Despite being from Harmonix themselves, this first Rock Band installment can’t help but come off as a bit of a diet Guitar Hero. The whole thing feels incredibly low budget in a way that the same year’s Guitar Hero 3 just doesn’t, there’s a distinct lack of the crazy events that make GH careers so memorable, the solo tour mode is incredibly lame and underwhelming in comparison. Some of the hit detection feels pretty off too, and that’s not helped by the noticeably more low quality instruments.

Yet despite that, it’s so obvious that they were onto something special with this game. The Guitar Hero games at this point had dabbled in multiplayer, but Rock Band takes the full dive into making it a core part of the experience. Guitar was already pretty well established, nothing much to change there (though the solo markers are fun), and vocals were a decently obvious addition considering some of the semi-popular PS2 karaoke game.

Drums are the area where they really nailed it here… the intense focus on tight timing made drums a very natural addition to a rhythm game, and I think the translation to a plastic kit was handled pretty well. The sensitivity on the original kits isn’t where it should be to reliably pull off some of those fast sixteenth note run (Run to the Hills is far and away the most difficult song in the game bc of this), but calibration settings are strong enough to get reliably good timing the majority of the time.

The setlist overall is very solid, albeit with a few oddball picks, but it’s really lacking those standout challenging songs. Nothing here should give you too much trouble on any instrument, the guitar stuff feels especially tame given what GH3 asks of you at points. Although maybe that’s a blessing in disguise thanks to RB1’s noticeably strict hit engine.

It’s definitely easier going back to this than the original Guitar Hero despite the cheapness of it all, and shifting the focus to multiplayer was absolutely the right call… that’s where Rock Band shines most. Drums were a genius addition that expanded the longevity of the game so much, and utilizing multiple instruments to complete the sound of a song while synchronizing overdrive points is a multiplayer high that almost no other game can touch for me.

I still really enjoy playing the original Rock Band, although it is unfortunately a pretty tough recommendation at this point. The plastic instruments required to play this have gotten obnoxiously expensive, which has made the game pretty inaccessible. But more important than that… it’s hard to justify spending too much time on this one when its successors are much better in every way.

Been playing this on and off for months now whenever I have a chance to use my DS and only just now finished it… really enjoyed my time overall! Mechanically this game is perfect to me, it’s like a 2D Sonic Unleashed (despite predating that game) and this was one of the first to really make Sonic FEEL as fast as he is.

Unfortunately, level design ended up being a mixed bag for me. About two thirds of the levels were incredibly fun and I loved every second in them, but the rest I found to have frequent and obnoxious pace breakers through level gimmicks or one of the countless bottomless pits. It’s especially bad in a game with limited screen space because in many cases I assumed I was just progressing the level and then all of a sudden I had died because there was no way of predicting the pit beneath me.

Boss fights could actually be quite challenging but I mostly found these pretty fun and fair aside from a few questionable hit boxes. The game is definitely one of the harder Sonic games overall, but that’s usually not a bad thing.

The good levels here are pretty consistently great and replayable, I definitely wasn’t bored at all during the Blaze playthrough. It’s pretty easy to recommend Sonic Rush, although mildly frustrating that the level design holds it back a bit from its full potential. This could’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with the classic games, but what we have is still great.

Just to rip the band-aid off here I really don’t think this game would have much of a legacy at all if it weren’t for the admittedly well executed ending.

The gameplay is generally pretty fun but is not exactly the best thought out at points, there’s a lot more randomness than I would like and some mechanics are flat out useless (SP). I appreciate the reworking of the Materia system though and I imagine that going after all the missions would encourage you to engage with those mechanics on an appropriately deep level.

The game is very clearly a relic of the PSP era, but honestly? Nothing wrong with that! If anything playing this just made me miss when there was a dedicated space for weird experimental spin-off titles like this designed around short but fun play sessions rather than constantly chasing immersion to rope you in for multi-hour play sessions. Definitely enjoyed my time playing this even if it wasn’t blowing me away in any capacity.

Story-wise…. man. This is really rough. I will say they won me over on Zack, even with his awful recasting I understand why he’s such a beloved character now. But everything surrounding him is, without mincing words, pretty bad. Playing this served as such a stark reminder of how bad the Compilation of FFVII idea was, there is such a strong disconnect between the tone, themes, and writing style of the original game and Crisis Core. That’s not to say that a spin-off shouldn’t have its own distinct identity, but it just feels like the writers room here had never played the original game.

On top of confusing and ridiculous Nomura-isms in both plot and dialogue, I just didn’t buy the connections between Zack and anyone else. Zack and Aerith like each other because the plot demands it. Zack and Cloud are friends because the plot demands it. There is absolutely no understanding of what made any of these characters compelling originally and they come off as caricatures of themselves.

The Nibelheim incident is expectedly reconstructed here, but feels hastily shoved in last minute because they suddenly remembered they had to, they even shoved in an original character for seemingly no reason. Even the ending, as praised as it is, is dramatized to the point of completely undermining the chilling brevity of the same scene as shown in the original game. These direct connections to the original come off as forced, and I honestly would’ve rather they just told an original side story about Zack that predated all of that entirely.

But the original stuff here sucks too!! The original characters weren’t compelling in the slightest to me, and the plot they followed felt like an absurd fanfiction. I mentioned the dialogue earlier but it’s especially bad here, there’s so many unintentionally hilarious moments that are only made worse by Zack’s awful voice actor.

What could’ve been a simple but fun handheld footnote to FFVII’s legacy ended up being just another example of why the Compilation of FFVII was such a big mistake from the start. The original game never needed any of this expansion, and to this day it’s still best enjoyed while completely ignoring all supplemental material. If anything it made me appreciate Remake even more for nailing the tone and representation of the world/characters, despite all the fate ghost stuff.

I know I’m in the minority here as most fans seem to really enjoy this one but I just can’t connect with the story on any level and it drags the whole package down for me.

Just to get this out of the way - the rating is for the experience as a game itself. I have some gripes with it as the third rerelease of this game, but on its own this has some of the strongest gameplay and story I’ve ever seen in a video game. This is a new all time favorite for me.

Persona 3 is a game I’ve had a very complicated relationship with over time. The first time I played it years ago, I was honestly quite disappointed with it. I felt the pacing was terrible, the gameplay mechanics were counterintuitive, and the story was underwhelming compared to 4 and 5 which had recently become two of my favorite games of all time. For years after my first playthrough I championed it as my dream remake, something with amazing ideas that needed the further refinement that would come in its sequels.

Over time, something strange has started to happen. As I’ve gotten older, my perspective on games has changed a lot. Aspects that I previously wrote off, such as the tactics system or Tartarus in general, I grew to appreciate as unique design decisions instead of just artifacts of the game’s age like I had initially assumed. In short, I realized that during my first playthrough, I wanted the game to be more like its successors and less like itself.

And so by the time Persona 3 Reload was finally announced, I found myself oddly unenthused, especially considering it had been a dream project of mine for years. The absence of the FeMC from Portable and the noticeably budgeted visuals only added to my lack of enthusiasm. Future trailers definitely started to look better, but I had finally arrived at a position internally that I would have scoffed at years ago: “why bother remaking Persona 3? FES is fine as is, it just needs a remaster.”

Actually playing the game for myself though, while I was originally pessimistic, I was won over extremely quickly, sucked into the inescapable gameplay loop of Persona once again. I was loving the new combat, the more refined social mechanics, everything about it really. Jump to 80 hours later, and I’m staring at the credits through my tear stained glasses, realizing I’ve just experienced what is now one of my favorite games of all time.

And so my position on this project has changed one last time: Yes, Persona 3 was fine as is. But this is better.

But unfortunately, some parts of Reload are almost inarguably NOT better than the original, specifically regarding the game’s presentation. For some reason I will never understand, the entire soundtrack was re-recorded, and every single song is quite easily worse than the original. Atlus is clearly aware of how much these soundtracks mean to their fans, so their decision to overwrite it without an option to use the original is pretty baffling to me. The new songs are pretty great though!

In terms of visuals, nearly everything is overbrightened for seemingly no reason. Turning the in game brightness down definitely helps quite a bit, but it also makes certain sections that take place in dark areas nearly impossible to navigate. On top of that, the anime cutscenes are all noticeably less creatively directed than the original, some having been replaced entirely with in game cutscenes.

By far the two worst offenders come right at the start of the game, with the first Apathy Syndrome victim and Awakening being so much less striking that it’s impossible to ignore, and generally leaving a horrible first impression. The game is never this bad again, but it only makes the presentation of these scenes more perplexing.

For what it’s worth though, I found the key emotional moments of the game to hit harder here than they did in FES (I went back to rewatch to confirm I’m not misremembering, and I still feel this way). Specifically, the events on October 4th, November 22nd, and March 5th were all rendered with the game’s 3D assets, but despite this I found the overhauled presentation of these scenes to be quite effective and made the emotional punch hit harder for me personally.

In general, I found it pretty easy to ignore the presentation issues the further I got into the game. Partially because I just got used to them, but I think mostly because I was so engaged in everything else to care.

The gameplay here is a staggering improvement over the original. I feel like this remake generally strikes a great balance of keeping the mechanics that made the original P3 unique (split physical skills, three social stats, etc) while also cutting the fat in certain areas that were more annoying than anything (fatigue). It hasn’t been homogenized to play like 5 is basically what I’m trying to get at which I think was the right call, but it still takes some of the best cues from 5 (baton pass!!!).

Tartarus has been expanded a lot in a very good way, I love how different each block feels now, I love the monad doors, I love the reworked shuffle time mechanics, I love managing Twilight Fragments, basically everything. It all felt so much less monotonous than before and even by the very end of the game I was never bored of it.

The story is recreated extremely faithfully, beat by beat there will be no surprises here if you’re familiar with the original. Very refreshing seeing as how lots of recent remakes, even some of the best, don’t stick to the original script nearly as much as they should imo. That’s not to say the story hasn’t been altered at all though, as the new additions in the forms of link episodes are extremely strong and suit the story in a very natural way. Shinjiro’s was especially powerful to me.

But honestly, most of the reason I found myself so much more engrossed in the story this time around just comes down to me being a different person now than I was all those years ago. I think being in college now has helped me to connect with a story about dorming students with time in their hands and no overbearing parental figures. I think my revised expectations helped a lot, when I wasn’t expecting an episodic structure I didn’t find the pacing nearly as glacial. And I think the maturity and nuance of these characters appeals to me now a lot more than it used to, everyone here is exceptionally well written.

Another thing I came to appreciate much more this time is how Persona 3 has by far the most developed main theme in the series. As often as people make out P3 as the edgy one obsessed with death, it’s really all about life and appreciating the time that you have. For as sad as this game can be at points it’s so much more hopeful than anything else. When framed this way, it’s so obvious that this was the game in the series that invented the social link structure. Every day matters, and you won’t get to do everything you want to, but that only makes the time that you do spend with everyone all the more important and meaningful. Life can end at any moment, so don’t waste it.

I’m so happy to say that I unquestionably LOVE Persona 3 now. It was always an outlier in quality in my head but that couldn’t be further from the truth at this point, and while Reload is absolutely my favorite version, I really don’t think it would be all that different if I went back and replayed FES, which I intend to do someday. Absolute must play of a JRPG if you have the time to commit to it.

Mixing two genres like horror and RPG probably didn’t sound as strange back when this game first released, as playing Parasite Eve made me realize that the two genres, specifically in the PS1 era, used to share a lot more commonalities than they do now. The pre-rendered backgrounds, the heavy focus on music, the amount of times spent in menus managing inventory, the constant scavenging of every last room to find items, there’s a surprising amount of similarities I wouldn’t have expected. SquareSoft in the 90s was probably the perfect company to take a crack at the idea, and what they came up with is definitely good, but I can’t help but feel like there was potential for a lot more.

The strongest points of the game are without a doubt its horror elements. Super intriguing atmosphere, cool story, awesome creature design, checks all the boxes there. The FMVs are especially grotesque and the aged animation only adds to the horror in my opinion, can’t imagine these working as well or feeling nearly as dreadful with hyper realistic graphics like we see in the modern Resident Evil remakes. Special shout-out to the final day of the game which was very exciting.

The RPG mechanics, while leaning on the simpler side, generally work well for a game as short as this. There’s no real character building so these mainly revolve around the weapons, but being able to consistently upgrade and swap traits between them is interesting enough to hold my attention.

Where the game tries to implement those survival horror gameplay elements though… that’s where I start wishing more had been done to flesh this concept out further. You’ve got some genre staples like inventory management, limited ammo, etc, but none are nearly as effective as they usually are. Ammo is so abundant you will never run out, and the inventory is large enough that you’ll probably never have to really consider what you’re carrying, but it’s just small enough that you’ll probably be cramming it with countless potions that just go unused until the endgame difficulty spike.

Combat is generally fine, but never really had me engaged. It’s mainly focused on avoiding any attacks while waiting for your ATB bar to charge, fitting considering the emphasis on avoiding damage in horror games of the era. However, unlike those games, Parasite Eve has a strict encounter system where you’re forced into killing those enemies. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, but it places a higher emphasis on enemy attack patterns which are usually not very interesting or fun to avoid. Some are flat out unavoidable (yes I checked online to confirm this, it’s not a skill issue), which makes sense for an RPG but doesn’t feel great in a game that feels like it encourages you to avoid everything that you can.

All in all, there’s really not much to dislike about Parasite Eve. I certainly enjoyed my time with it and it’s a pretty easy recommendation, the presentation alone makes this worth playing. But I just feel like there’s so much more to explore with this concept that holds it back from being something that really clicked with me. A more skill focused combat system with more consistently tense encounters and less materials scattered everywhere (or dropped from enemies) could’ve made this something really special.

So glad I got to squeeze one last banger in the year

This game is SO much fun, seriously regret putting this off for as long as I did. Never played any of the Jet Set Radio games but this game makes me want to, movement feels insanely good and there’s such a strong addictive quality that led me to fucking around way more than I needed to, probably could’ve rushed through the game in almost half the time it took me to beat it. The sense of style is pretty insane, this thing has sixth gen written all over it and I love it. Pretty amazing soundtrack too I was really surprised to find out it’s almost all licensed music. One of the most slept on games of the year for sure

Just about the most “classic” you can get from this era, this game finally strikes that golden formula that makes for a good balance of story and gameplay. The customization from III is lost but battles are now way more involved which is cool, and the story/gameplay play into each other way more than was ever possible before. The story is not that good tbh but it’s got some really good moments. The whole thing is just so comfortable to slip into and get absorbed in, very accessible and fun. Pales in comparison to what comes later but it’s still a game I like a lot, more than I should honestly, it’s equal to III for me.

For years now I’ve never been able to get into roguelikes, but this is the one that finally clicked with me. I’ve played through the game a couple times at this point and each time I’ve had a different set of mysteries to explore, different events/endings in the mysteries that I did repeat, different character builds, and a totally fresh experience each time. The game can be a lot to take in at first, the UI is pretty dense and it can make for some information overload, but once you get into the rhythm of it all you realize it’s not actually all that complicated. The best part of the game by far is the aesthetics, the whole game looks ripped straight out of a Junji Ito manga with tons of Lovecraftian elements and it makes it super easy to get immersed in play sessions. The mysteries I’ve gotten have all been really interesting too, and I’ve even found that there’s some crossover in between stories to make this horrific town even more well realized. The RPG mechanics and combat can be unforgiving if you don’t know what you’re doing but they do a good job of keeping you on edge the whole time, and since one playthrough is only around an hour long messing up isn’t too big of a punishment. This is a super creative horror game that’s genuinely unlike anything I’ve ever played and I can definitely see myself coming back to this in the future

Never been the biggest fan of 2D Mario, but this is a great time! The creativity bleeding through the levels in this game is definitely the reason it’s been drawing so much praise. These rarely change much of the actual gameplay, much of the game is still quite vanilla in that sense, but presentation wise it’s constantly surprising and has a ton of charm. The wonder seed transformations are easily the highlights of the game and are so much fun to seek out. The badges are a bit of a missed opportunity imo bc you can only equip one at a time and I can’t help but feel that really limits Mario’s potential moveset, and the level design doesn’t do much to encourage consistently experimenting with these either, but for what it’s worth Mario still does feel really good to control no matter what you have equipped. I don’t agree with this game being compared with the all time greats of the genre like Rayman Legends or Tropical Freeze, but I absolutely can recommend this game as a remarkably solid 2D platformer that never really gets stale.

Had pretty high expectations with this and they were totally surpassed, this is a really fantastic sequel that innovates and expands on the original game’s ideas in the perfect way while trimming the fat and making for an immensely smooth gameplay experience. I didn’t realize just how much better traversal would feel here, you can move unbelievably fast at points and it’s super impressive. The added movement options and ability to disable swing assist made me have so much fun with the movement in this game, it’s some of the best traversal I’ve ever seen across the entire medium. Combat is also a pretty solid upgrade, they finally struck the right balance between gadgets and abilities to make it satisfying and even a decent amount harder than the first game without resulting to obnoxious damage sponge enemies. The bosses are way more fun this time too, more dynamic with much more interesting move sets. The action setpieces here are truly remarkable, this game is just proof that Insomniac is now the best in the industry when it comes to these. The story doesn’t hit the same emotional peaks as the original, but it’s still a really great Spider-Man story with what might be my favorite incarnation of the symbiote yet. I love this version of the world so much and I love that Insomniac is still interested in taking creative risks with the storytelling. This game made me like this version of Miles a lot more too, he really comes into his own here. Having a game where you’re constantly switching between two distinct Spider-Men is so much fun, I seriously loved almost every second of this. Well worth the wait, one of the best games I’ve played all year.

Honestly this was better than I remember! The gameplay is a pretty decent improvement off the original which I already liked a lot. I think the side content is actually better and more original, really appreciate the removal of the towers and the way the crimes are reworked. Combat wise I think Miles’s Venom abilities are great way to distinguish himself from Peter while still keeping things engaging and fun. And that’s the biggest thing I want to give this game credit for, it has a pretty distinct personality when compared to Peter’s game and I really appreciate that. Unfortunately, they really dropped the ball with the story imo. It’s pretty good on paper but in execution it’s so rushed and I found myself unable to form any kind of connection with much happening on screen, super disappointing coming off of the original game which had an emotional powerhouse of a story. Very mediocre on that front, but a ton of fun everywhere else, honestly I’d say I enjoyed playing this more than the first.

At best it’s pretty fun, at worst it’s obnoxiously repetitive and dull. The side content is nowhere near as good as the main game which is kinda crazy since the side content there already wasn’t anything that great. The story is nowhere near as good but it’s decent, there’s some fun moments in here especially with Black Cat. Some of the unique levels are pretty cool, some are very uninspired and boring. Lots of obnoxious damage sponge enemies alongside guys that hit way harder than they ever have any right to, pretty poor difficulty scaling but it’s not too egregious as the game is still generally pretty easy. It’s quite a mixed bag of content that’s never truly great, glad I never paid for this when it came out, but since it’s free with the PS5 version I didn’t mind it. It’s working off the very solid foundation of the original game so it’s still decently fun, but hard to be enthusiastic about.

Still one of my favorite games… formulaic for sure but that doesn’t matter to me because of how much everything is elevated by being able to embody the best playable version of Spider-Man yet. Movement, combat, swinging, everything feels perfect in this game. It would’ve been a cool game regardless just because of that but attached to it is one of the best Spider-Man stories we’ve ever gotten. Perfect renditions of so many iconic characters, my favorite incarnation of Peter Parker, and a fantastic plot line that humanizes its villains super well and ultimately ends up pretty heartbreaking. Absolutely nailed this take on the character and the world, can’t wait for the sequel.