pretty fun. You find an egg and you can roll over fruit or enemies with the egg. The more fruit your squash, the bigger your egg becomes, the more damage your egg does to enemies. If baddies manage to break your egg then you will have to find another one and increase it's size again.
While the game is mostly good platforming fun. There are a lot frustrating moments and the game can be a bit unfair with how punishing it is. Although if you play on an emulator I recommend using an infinite lives cheat so at least you start from a checkpoint rather than starting a level all over again.
I wish Sega someday revisits this franchise, because with some even more refined controls and more intuitive level design, I can see it being a great platformer series.
This is such a chaotic idea for a platformer and I'm shocked we never got more than this game despite Sega treating this like one of their mega franchises back in the day.
Coming from the team behind Sonic nonetheless, comes a platformer which is probably better than a lot of the 3D sonic games.
Billy Hatcher and the giant egg is structed like a 3D Mario game where you're given a couple of worlds with multiple missions where you need to collect a "Star". This time all platforming revolves around spherical oval that we tend to call an egg.
Billy relies entirely on the egg for platforming the same way Glover relies on a ball. When you have an egg, you roll it around kinda like a super monkey ball game, but you do many tricks such as bounce, dash, shoot, pound and throw (amongst other tricks). I'm sure if you spent a lot of time with the controls, movement would be found to be deep as hell.
The gameplay loop is pretty fun. You find an egg and you can roll over fruit or enemies with the egg. The more fruit your squash, the bigger your egg becomes, the more damage your egg does to enemies. If baddies manage to break your egg then you will have to find another one and increase it's size again.
While the game is mostly good platforming fun. There are a lot frustrating moments and the game can be a bit unfair with how punishing it is. Although if you play on an emulator I recommend using an infinite lives cheat so at least you start from a checkpoint rather than starting a level all over again.
I wish Sega someday revisits this franchise, because with some even more refined controls and more intuitive level design, I can see it being a great platformer series.
Battlefield Vietnam with a Star Wars skin.
It's dumb Star Wars sandbox fun that we always wanted as kids. It hasn't really aged well in terms of the gameplay department. Everything feels stiff and shooting things is not very satisfying. But back in the day this was really well made. A lot of good content for star wars fans.
Two eras with a handful amount of well made maps. Lots of different classes to choose from. A good selection of vehicles in every map. There's just so many ways to play, any fan of SW will find some sort of fun.
The best thing about Battlefront are how large scale the battles feel, like they were right out of the movie. You see blasters, lasers, ships, explosions all around you as you are running to your next objective and makes you feel like you're on Normandy beach. You can have a lot of fun with this one with just Singleplayer mode, but Multiplayer is also there as an option for those who want more longevity from the title.
It's dumb Star Wars sandbox fun that we always wanted as kids. It hasn't really aged well in terms of the gameplay department. Everything feels stiff and shooting things is not very satisfying. But back in the day this was really well made. A lot of good content for star wars fans.
Two eras with a handful amount of well made maps. Lots of different classes to choose from. A good selection of vehicles in every map. There's just so many ways to play, any fan of SW will find some sort of fun.
The best thing about Battlefront are how large scale the battles feel, like they were right out of the movie. You see blasters, lasers, ships, explosions all around you as you are running to your next objective and makes you feel like you're on Normandy beach. You can have a lot of fun with this one with just Singleplayer mode, but Multiplayer is also there as an option for those who want more longevity from the title.
FF7 Rebirth not only met my the hyped expectations I had since finishing Remake in 2020, it exceeded them. Rebirth is one of Square's best games ever, if not their best game of all time.
Remake was one of my favorite games on 2020, taking the entire midgar section of the original and expanding it with more lore, story, relationships and just amazing writing all around, and putting it all into a first part of a trilogy, where each game is the length of an FF game. At the same time, I new Remake was only still a taste of what was coming given that Midgar is just a crumb in FF7's giant world. I could only imagine how they would take the open world given that Remake had a pretty safe bet with the fact that it was a fairly linear game like it's FFX and FFXIII predecessors.
Now here we are in 2024 with the final product of part 2 in the FF7 remake trilogy, and it really truly honestly delivered.
One thing I was impressed with in Remake was the fact that almost nothing was cut from the original. Almost everything was there, in addition to all the extra stuff we got. I didn't expect the same for Rebirth considering it was going to be a much larger game. Boy was I wrong, not only EVERYTHING from the rest of Disc 1 is here, there is so much additional sections and lore they added that makes this feel like more than a full experience. Some how 1/3rd of a game is bigger and deeper than any FF game that has released. Square did not skimp out and they put all their love for the original into this.
The story is great as expected. The writing is phenonmenal and brings out so much character from all the cast members. It mostly follows the same beats of the original, however every single area you go to now has extended lore and story. Places like Kalm where there was barely any story in the original now has a big story segment. The damn chocobo stables have a story segment now. Everything is rich and deep with character. Which is what they did really well in Remake. I have one complaint about the story, and it's kind of a spoiler but I won't say anything specific. Those damn last 2 chapters man, I'm not sure what they thinking there, but I'm being hopeful that it will pay off in the next game. I just wish it wasn't as messy as it was.
The gameplay is just an extension of Remake's battle system, which is probably my favorite FF battle system to date. Now with the addition of Synergy abilities, it adds even more depth to the combat bringing more strategy to the party formation you decide to choose. You could say it's gotten a little more action oriented with the additon of the perfect block mechancic, but I mostly got through the game without even using it. I played the game mostly as I did with Remake and enjoyed it just the same. One small caveat here is a lot of the enemies this time around have instant party-wipe abilities which is honestly fine to have in a bossfight here and there, but having a lot of these in regalur ememies kinda dampens the fun a little.
One thing thing that was kind of present in Remake, but heavily missing in FF16 were the minigames. To me, part of the soul of Final Fantasy in the minigames on the side it usually includes. While Remake delivered on the mingames, Rebirth shined with them. It made me feel like I was playing an old Squaresoft game again. Not only is every minigame included super rewarding if you complete them well, but all of them are fun and really well made. I did not hate a single minigame in Rebirth and pretty much played them all to get their best score possible. A lot of people did not like this aspect of the game but for me if a game is gonna be 100 hours, it should definelty not just be 100 hours of combat. Also if you don't like the minigames, most are skippable or you only need to acheive a minimium score. Don't even get me started on Queens Blood. They should make an entire game just for that.
The exploration is amazing, visiting areas I once only knew as a prer-renedered background and rediscovering them as a fully 3D explorable area never got old to me. Running under the Junon cannon for the first time and just looking up was so breathtaking, and rebirth has so many of these moments. I was extensiveley looking forward to seeing how the gold saucer was handled, and I was not at all disappointed.
Every single moment I looked forward to from the original game exeeded my expectations. Rebirth was made with so much love, it feels like a passion project by Square's internal teams, which seems pretty rare these days. They just need to pull of the next game just as well, and the FF7 Remake trilogy has the potential to be one of my favorite trilogies of all time.
Remake was one of my favorite games on 2020, taking the entire midgar section of the original and expanding it with more lore, story, relationships and just amazing writing all around, and putting it all into a first part of a trilogy, where each game is the length of an FF game. At the same time, I new Remake was only still a taste of what was coming given that Midgar is just a crumb in FF7's giant world. I could only imagine how they would take the open world given that Remake had a pretty safe bet with the fact that it was a fairly linear game like it's FFX and FFXIII predecessors.
Now here we are in 2024 with the final product of part 2 in the FF7 remake trilogy, and it really truly honestly delivered.
One thing I was impressed with in Remake was the fact that almost nothing was cut from the original. Almost everything was there, in addition to all the extra stuff we got. I didn't expect the same for Rebirth considering it was going to be a much larger game. Boy was I wrong, not only EVERYTHING from the rest of Disc 1 is here, there is so much additional sections and lore they added that makes this feel like more than a full experience. Some how 1/3rd of a game is bigger and deeper than any FF game that has released. Square did not skimp out and they put all their love for the original into this.
The story is great as expected. The writing is phenonmenal and brings out so much character from all the cast members. It mostly follows the same beats of the original, however every single area you go to now has extended lore and story. Places like Kalm where there was barely any story in the original now has a big story segment. The damn chocobo stables have a story segment now. Everything is rich and deep with character. Which is what they did really well in Remake. I have one complaint about the story, and it's kind of a spoiler but I won't say anything specific. Those damn last 2 chapters man, I'm not sure what they thinking there, but I'm being hopeful that it will pay off in the next game. I just wish it wasn't as messy as it was.
The gameplay is just an extension of Remake's battle system, which is probably my favorite FF battle system to date. Now with the addition of Synergy abilities, it adds even more depth to the combat bringing more strategy to the party formation you decide to choose. You could say it's gotten a little more action oriented with the additon of the perfect block mechancic, but I mostly got through the game without even using it. I played the game mostly as I did with Remake and enjoyed it just the same. One small caveat here is a lot of the enemies this time around have instant party-wipe abilities which is honestly fine to have in a bossfight here and there, but having a lot of these in regalur ememies kinda dampens the fun a little.
One thing thing that was kind of present in Remake, but heavily missing in FF16 were the minigames. To me, part of the soul of Final Fantasy in the minigames on the side it usually includes. While Remake delivered on the mingames, Rebirth shined with them. It made me feel like I was playing an old Squaresoft game again. Not only is every minigame included super rewarding if you complete them well, but all of them are fun and really well made. I did not hate a single minigame in Rebirth and pretty much played them all to get their best score possible. A lot of people did not like this aspect of the game but for me if a game is gonna be 100 hours, it should definelty not just be 100 hours of combat. Also if you don't like the minigames, most are skippable or you only need to acheive a minimium score. Don't even get me started on Queens Blood. They should make an entire game just for that.
The exploration is amazing, visiting areas I once only knew as a prer-renedered background and rediscovering them as a fully 3D explorable area never got old to me. Running under the Junon cannon for the first time and just looking up was so breathtaking, and rebirth has so many of these moments. I was extensiveley looking forward to seeing how the gold saucer was handled, and I was not at all disappointed.
Every single moment I looked forward to from the original game exeeded my expectations. Rebirth was made with so much love, it feels like a passion project by Square's internal teams, which seems pretty rare these days. They just need to pull of the next game just as well, and the FF7 Remake trilogy has the potential to be one of my favorite trilogies of all time.
2022
Overcooked if it was a roguelite. Highly recommend you play this in coop though as singleplayer is not nearly as fun.
What I like about plateup in particular is that it's more of a restaurant management game than just a food preparation party game like overcooked. You need to consider the size and space of your restaurant, where to put your tables, what upgrades you need etc. There are a lot of things to consider than Overcooked, which separates this game from being a party game, and something akin to more of a management strategy game.
Highly recommend if you liked Overcooked and want something with a little more strategy and progression, with good coop experience.
What I like about plateup in particular is that it's more of a restaurant management game than just a food preparation party game like overcooked. You need to consider the size and space of your restaurant, where to put your tables, what upgrades you need etc. There are a lot of things to consider than Overcooked, which separates this game from being a party game, and something akin to more of a management strategy game.
Highly recommend if you liked Overcooked and want something with a little more strategy and progression, with good coop experience.
Xenoblade Chronicles will definitely be remembered as a classic or all time great. To me, it is more of a flawed masterpiece. An amazing story, world, characters, battle system, and music - but dragged down by some of the most dragged out pacing I've experienced. While the combat gets really amazing and satisfying, it kind of starts off dull and boring until you reach the 50% mark where battles become interesting and challenging. The biggest flaw here is the side questing system. Every side quest is a tedious fetch quest that has no substance and there are literally hundreds of them, which you pretty much need to do if you want to stay decently levelled for the main game - unless you grind out monsters which is even worse. There can sometimes be stretches of up to 10 hours of side questing before you continue the main story. Unfortunately this is no small flaw and without this, Xenoblade would be an easy 10. The amount of grind here drags it down so much. On the flip-side literally everything else is 10/10. I cannot praise enough how much I enjoy the main story aspects of this game.
1997
Tomb Raider II is a step up from the first game in terms of level design and pacing, but the untouched combat somehow got even slightly worse.
The game starts off in familiar territory, ancient ruins that contain your fair share of Tombs, but what blindsided us back in the day was now we are also going to populated city levels such as Venice. TR2 has such a nice variety of locations that the pacing feels right, and you're in the same type of underground environments for the entire game, which keeps the game feeling refreshing.
The levels are much better designed too. They feel more like Zelda dungeons than a hodgepodge of rooms with switches. This time levels can feel pretty long, but at no point did I ever feel like I was stuck or did not know what to do next. I was always running to my next objective.
One of the worst things about the first game, which almost ruined for me was the combat, which remains untouched here. The problem here now is that you are fighting humans as the majority enemy, which isn't fun since they are all bulletspoge hitscanning enemies. The worst kind of enemies in anygame. Especially a game where movement is not the strongest suit, hitscanning enemies made this almost a frustrating experience. Good thing the game gives you enough health packs and resources to deal with them if well managed.
I liked the direction of where the series was going with Tomb Raider II, and just like the first game, it shines when you're exploring/platforimg and solving puzzles. Unfortunetly this time around there is a lot more combat with the worst enemy type ever. However due to the great level design, I still fairly enjoyed my time with this.
The game starts off in familiar territory, ancient ruins that contain your fair share of Tombs, but what blindsided us back in the day was now we are also going to populated city levels such as Venice. TR2 has such a nice variety of locations that the pacing feels right, and you're in the same type of underground environments for the entire game, which keeps the game feeling refreshing.
The levels are much better designed too. They feel more like Zelda dungeons than a hodgepodge of rooms with switches. This time levels can feel pretty long, but at no point did I ever feel like I was stuck or did not know what to do next. I was always running to my next objective.
One of the worst things about the first game, which almost ruined for me was the combat, which remains untouched here. The problem here now is that you are fighting humans as the majority enemy, which isn't fun since they are all bulletspoge hitscanning enemies. The worst kind of enemies in anygame. Especially a game where movement is not the strongest suit, hitscanning enemies made this almost a frustrating experience. Good thing the game gives you enough health packs and resources to deal with them if well managed.
I liked the direction of where the series was going with Tomb Raider II, and just like the first game, it shines when you're exploring/platforimg and solving puzzles. Unfortunetly this time around there is a lot more combat with the worst enemy type ever. However due to the great level design, I still fairly enjoyed my time with this.
2000
Cool concept, but honestly just not fun to play. The game feels like it was put together in a matter of weeks.
This is one of the first FPS on the PS2 so it feels really bad to play and experimental. Most enemies are hitscan based and levels are uninspired. There is practiacally no story here.
I know this is the start of a legendary franchise, so I'm glad it got a 2nd chance eventually.
Timesplitters 1 feels like a proof of concept, before actually making the full game. Just skip this one and go straight to the sequel.
This is one of the first FPS on the PS2 so it feels really bad to play and experimental. Most enemies are hitscan based and levels are uninspired. There is practiacally no story here.
I know this is the start of a legendary franchise, so I'm glad it got a 2nd chance eventually.
Timesplitters 1 feels like a proof of concept, before actually making the full game. Just skip this one and go straight to the sequel.
2023
A simple fun coop physics based platformer using a refined rope mechanic with a simple goal; get to the top of the mountain.
It's a straightforward game that can result in a lot of laughs with minor mistakes. Only worth playing in coop - not worth the full price though, I'd get it on a sale.
It's a straightforward game that can result in a lot of laughs with minor mistakes. Only worth playing in coop - not worth the full price though, I'd get it on a sale.
1996
Playing this as a 6 year old was amazing. The sense of adventure and discovery was basically set in gaming by Tomb Raider when this first released.
Today, while still being a fun game, it has some clearly outdated mechanics like it's entire combat, which suck the life out of the game each time you have to fight an enemy.
Tomb Raider SHINES when it is about exploring, platforming and solving puzzles. Thankfully the game is mostly this, which is why 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider was my favorite of the survivor trilogy as it ditched the Uncharted cloniness of the first 2 games and went for more of a focus on puzzles and exploration.
The puzzles in tomb raider aren't really deep. Each puzzles comes down to finding ways to unlock doors, which is mostly trying to find switches or keys in levels that you will need to platform to.
Some people will say the platforming/climbing system is outdated here but it really is the heart of the gameplay. Unlike most modern games where climbing is automated and mindless, here you have to actually think about your jumps and the timings of your jumps as any misstep could lead to your death.
A big strength is the exploration aspect of the game. There are so so many secrets and hidden areas you will need find and platform your way to in order to find weapons, ammo, health kits. And you will really need these to help you get through the game as Tomb raider has somewhat of a survival game aspect to it.
Each level is a cool exploration of a releastic location where you would actually find tombs. Nepal, Greece, Egypt etc. SPOILER: I really really don't like the concept of the final levels though and it really doesn't fit in this game.
With the positives said, there are many negatives. The biggest one which was mentioned before and almost ruin this game for me is the combat. And it's quite abundant and sprinkled out through the levels, especially in the later levels where it's everywhere. There is no rhyme or reason to the combat. Sometimes you will get hit, sometimes you won't. It's all about facing the enemy and pressing shoot, hoping you kill them while jumping and dodging around before they kill you. Just make sure you are playing on PC or an emulator so you can quicksave before each fight.
I won't get into it too much, but the final levels are really awful and made me almost want to drop this game. It doesn't have the soul or spirit of what makes tomb raider good and felt rushed and lazily put together.
Tomb Raider is worth playing through once if you are a fan of classic gaming and history. You will still get a lot of fun out of this if you can put up with some of the outdatedness of it. If anything, it's worth experiencing to see how the iconic adventures of Lara Croft all began.
Today, while still being a fun game, it has some clearly outdated mechanics like it's entire combat, which suck the life out of the game each time you have to fight an enemy.
Tomb Raider SHINES when it is about exploring, platforming and solving puzzles. Thankfully the game is mostly this, which is why 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider was my favorite of the survivor trilogy as it ditched the Uncharted cloniness of the first 2 games and went for more of a focus on puzzles and exploration.
The puzzles in tomb raider aren't really deep. Each puzzles comes down to finding ways to unlock doors, which is mostly trying to find switches or keys in levels that you will need to platform to.
Some people will say the platforming/climbing system is outdated here but it really is the heart of the gameplay. Unlike most modern games where climbing is automated and mindless, here you have to actually think about your jumps and the timings of your jumps as any misstep could lead to your death.
A big strength is the exploration aspect of the game. There are so so many secrets and hidden areas you will need find and platform your way to in order to find weapons, ammo, health kits. And you will really need these to help you get through the game as Tomb raider has somewhat of a survival game aspect to it.
Each level is a cool exploration of a releastic location where you would actually find tombs. Nepal, Greece, Egypt etc. SPOILER: I really really don't like the concept of the final levels though and it really doesn't fit in this game.
With the positives said, there are many negatives. The biggest one which was mentioned before and almost ruin this game for me is the combat. And it's quite abundant and sprinkled out through the levels, especially in the later levels where it's everywhere. There is no rhyme or reason to the combat. Sometimes you will get hit, sometimes you won't. It's all about facing the enemy and pressing shoot, hoping you kill them while jumping and dodging around before they kill you. Just make sure you are playing on PC or an emulator so you can quicksave before each fight.
I won't get into it too much, but the final levels are really awful and made me almost want to drop this game. It doesn't have the soul or spirit of what makes tomb raider good and felt rushed and lazily put together.
Tomb Raider is worth playing through once if you are a fan of classic gaming and history. You will still get a lot of fun out of this if you can put up with some of the outdatedness of it. If anything, it's worth experiencing to see how the iconic adventures of Lara Croft all began.
One of the greatest 3D Sonic games I've ever played.
Spark the Electric Jester 3 is something I've always wanted Sonic Adventure 2/Sonic Herores to actually play like.
No gimmicks, no weird physics and controls, no strange decisions. Just faced paced running through amazing well designed levels.
This is an overall improvement from the 2nd game, which this game includes all the levels to as a bonus. So if you just wanna play for the gameplay, skip the 2nd one and go straight to this (unless you care for the story).
My only gripe, like the first 2 is the fan-fiction writing story this has. But honestly, that's not what this game is for.
Spark the Electric Jester 3 is something I've always wanted Sonic Adventure 2/Sonic Herores to actually play like.
No gimmicks, no weird physics and controls, no strange decisions. Just faced paced running through amazing well designed levels.
This is an overall improvement from the 2nd game, which this game includes all the levels to as a bonus. So if you just wanna play for the gameplay, skip the 2nd one and go straight to this (unless you care for the story).
My only gripe, like the first 2 is the fan-fiction writing story this has. But honestly, that's not what this game is for.
Who knew this small indie developer could make a better 3D Sonic game than 90% of Sonic Team's games?
Spark 2 is a clear homage to Sonic Adventure 2 in so many ways when it comes to gameplay, level design, aesthetics etc. And it does it really well - although some parts in the level design and graphics are a bit rough around the edges.
The gameplay itself is pretty much a more fast-paced frantic version of Sonic's gameplay in SA2 which can be really fun if you master the controls. Sometimes I wish 3D Sonic controlled like this. But no gimmicks in the levels here. It's just get from point A to B with pure speed and platforming.
If you got that Sekiro crave, the bossfights give a fun parry challenge, which is really satisfying every time you get a perfect parry.
The writing is a little too "fan-fictiony" for my tastes, which the first game also had an issue with. I started skipping the story about halfway through the game.
If you're a fan of SA2 and itching for more 3D Sonic Type gameplay, I highly suggest giving this a try. Keep in mind the game is pretty short and can be beaten in an afternoon.
Spark 2 is a clear homage to Sonic Adventure 2 in so many ways when it comes to gameplay, level design, aesthetics etc. And it does it really well - although some parts in the level design and graphics are a bit rough around the edges.
The gameplay itself is pretty much a more fast-paced frantic version of Sonic's gameplay in SA2 which can be really fun if you master the controls. Sometimes I wish 3D Sonic controlled like this. But no gimmicks in the levels here. It's just get from point A to B with pure speed and platforming.
If you got that Sekiro crave, the bossfights give a fun parry challenge, which is really satisfying every time you get a perfect parry.
The writing is a little too "fan-fictiony" for my tastes, which the first game also had an issue with. I started skipping the story about halfway through the game.
If you're a fan of SA2 and itching for more 3D Sonic Type gameplay, I highly suggest giving this a try. Keep in mind the game is pretty short and can be beaten in an afternoon.