another "been on the backlog forever just beat the game you know you'll like idiot" game and lo and behold, i liked it! the game looks great, a very fun and unique style. it's filled to the brim with references and cute nods in the background of especially the towns. the combat is surprisingly fun and can get pretty deep with the way you combo everything together. the upgrades are all pretty fun, if not a bit generic but they do have the added bonus of making combat more fun at least! the platforming was pretty solid, although some of the harder sections rather than feeling satisfying felt as if i was almost janking the game out which was a bit odd. combining the B abilities felt great for combat, but for the more intense platforming it felt a bit stilted and awkward at times. for the length of the game there was a good amount of enemy variety, the bosses were pretty uninteresting though. i wish the intenso meter (which i think was added to this updated version of the game) gave the b attacks more wacky suped up attacks but it was still a pretty fun move to use when you're being overwhelmed or just wanna do a ton of damage.

solid game overall, nothing super mindblowing for the genre or anything but a really unique aesthetic and some pretty solid combat/platforming lead to a solid time for the 8ish hours it took me to 100%! excited for the sequel!