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you are not immune to propaganda

When the first set of information was coming out about this game, I wasn't too sure how to feel about it. To be honest I've never been a huge fan of open world games in general - including games like Breath of the Wild and The Witcher 3 - so the concept of an 'open world' Sonic game didn't exactly appeal to me at first, although from the information that was received early on it came off to me as more something along the lines of the at the time recently released Bowser's Fury, which I did like, but ultimately I had relatively moderate expectations and interest in the game (compared to the amount I had for Forces, which, yeah lol).

Unfortunately the first set of gameplay footage that came out from IGN left me with mixed impressions of the game, but I was still interested in the game enough, and as the game's release date approached, my interest did start to increase as I heard more positive opinions about the game from those who tried it.

After finally getting the game (a few days late because fuckin GameStop preorders lmao), and now beating it, I can safely say... yeah, this is a great one. I'm not sure if I would say it's my favorite Sonic game still, but I'd say it's in my Top 5 at the very least.

My impression of it being closer to Bowser's Fury gameplay-wise than, say, Breath of the Wild, pretty much came true. This really isn't a traditional open world game, and the developers have attested to that calling it 'open zone'. You have five giant, open spaces that you can freely control Sonic in, which you unlock as you progress through the story, and these are littered with platforming challenges, puzzles, portals, and collectibles. And to get this off the bat, I really think what separates Sonic Frontiers from most open world games I've played is that the different islands feel... interestingly designed, to say the least. They actually did a pretty damn good job of integrating the core gameplay of Sonic into these with grind rails, platforming, and above all else, Sonic's control and movement, which in the main islands at least, might be the best Sonic has controlled in any Sonic game to date in my opinion - having a great mix of Sonic Adventure's open flow, Generations' polish, and even elements of Lost World's parkour system. These all combine to make traversing these worlds surprisingly fun and satisfying especially as you explore for collectibles needed to progress through the game.

Like I said, the islands contain their fair share of platforming challenges - simple, bite-size bits of Sonic game design that usually reward you with 'Memory Tokens' that you collect throughout each island and are satisfying to pull off, especially with the ability to sometimes jump into other platforming challenges after completing one, which further adds to the good pace of completing the different challenges. They are a bit simple and straight-forward, and admittedly I do think there are cases where they could be better intertwined with the open zone design, but at the same time what's here is fun and satisfying enough. My biggest gripe over anything else is that some of them do shift the camera from 3D to 2.5D similar to the Boost titles, but often it... doesn't exactly play well with the more open design, and that becomes especially noticeable the more certain islands use challenges with these 2.5D platforming challenges (looking at you, Chaos Island). Sometimes I'll be trying to traverse and automatically get sucked into a 2.5D platforming challenge, which sometimes can get annoying especially as you attempt to try and get out of them. It's not a major issue with the game or anything, but I gotta admit it does kind of feel like a pace-breaker at some points.

Combat also plays a big role in this game and I was surprised with how... good it felt. In general Sonic games have always had trouble with creating satisfying feeling combat that doesn't feel overly button mash-y, especially with stuff like the Werehog in Sonic Unleashed, and this game is still pretty simple in that regard, but it really helps that there's more enemy variety throughout the game that does actually require you to utilize Sonic's moveset in different ways, and on top of that you can also further expand Sonic's moveset since this game offers a 'skill tree' of sorts that unlocks more abilities. It really comes into the bosses especially, and I will say that Sonic Frontiers might some of the best bosses the series has ever had. It still does fall a bit too much into that 'spectacle' aspect as most if not all other Sonic games do, but at the same time they allow you to really take advantage of Sonic's combat moveset to beat the boss in faster and more unique ways.

That said though this game has a similar issue with Sonic Generations where the 'main' game bosses feel really good... only for the final boss to end up being pretty lame. In a nutshell, the game just becomes Touhou and ends with a few QTEs, and on top of that you don't even unlock the actual final boss unless you set the game to 'Hard' difficulty before nabbing the last emerald in the fifth island, which to me was just kind of a 'wut' move, especially considering the game doesn't even seem to tell you this from what I can tell.

In addition to the open zones though, you also need to collect the Chaos Emeralds to fight every major boss in each island, which you do by collecting keys, in which the most straightforward way of doing this is the Cyberspace stages. Admittedly, I don't consider these to be bad per se, but I was a bit disappointed. These play similar to the Boost stages in those respective games and as someone who generally does like the Boost formula, they were what I was looking forward to most from this game. But I was also expecting them to be a more major part of the game and I guess that's kind of where my problem started - these definitely weren't intended to be the 'main' part of the game, more of a bonus on top of the well designed open zones, and it definitely shows. For one thing, most of the level design is just ripped from Adventure 2, Generations and Unleashed. This is sort of explained by the 'Cyberspace' in question, story-wise, being built out of Sonic's memories, but even then, you would think with that in mind there would be more than 4 stage themes with 3 of them just being Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary again. Plus the fact that Sky Rail is recreated which was originally a Shadow stage, so that further adds more questions. There are a few Cyberspace stages that seem at least somewhat original, and these were rather good, but it does further raise the question of why most of the other Cyberspace stages needed to just be recreated Adventure 2, Generations and Unleashed levels (with the Generations levels being chopped up on top of that).

Plus, compared to the smooth flow of the open zones, the controls in the Cyberspace stages feel kind of iffy. I didn't mind them too much the more I played, but even then... well, it's kind of hard putting into words, but basically Sonic just feels sort of stiff and imprecise when it comes to platforming in these stages and I can't say I'm a huge fan of the homing attack being mapped to a different button than the Jump (which also applies to the open zones). I don't think the controls are awful, but pale in comparison to Colors and Generations' control. And that's kind of the sentiment I have with the Cyberspace levels in general - nothing too bad, I could still enjoy them enough, but I guess I was expecting more out of them.

You can also occassionally find portals to Big's fishing pond which contains, what you might have guessed, a fishing minigame. It isn't anything too in-depth, mostly just revolving around timing, but you can get some good collectibles out of it including keys for the emeralds among other easter eggs and whatnot. I didn't spend too much time in it, mostly as I was just focused on completing the main game, but it's a nice little change of pace for what it is. Also Sonic can now grill for god's sake.

My only other gripe with the gameplay is some of the minigames and stuff required for progression, most notably the Koco minigames that you can play by gathering Memory Tokens for each of Sonic's friends. In particular, the Koco roundup missions were probably my least favorite part of the game period with how annoying it felt to keep all the Koco together in order to bring them to the respective Sonic character. They were a pretty minor part of the game though so they didn't bother me too much.

In addition to all that though, I really gotta commend the story as well. Usually I'm not someone who really puts much stock into most Sonic game stories, even with stories like Unleashed and Black Knight's, so believe me when I say that Sonic Frontiers might have the best story of any Sonic game. The story's written by Ian Flynn, the main writer of the IDW comics, and although I haven't really read them and as such am not too familiar with his work, this game definitely elevated my interest in reading more of the Sonic comics. I was definitely engaged and invested with the story here more than any previous Sonic game - the whole mystery and lore of the game and the different islands kept my interest going, alongside the great characterization and character development in this game. Sonic's character manages to nail the balance of his more 'heroic' side with his more cocky, jokey side, with Amy's character also striking a decent balance as well. The somewhat inconsistent characterization of Tails from Unleashed to Forces is greatly addressed, and implemented in his character arc here rather well with him trying to feel stronger on his own. The character of Sage was also handled really well as she sort of goes through her own plot arc of trying to understand the relationships of Sonic and his friends, and even with herself and Eggman, offering a "father-daughter" relationship that gives Eggman a side that we really haven't seen out of him before. The voice acting was also superb - I stand by Roger Craig Smith being my favorite Sonic voice actor and it's only solidified as he's given a decent, serious script. If this is how Ian Flynn's first Sonic game turned out, I really can't wait to see what else he brings to the table in the future.

The visuals are really good here too. I know a lot of people made jokes early on about "Sega hiring this man", but the art style works surprisingly well along with the core 'look' of the series in general, and the environments just look beautiful, especially combined with the lighting from the game's Day to Night cycle. Granted there are a couple problems on a technical level - the pop-in is extremely noticeable throughout this game and the game also has some frame pacing problems when playing on systems that don't support 60FPS. I played this game on the Xbox One X myself, and while I didn't think the issue was too much of a dealbreaker, I did notice the framerate a few times being a bit inconsistent on that's on the most powerful 8th gen system (which I should add the Switch version is REALLY a visual downgrade). If you have the option, I would definitely recommend playing this game on a PS5, Series X or a good gaming PC - not only because of 60FPS itself but also the more consistent frame pacing that comes with it. The soundtrack is also really nice - I'm not sure how it ranks among the rest of the series (tbh I feel like I need to listen to it some more outside of the game itself), but it has a nice mix of ambient style themes for the open zones, more electronic-ish themes for the Cyberspace stages and some really good rock/metal for the bosses - all of which sound great and fit rather well with the respective environments.

Sonic Frontiers, overall, does have it's problems, but it provides an excellent foundation for future Sonic games to potentially build off of down the road. As I was finishing the game the official Sonic Twitter announced free DLC for the game coming throughout 2023 which even includes additional playable characters, and I think it's safe to say I'm looking forward to how that alone will continue upon where Sonic Frontiers left off. On it's own, Sonic Frontiers is a really good Sonic game and I can easily recommend it. I don't know if it's one I'll find myself going back to as a whole package merely due to how long it took me to beat it the first time (partially due to work and shit), but it definitely left a great first impression on me and I'm definitely interesting in revisiting parts of it and exploring parts that I haven't gotten to.

Hands down Valve's best title IMO. The first game as it was was a really good title albeit was short and still had a lot of potential to be expanded upon, and so it's good that not only did it have a sequel released in 2011, but also one that takes everything that worked well about the first game and drastically improves it.

The core gameplay is more or less the same as the first, so if you've finished Portal 1 you'll have no trouble understanding Portal 2, but the puzzles and environments definitely feel bigger in scale and also incorporate a few new gameplay elements - particularly the gels that come a bit later in the game that come in three colors, each having their own attributes (blue giving you a higher jump, orange increasing your speed, white allowing you to place portals on any surface it's on) which alone furthers the physics based elements of the first game. This results in the different puzzles in the game being even more thought provoking as not only do you need to figure out how to get from place to place, but also how to use the portals to maneuver the gels so they can reach certain surfaces that'll allow you to clear each chamber.

I mentioned in my review of the first game that there was a decent amount of lore involved through environmental storytelling, but here it definitely plays a much bigger part of the game. The story's overall fun, especially with the addition of Wheatley and his role as the villain (taking over GLADOS' body half way through), and it also establishes history of the creation of GLADOS and Aperature Science that makes it even more interesting to follow.

Co-op is also a nice addition, although I can't really speak too much about it since I haven't played much of it and even then most of what I played was like 7 years ago or so.

Really, my only issue with the game is that the loading times can be pretty bad. It isn't nowhere to the extent of, say, Sonic 06, although I do remember when playing this game for the first time they could get pretty long and pretty fequent. When playing the game on the Switch for my last playthrough I didn't notice this problem being quite as long as I remember, although definitely still noticeable enough. Granted I haven't tried installing this game to an SSD so I don't know if that might help.

But overall Portal 2 is still a really great game, arguably one of the best of all time, and an easy recommendation, especially for as frequently it and the first game go on sale for pocket change on Steam.

I really gotta say, for what was essentially just a Christmas-themed Nights into Dreams demo this really oozes a lot of charm.

I decided to play through this (at least the HD version unlockable in the 2012 remaster lol) for probably obvious reasons and fundamentally, like I mentioned, it's basically just a demo of Nights featuring the first level of the actual game, Spring Valley (Claris' variation in particular), and on that note you would think there wouldn't be a lot to talk about, but on the same token it does feel like they went a few steps ahead of just creating a short Nights demo. For one thing, the game is obviously themed around Christmas, with the aforementioned level taking place during a winter sunset with the rings replaced with wreaths, the Ideya Palaces having Christmas trees and Nights themselves donning a red outfit, with a Nights version of "Jingle Bells" playing, among other changes to the presentation.

But on top of all that, it even contains it's own story separate from the main game, which being a short demo game is pretty basic on it's own (basically just being about Claris and Elliot trying to retrieve a 'Christmas star' in order to return Christmas spirit), but it does have some nice illustrations and a voiceover to go with it, which I think is pretty neat.

But the most interesting thing this game does is that it also offers different themes for the level depending on the date and time (or just what the Saturn internal clock is turned to), particularly for other holidays. The 'Christmas' Nights mode itself with the aforementioned theming mostly just comes around during December, but there's also modes available for New Year's, Valentine's Day, and Winter in general, but the most interesting is April Fools when you can play as Reala. Even the Christmas theme itself changes somewhat depending on if you're playing on Christmas Eve - where you can spot Santa in the background. I can't confirm whether or not they kept these for the HD version as I didn't really find, but it's still rather neat that they included these.

The Saturn version of this also includes some neat unlockables as well - including what's technically Sonic's first 'full' 3D appearance. Unfortunately this apparently isn't available in the HD version.

At the end of the day, this is still just a demo version of Nights into Dreams, but what they did with the presentation is just so full of charm that it's still worth talking about.

Happy Holidays!

I technically already beat this game last year but I decided to play through Spark's story again just to re-familiarize myself with the characters, setting and story before going into the next two games.

Gameplay-wise, this game is similar to Freedom Planet in concept - a retro style game that takes a lot of influence from games like Sonic in terms of level design while also implementing combat mechanics with different costumes and abilities in a similar vein to games like Mega Man.

But to get it out of the way... I definitely enjoyed Freedom Planet more. I will say though that this game did a good job of giving itself more of it's own identity compared to other Sonic-style indie games in it's vein. The movement is probably the best part of the game imo - generally feeling pretty fluid in addition to giving you a 'dash' move that allows for a quick burst of speed as needed, and the game does a decent job of carrying over the feel and physics of the classic Sonic games while also putting it's own spin on the core gameplay.

The mechanics with the costumes was also something I really liked, with how the game offers a variety each with their own set of attributes and additional movement and/or combat options. Some of them weren't as good as others (the Knight costume was one I usually tried avoiding lol), but this whole mechanic does give the game a good amount of variety with each playthrough.

That being said the level design was a bit lacking for me. I wouldn't necessarily say it was particularly bad or anything (though all parts of Stage 15 have some pretty BS moments), but I feel like after a while it just sort of started feeling same-y to me. Towards the middle especially I couldn't help but feel sort of tired of the gameplay loop. I don't really know what it is, but part of me feels like the levels don't really do enough to really differentiate from each other aside for the different environments and presentation.

I do feel like the level design at least picks up somewhat towards the end, especially when it comes to introducing some interesting mechanics and new costumes, but even then they don't really go anything beyond 'pretty good'. As someone who generally had a good time playing through Freedom Planet 3 times with each of the characters, the fact that Spark 1 felt like somewhat of a slog at certain points to me was somewhat disappointing to me in comparison, for lack of a better word. Some of the stages also just felt like they went on for longer than they needed to, especially with them being split up into 'A and B' portions.

I think part of it too is just that, to put it one way, there's just games out there that imo just did it... better, I guess? When compared to Freedom Planet and Sonic Mania especially, it sort of just felt like even when the stages did get good and tried to introduce interesting, new mechanics, like I said - it still never really went above being decent to pretty good to me, in general just being about as good as what I would consider the 'middle' stages of the aforementioned games. The combat also falls into this as well - feeling pretty monotonous all around even with the additional costumes.

I also gotta say that the difficulty balancing feels a bit... weird to me? The game in general is pretty easy, which alone isn't much of an issue for me, but when it comes to the bosses in particular, I didn't really feel like there was much of a difficulty curve so much so that some bosses towards the end would either feel like a cake walk or somewhat tedious not even really bad off of the order they came in.

Still, I generally had a decent time with the game. It's nothing too groundbreaking, and I do feel like there are games that just did what Spark was going for a bit better, but I'd still say it's worth playing if you are a fan of games like Sonic or Freedom Planet, although I wouldn't expect anything too particularly amazing.

I actually preferred this over the first game, albeit it's still nothing that really blew me away.

To sort of recap, I feel like the first game had solid movement and a costume/ability system I really liked, but the level design did start feeling a bit too same-y for my liking pretty quickly in which did leave me feeling somewhat burned out.

But while this game is actually shorter in the first (my first playthrough clocking in at just over 2 hours lol), I feel like I got more out of those two hours than I did with the first game. The gameplay is now in 3D compared to the first being in 2D, and I feel like that alone gives it more of it's own identity so to speak.

The easiest comparison I can make here is something along the 'Sonic' playstyles in the Sonic Adventure games, and in a lot of ways this game does feel like a modern take on that - having a good amount of fluidity and flow to the controls on top of level design that just has more variety to it than it's predecessor.

That being said, in it's efforts to sort of replicate the Adventure style it does kind of bring over a lot of the jankiness of those games, perhaps moreso. There were quite a few moments in the game where I felt like I was fighting against the physics to keep Fark (in case you're wondering, yes you actually play as Fark in this game, not Spark) from falling off the twisting paths, and there were even a couple times where I basically fell through the level geometry.

Weirdly enough, the game recommends you to enable 'Smooth Turning', but at the same time I felt like the controls just felt... better without it. With the feature turned on, turning just outright felt pretty sluggish and it doesn't really feel like the levels were designed well around it. Once I turned it off I'd actually say I had an easier time getting used to and understanding the controls. Otherwise the movement does feel pretty good and, again, does have a good amount of flow and fluidity.

The combat also returns from Spark 1 and... truth be told it feels just as shallow. Pretty much all the enemies and bosses just kinda felt like a cycle of waiting for a chance to parry in order to rack up extra damage power then just proceeding to mash buttons after memorizing a few attack patterns. The boss against Freom Mk 3 was a bit more challenging in this regard, but even then it still just took me a few tries to take him down (plus the actual final boss that comes after is somehow significantly easier lol).

The ability/costume feature also returns but it feels like more of an afterthought here to the point where I didn't even understand how it worked until half way into the game and even then it didn't really feel like it changed much, which is a bit of a shame considering it was something I did like from the first game.

One good thing this game does bring to the table though is that it does have a medal/reward system similar to what's in most 3D Sonic games from Adventure 2 onwards, so despite being pretty short there is a bit of incentive to replay the levels in that regard.

That's really all I gotta say though. It's a good game if you enjoy the 3D Sonic titles, especially the Adventure games and Heroes, and I would even say I liked it more than the first, though the short campaign does sort of lead me to suggest getting it on sale at least if you are interested.

I decided to do a second review of this game since I wasn't too happy with my first and feel like I could've done a better job articulating why I didn't like this game.

To sort of recap, the Wii U version of Sonic Lost World was a game that while definitely far from the best 3D Sonic game, was an overall solid time. The actual platforming was solid enough though the game did have a fetish for weird gimmicks and I did like the parkour system though it could've definitely been fleshed out quite a bit more.

As for the 3DS game, truth is it wasn't a game I wanted to dislike. I got the game for my 14th birthday and I do remember liking the first few levels back then albeit never went past the first act of Frozen Factory. Still, even if I didn't like it as much as the Wii U version, I at least was expecting an overall solid companion title with its own take on the Wii U game's core gameplay.

Unfortunately I can't say that was the case. Frankly my first playthrough of Lost World 3DS was one of the most frustrating experiences with a video game in general and after the third world I straight up just wanted it to be over. I have since attempted multiple times to go back to the game and utilize any of the skips and stuff but even then my opinion of the game has yet to change.

A common argument I've seen regarding this version against it's console counterpart is that the parkour mechanics are more intuitive and better utilized in this version and to be entirely fair here I can understand where this sentiment is coming from. At the very least this game does a better job of making the mechanics themselves easier to grasp and understand. Plus the spin dash actually feels pretty good to use.

I just wish the game's actual movement was better.

I’m sorry but this game’s controls did not jive with me. I wouldn’t say that the console version was a bastion of great controls or anything either but they felt solid and ‘smooth’ enough so that they didn’t usually get in the way of my enjoyment to a great extent. In comparison, this game’s controls just feel awkward in a way I can’t even figure out a way to describe. Sonic feels way too sensitive and fast when holding down the run button, yet he feels extremely sluggish when not holding it down, on top of not really feeling like I have full analog control despite this being the 3DS and a thumbstick being available. These issues make doing any actual platforming in this game just feel overall clunky, especially when the game seems to make it pretty hard to recover from a bad jump.

Plus I can’t help but feel like there’s some jankiness with the homing attack and any related abilities (like for the lightning wisp). There’s several times in this game where it feels like the homing reticle just doesn’t show up when it’s supposed to and it’s actually screwed me over a few times (especially in the Frozen Factory boss).

The game also uses the gyroscope at various points and in extremely gimmicky ways - most notoriously for the special stages, which I gotta say... might be one of if not my least favorite special stages in a Sonic game, and that's saying something. The gyro controls just feel extremely imprecise, and just trying to turn yourself around and position yourself correctly feels way harder than it should be, on top of just being unintuitive.

But what really kills the experience for me, more than anything, is easily the level design. Windy Hill is admittedly pretty solid overall, and the game does have some decent moments later on, but for the most part it just feels like every issue I had with the Wii U’s stages is increased tenfold here - feeling extremely blocky and gimmicky, and whereas I could at least tolerate most of the Wii U game’s gimmicks… here it actively feels like they get in the way and slow the game down. The worst of it being easily Frozen Factory Zone 3, which is littered with unfun, repetitive snowball puzzles and ended up taking me like half an hour or so on my first run (also there was one moment where towards the end of the stage - the snowball that’s supposed to follow you so that you can position it and use it for puzzles literally just stopped moving for no reason)

Even with these gimmicks aside, there’s also the other problem where it feels like some of these levels drag on for longer than necessary without really offering anything that makes the levels feel not empty. Plus in true Dimps' fashion the level design is full of bottomless pits which isn't exactly helping things at all.

And yes, I am aware there are ways to beat most of the game’s stages in just a few minutes (including Frozen Factory 3) especially using various skips and exploits, but again, even then I’m just left with stages that just leave me feeling ‘whatever’ without any desire to return to them. Also I’m sorry but it doesn’t exactly reflect well on the level design if most of the fun I can have with it is literally skipping past everything.

The 2D stages especially just feel extremely dull in this regard - just feeling blocky and uninspired on top of the design just not complimenting the game's control and movement well at all. Also, I gotta ask, who decided to have the camera zoomed extremely close on Sonic in these stages?

I do want to make it clear if you enjoy this game, more than the Wii U version - more power to you, and I respect that you see something about it that I’m just… really not. But no matter how much I try, even as someone who does enjoy the Wii U game from time to time, I can not for the life of me find much to enjoy about this.

A solid remake of an 'okay to decent' game.

To sort of recap a bit I first played Alex Kidd in Miracle World on the Wii Virtual Console back in 2012 - around the time I became fascinated with retro platformers outside of the standard Mario and Sonic games, especially with some of Sega's other IPs, and I remember enjoying it well enough back then albeit could never get past the third level because the game just kicked my ass.

Outside of ports and his appearances in the Sega All-Stars titles Alex Kidd faded into obscurity as Sonic the Hedgehog rose to fame. So when this remake was revealed, after the series went over 30 years without a new game, it definitely got my attention.

The most notable thing about this remake is easily the new art style, which honestly was something that the game really needed. The original's art style admittedly hasn't held up too well - looking a bit bland and undefined for the most part (especially with some of the enemies like the scorpions and frogs just looking generic plus many of the levels seeming to use the same aesthetic). I know this was still the 8-bit era and they were held back by those limitations, but I feel like even then there were definitely games from around the time this one released that had more interesting art styles that also managed to work within the limitations of the hardware at the time.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX still pertains to what they were ultimately going for, but is definitely more well-rounded and defined, plus just having way more energy put into it. Alex Kidd himself has more animations, facial expressions and general detail that gives him more character, plus I also like how his little scarf is moving around behind him at all times, and the enemies... well, the scorpions, frogs and whatnot have actual designs to them that don't just look like 8 bit recreations of stock art, giving them more expression through design compared to the original game, and other enemies that just looked outright out of place in the original game (i.e. Janken's minions which just outright looked... weird in the original, as well as the Darumans) feel better worked into the general art style, and at the very least, I can tell what some of the stuff in this game was supposed to be.

On top of that, the environments actually feel well differentiated from each other compared to the original which often just use the same block designs and the best case scenario just being a different color background. As such, this game's levels managed to just stand out a lot more from one another compared to the original version. Forest levels have swinging trees, towns have buildings, and there's variation in the times of day and weather. Sure, the level of detail and animations match something more along the lines of a PS1/Saturn sprite based game than a Master System game as what Alex Kidd originally was, but honestly with how bland the original style was I feel like it definitely needed an overhaul of some sort even if it meant taking advantage of modern hardware.

Also if you don't like the art style, you can switch between the new style and the original with the push of a button, which I actually took advantage of a couple times just to compare what the original looked like versus the new style... but you can probably guess I mostly kept playing with the new style lol. Plus there's also the Classic Mode which you can unlock by beating the game, which is basically just a straight port of the SMS version with a background in the style of the original cartridge.

Also they added NPCs here throughout certain levels that you can talk to, all of which basically just serve to contextualize the story which, being a remake of an 80's game, isn't too deep, but it does give offer a bit more insight and character to the 'Miracle World'. The soundtrack is also remade and I gotta say it's pretty damn good.

As for the gameplay itself... that's kind of where things get a bit iffy here. This remake basically stays true to the gameplay of the original... for better or worse. Here's the thing, while I still consider Alex Kidd in Miracle World to be an okay to decent platformer, it's definitely got it's issues. The level design is overall pretty solid even if nothing too spectacular, but my issues come in with the control and difficulty. Your only default attack without looking for items is a punch which has a pretty wonky hitbox and tends to really require almost perfect positioning and timing to actually be effective, and although you can occasionally find or buy a 'Power Bracelet', you also lose it if you die... which you do a lot.

Despite being a Master System game, this game still has a lot of that "NES era" difficulty, meaning that although it is a pretty short game if you're a pro, they compensated for that with a high amount of difficulty to make sure you got your money's worth. There's a lot of trial and error here - including Question Mark boxes either giving you an item like the Power Bracelet or literally spawning an invulnerable Ghost enemy that phases through everything and kills you unless you're able to get it offscreen. As well, there's the Janken minion bosses that you face each twice, which you beat by... playing Rock, Paper, Scissors (or 'Jankenpo' as this game calls it, gotta say I like the references to Japanese culture). And since the hand shape is pre-generated, that basically just means memorizing the boss' motions. At least the second around does end up being an actual boss after the Jankenpo game and, yeah, it is a unique idea, but a unique idea that basically becomes annoying after just one time, amounting to nothing other than a memory game.

On top of that, this game is one of those with one hit deaths with no option to gain extra hit points, combined with the fact that the amount of lives you get is pretty limited. You get 3 at the start, which is pretty normal of course, but I could very rarely find extra lives, and as far as I know there's no way to gain them by racking up certain amount of points or items like, say, Super Mario Bros. This makes the trial and error aspects, on top of the general difficulty with the core stage design and enemy placement, ultimately more frustrating to deal with. Thankfully, this remake does add a save feature, and ultimately getting a Game Over here just means getting sent back to the beginning of the level, which is good because there is no way I'd have the patience to beat this game without a save feature lol

This game does offer a few options for controls and difficulty, but they're rather limited. You can play the game with Infinite lives (which I actually utilized in the last few levels because I got tired of repeating some of later stages only to keep getting a Game Over in the same place), Reworked controls (said to make Alex feel more responsive, although it did make the game a tad too slippery for my liking and does come at the expense of his 'slide'), and adjusted collisions, the last one being somewhat baffling to me. It actually does help make the collision detection and hitboxes feel tighter, but it begs the question... why is having better collision not enabled by default, rather than being hidden away in the 'Assist Menu'? I guess to be fair these extra options were added as an update that came out after the remake already released, but even then, if you're going to remake the game, you would think adjustments to the controls to make them less rough would be among the first things to fix about the original rather than coming out in an update after the remake was released.

Truth is I still think Alex Kidd in Miracle World is a solid platformer, the level design is overall pretty solid and the release of DX and the changes it makes does make it more accessible for a wider audience, but it still retains a lot of the roughness from the 8-bit era in terms of difficulty and control. This really isn't a game for everyone, even with the adjusted difficulty options, and I'd mostly just recommend it to people who enjoy retro platformers of this sort, with the DX version being easily the best way to experience it, but unless you're one of those people, or just enjoyed the original Alex Kidd in Miracle World, it is a bit hard to recommend to a general audience.

This is definitely the best out of the Spark games and a really good Sonic-esque indie title that I would recommend trying out if you like said franchise. That being said though I do think it's a bit overhyped by the people calling it the "best 3D Sonic game" and whatnot.

The gameplay builds upon Spark 2 in which the game plays similarly to Sonic's playstyle in the Adventure games (especially Adventure 2), and this game adds more polish as well as a few extra abilities to the control style, most notably wall running.

Once again, the movement is really this game's strongest suit. There are a few occasions where it does get a bit dodgy (especially when trying to use the aforementioned wall running and jumping abilities) but like Spark 2 there's a good amount of speed and fluidity to the controls while also feeling generally more polished and just... better in general. On top of this all of Spark 2's stages were brought over so you can play them with the extra bit of polish and added mechanics.

Spark just feels really good to control here and when combined with the solid level design, stages can definitely feel pretty satisfying to play through, and once again the medal system returns further incentivizing replays of the stages.

Though, regarding the level design, there were a couple criticisms I had. While for the most part it is pretty solid, it did kind of feel a bit too linear at times. I don't really have anything against linear level design, and seeing as this game does draw inspiration from SA2's Speed stages that does make sense, but it did kind of get to the point where I felt like I was just holding the analog stick forward and speeding past everything without much thought, and sometimes levels would have large parts of just being straight linear paths with little to nothing going on.

But again, the level design can get really good. Combined with Spark's fluid control the game's main stages contain a lot of open-ness and things like alternate pathways which of course stays true to the core game design of the Sonic games.

That being said the game's levels did get kinda same-y to me towards the second half of the game. While still solid enough, the game doesn't really feel like it adds much to each stage to make each level feel unique from one another and ultimately did kind of feel like it was just hitting the same beats. Even many of the alternate pathways as mentioned still just come down to being a slightly different straight path.

The extra stages are especially a mixed bag. The game occasionally requires you to obtain a certain number of medals to progress, which in addition to the speed and points medals the second game had also includes exploration medals scattered throughout each level. The extra stages add an alternate option of obtaining medals, but they have a tendency just to feel pretty gimmicky and not very well designed, especially compared to the main stages. I guess that's to be expected but outside of completion I definitely don't feel any motivation to replay any of them. Also for some reason the last level just decides to introduce a lives system while also being significantly longer than the rest of the stages.

And the combat... yeah it's still just kinda shallow lol. It's slightly better than the first two games since you do at least get the ability to unlock some further moves and power-ups, but it still does have a tendency of coming down to button mashing while parrying certain enemy attacks. Sometimes you'll be required to battle a bunch of enemies to progress through the game's levels and all it really serves to me is a pacebreaker that leaves me just wanting to go back to the speedy, fast-paced platforming.

I know I am sounding a little negative towards this game in this review, but frankly I still think Spark 3 was a really solid game, and when it's good it's definitely really good. But on the subject of it being 'better' than any 3D Sonic game... yeah I gotta disagree. The game really doesn't do that much particularly better for me than most 3D Sonic games I would just consider 'good', let alone to the same level as Generations or Frontiers. Part of it may just be that those people saying that is sort of leading me to become more critical towards the game but... I digress. It's still a really good 3D platformer, especially one made by a single guy, and especially if you like 3D Sonic games you'll most likely enjoy it.

Over the years I've sort of developed an interest in mascot platformers of various types that came between the 4th and 6th gen of gaming, so after hearing about Ty the Tasmanian Tiger with it's 2016 remaster, it was definitely a game I was interested in giving a shot. And I gotta say, I was actually a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The game is a 3D platformer that sort of feels like a mix of Crash Bandicoot and Banjo-Kazooie structurally. The main collectible you're looking out for in each level is Thunder Eggs - 7 of which are in each of the game's levels, however there'll usually be at least one that will have you follow along a set path that takes you to the 'end' of the stage (sort of like Super Mario Odyssey in a sense now that I think about it). Even once you've completed the main path, you are given the option to do a sort of time trial or race usually having you run through the main path or a different path a second time for a chance to win another Thunder Egg. Others are scattered throughout the levels, or can be obtained by completing missions for NPCs, locating all 5 Billbies in each stage, or collecting all 300 opals in each stage. In addition to these there's also collectibles like Golden Cogs (which can be used to unlock additional boomerangs - which is your main weapon in the game btw) and Picture Frames (which unlock concept art you can view) among other things.

While each stage does have a 'main' path of sorts though, they still tend to be rather open-ended in a way that allows room for exploration for the collectibles, and on that note, I would definitely say that the game does hit a balance in 'scope' akin to Spyro 1 or Banjo-Kazooie without being too big like Banjo-Tooie or Donkey Kong 64. Some of the levels can be pretty expansive, in some cases even surprising me with how big in size they really were, yet combined with the pretty good movement and control of Ty plus the collectibles generally being close enough in proximity in a way that makes exploring each level not draining and actually fun to explore.

The only area I didn't really like was part of "Beyond the Black Stump" where you're supposed to ride a cable car up a mountain and it goes pretty slowly (especially in some cases where you have to jump off at certain points and wait for another one to come by), but even then it didn't really annoy me that much.

There's two major criticisms I have though. One of which is that the bosses... aren't very good. None of them really give the player much of an idea of what they're supposed to do and that does become kind of an issue since some of them get pretty cryptic - particularly the 'Crikey' boss which you defeat by going underwater, hitting an oxygen tank on the ocean floor, wait for Crikey to come chew it on the surface and then throw your Flamerang in his mouth. It's very weirdly obtuse and frankly I do gotta wonder if I would've even been able to figure some of these bosses out without a guide.

Second of all this game does have a lot of that late 90's to early 2000's 3D platformer jank to it. It's not terribly glitchy or anything but it is a bit unpolished in some areas. The camera especially can be all over the place and while I'm not sure if this is only a thing in the remaster there were times I noticed models sort of clipping and whatnot, especially in the in-game cutscenes.

The story... it's about what you can expect for a kids game. The main gist is that Ty comes across a Bunyip elder in a cave who tells them a story of Boss Cass sending a group of Tasmanian Tigers, including Ty's family, into another dimension, and now has to obtain all the five talismans to bring them back. At one point Boss Cass sends out a rival named Sly which outside of one minor boss fight kind of just goes nowhere. Plus there's a character named Shadow the bat that appears in the last level in the game and then kind of just stops existing entirely. It's a pretty basic plot overall without much interesting to talk about.

Though I gotta say the animation for the cutscenes isn't very good, mostly in the case of the in-game ones but even the FMV cutscenes to an extent. In general it just feels pretty stilted with a real lack of body movement and expression, ultimately ending up looking clunky and awkward. I could excuse this for something like Sonic Adventure 1... but come on, this was 2002, there were definitely decent examples of video game animation at this point.

Also I really gotta say I love the Australian setting. Technically this wasn't something completely new since Crash Bandicoot had a similar vibe going on, but especially with the developers being based in Australia you can definitely tell they went all in with it. The game's levels are all based on different parts of Australia and from what I've researched, the characters, including Ty himself, are all based on species native to Australia. In general there's a lot of elements of Australian culture in this game (the checkpoints are literally outhouses which is funny as hell) and it makes the game stand out just on theming alone. The art style reflects on this and I definitely think Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (aside for the not so good cutscene animations) is a decent looking game for it's time, plus the soundtrack using a lot of instrumentation. I'm probably not the best person to talk about this compared to someone who's, well, from or at least lived in Australia, but I've never seen a game ooze more Australian energy (and that's coming from a fan of the Crash Bandicoot games).

Admittedly Ty the Tasmanian Tiger isn't anything too spectacular as far as early 2000's platforming games go, but I did generally have a good time with it, and if you enjoy collectathons or just 3D platformers in general from around this time period, you'll probably get a kick out of Ty.