I'm sorry guys, I tried. Sonic controls a bit worse than in the previous game, Tails is now basically Gamma and Knuckles has the same gameplay but with a worse radar. I´m glad that they got rid of the hubworld and that now it's straight up one stage after the other, but these stages are so linear that I think they went to the extreme opposite. The Sonic/Shadow levels are "fine", but the Tails/Robotnik and Knuckles/Rouge levels are horribly boring and are a total pace breaker. Sorry again, I'm sure it's fine to love these Adventure games if you grew up with them, but this one in particular is pretty bad.

This game is so much fun that when I’m not playing it I can’t stop thinking about it.
The best thing about this game is just the gameplay. Blowing up everything in sight and dodging bullets is extremely fun. Even dodging simple patterns makes you feel amazing.The two firing modes also make the game feel unique from other shmups.The graphics look amazing especially the explosions and other effects like that. Even though the game is really difficult it honestly only makes me want to come back more. The controls are very sharp and concise, and make every death feel like it’s your fault. My only main issues with this game is the music felt a little generic and on a few stages the bullets can get a little difficult to see. Besides that very minor flaw this game is extremely fun and I recommend you give it a shot.

If I'm going to talk about this game, I'm going to have to say some things about Ape Escape 2 I might change my mind about at some point. But I think I'm okay with that. I want to give more positive reviews and takes on here too. But that takes a good amount of time and effort sometimes.

Ape Escape 2 was kind of disappointing to me, it felt like a pretty average platformer. The vibes and music weren't great, the way the game felt wasn't to my tastes (the jump and the hover gadget especially arent smooth), they made the Slingshot and RC do stun less, there's less puzzles or creative thinking with the gadgets, the monkeys are really hard to deal with, the level design was made into something really tunnely with the most basic of platforming, which makes stealth less encouraged as well...
It was just really disappointing to me. A lot of the things that made the first game special were just sapped from the second, and I felt like I was going through the motions.

Ape Escape 3 didn't exactly change the general approach in design. It stuck to being kinda similar to Ape Escape 2. But if the games were gonna be like this instead of how Ape Escape 1 was, then 3 really manages to perfect what 2 was trying to do.
The levels have a stronger identity and theme, there's a stronger and more active sense of pacing to the levels and what you're doing with a larger sense of fun, they shave off the gadgets that didn't matter (well except--...RIP the Water Cannon) but add transformations which act as gadgets all of their own and were probably a ton of fun for kids especially, the monkeys are made less strong (especially the missile monkeys), the levels are bigger but don't feel elongated...
It almost feels a bit intangible as to what makes this game better. And I do feel 2 can be more creative at times, and it also has a much much stronger final few levels. But the game is undeniably solid and a ton of fun.

To get into more specifics would be a lot though, especially for that reason. And I already make these kinda long. But there's a lot of thoughts I had about the nuances of the game in general.
Like, part of why Morphs are so fun for example is because it really doesn't feel like the game forces them on you much at all outside their first appearance, but if you want to you can almost be morphed for the majority of a stage (Not my style really). It's very freeing. But the game also puts a lot of teleborg enemies around monkeys which makes you feel pressured to use them, or else go about things a lot more slowly. Additionally catching monkeys with any of the Morph tools is a lot more reliable and quick than your time net, and it eliminates some of that thrill of trying to catch a monkey the old fashioned way, but when monkeys will just dodge your nets a lot...... All in all what I'm getting at is I wondered if I was almost forced into liking the Morphs, because otherwise I'd come up against tension and things that I wouldn't like.
Teleborg enemies can be annoying in general, but also you do get better and better at just getting them on their wind-ups that one shot them. So I feel a bit two-ways about them too.
While Ape Escape 2's gacha machine was a bit of a pain, the Monkey Stories and things were a lot better in that game. The mini-games are also slightly less creative in 3, but they're also a lot more fun (Mesal Gear Solid aside, which is. Wow. So cool).
And one last thing: The boss battles are awesome (maybe not enough health) and you can do Monkey White, Blue, Yellow and Tomoki in under 25 seconds. Princess Ace and Miracle Ninja are crazy good for most things.

It feels like to actually talk about the game in full depth, I'd have to go into a million of these kinds of things. But that's the kind of thing that is a good sign for a game or franchise being interesting.
Ape Escape 2 and 3 in general make me feel like Ape Escape has a lot of missed potential as a franchise, if I'm honest. But I had a lot of fun being able to play these games in general, and I had a lot of fun with this game! It's fulfilled something I've always wanted to do, and I can't replace that. Definitely replaying all of them, but especially 1, in the future.

The real benefit of living in the future isn't the high-end 4K videogames we get. It's that legacy publishers are desperate enough that they'll let the world play all their killer Japan-only shit.

Hebereke is one of the best games on the Famicom/NES. Easily in my top 5, anyway. It's a full-blown Metroidvania with the sensibilities of Parodius. Stuff that used to get lumped together under the umbrella of "mad Jap games", that I now appreciate as "funny guys making good jokes". There's no backstory to any of its weird characters, or much of a plot. It's just daft stuff jumping around and crows that take explosive dogshits on you. I can enjoy serious, lore-heavy, socially relevant games as much as anybody, but shit like this is definitely my comfort zone. Hebereke's characters don't even seem like they've been designed with the game in mind. In the years following, they've appeared in puzzle games, stupid experimental titles and for much longer than you'd expect, yonkoma manga characters in the back of games magazines. They're just silly doodles, and we don't really care about who they are. In the game's intro, Hebe starts explaining the backstory and gives up halfway, resolving "Y'know what? I really can't be bothered. Read the backstory in the manual or something." Beautiful.

This release just as half-baked and crummy. It's the Famicom game running in an emulator. There are modern conveniences, like a rewind and save system, but it's all fairly rudimentary. There's also an Achievements system, that I was quick to disable in the settings. The most jarring thing is the Japanese text. You can switch between English and Japanese in the menus, but everything in-game has been left untouched. They have bothered to do a full translation of everything in it, but you access this by watching each scene play out in Japanese and then browse to a menu to view the new English dialogue boxes. I'd suspect that if the emulator can track player progress well enough to implement an achievement system, overlaying the dialogue boxes with English text wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities, but I guess Sunsoft didn't really think of that, and we're stuck playing a barely-localised game.

There had been an English version of Hebereke before, but that was one of those awkward early-90s localisations. Released in limited numbers in limited territories, Ufouria: The Saga basically stripped out all the humour and mad shit from the game, replacing it with bland toyetic filler. Curiously, Ufouria doesn't appear in this version, even though screenshots, artwork and full scans of the German manual do. I'm not going to cry over not getting access to a version of the game I like less, but I do think it's a shame for those with a fondness or nostalgia for this specific wart on videogame history. I grew up in the PAL region too. I remember the hazards of navigating the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, with the Sonic Team, Fleetway, Archie, AoStH and SatAM continuities all fighting for dominance on toy packaging and pillowcases. I don't like sacrificing Lylat Wars for the technically superior Star Fox 64. We probably should be able to play Ufouria, even if I'm never ever going to turn it on.

Hebereke's design mainly benefits from its simplicity. There are none of those vertical shafts of endless platforms that you see in early Metroid. It's much more modest than that. If you know where you're going, you can access any spot on the map within a couple of minutes. Over the course of the game, you'll encounter other characters who will join your party, and each of them come with their own abilities. You'll have to switch between them on the Select menu, but this isn't too much, right? People like Mega Man. Sometimes, when you're switching characters to get past blocked-off areas, or exploit a mechanic to bypass an area quickly, it can feel liberating. There are instances where it feels a little over the top. Only one of your characters can walk on ice, but they have the crappest jump, so you sometimes have to take the run up as O-chan, switch to another character for the jump, and switch back for the landing. It might have been nice to shortcut this by dedicating each shoulder button to switching to each character or something, but again, this is a fairly untouched Famicom ROM. I don't mind this stuff, personally. I've completed Game Gear games on original hardware. I do worry about the appeal for those who have never used a floppy disk before, though.

It's a breezy, silly little game, and its eccentric charm carries a lot of it. One of your guys is a ghost who hits himself in the head with a hammer, and his eyes fly out and attack enemies. There's a tough boss in a suit of armour, and when you successfully break it, there's just a big dumb cat standing there, waiting for you to kill it. I really like Hebereke. I like coming back to rough, old games every now and then, to keep my values in check, and there's few that I have a better time with. If you're going through the heavy-hitter NES games, and you're stuck looking at stuff like Zelda 2 and Startropics, maybe give Hebereke a shot first.

I love Demon's Souls, its the original Souls game. It's like a comfort game to me. What can I say? They did a good job with the remake; I liked it, but honestly, I prefer the original version. It feels more atmospheric and retains the unique charm that made it a classic.

The original "Demon's Souls" has a distinct, eerie atmosphere that I feel wasn't fully captured in the remake. While the remake has amazing graphics and smoother gameplay, the original's gritty, haunting visuals and sound design create a more foreboding experience.
The World Tendency system is one of the game's features i dislike the most. It affects the difficulty and available content based on player actions and deaths. While innovative, it can be frustrating and complex to manage. I'm glad they didn't include it in subsequent games, as it adds an unnecessary layer of stress and complexity.

Demon's Souls is probably the easiest game in the franchise, but that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park. The hardest part of the game was keeping track of everything missable due to the World Tendency system. Ensuring I didn't miss anything required meticulous planning and constant vigilance.
The game features a range of memorable bosses, each with unique mechanics and challenges. However, some bosses are relatively simple compared to later Souls games. The gameplay, while foundational for the genre, feels more straightforward, making it a great entry point for newcomers.
Despite its quirks, it's a comfort game that I can always return to, offering a challenging yet rewarding experience. Whether you're a veteran or a new player, "Demon's Souls" is a must-play that continues to stand the test of time.