When I sat down to play the Danganronpa Another games at the beginning of this year, I thought they were going to be a pair of mediocre fangames that people mainly just ate up because it's more Danganronpa, and fans of the series have been looking for more killing games since V3's controversial ending. In my mind, there was no way a couple of fangames on a budget made in RPG Maker could be nearly as good as the cult following behind this game made it sound.

But you know what? It is that fucking good.

If it wasn't for my unbelievable bias towards DR2 and how much that shaped my personality and how obnoxious I was to all my friends for half of my life, SDRA2 would probably be my favorite Danganronpa game, both official and unofficial. DRA is a solid game, don't get me wrong, I think if you've dodged it and have only experienced/had an interest in checking out 2, you should give it a shot. That being said... Super Danganronpa Another 2 is just different, man. I think a big factor in why people rally behind it so much is just because of how different of a cast we have on our hands from an official Danganronpa game.

It's really hard to discuss the cast of SDRA2 without getting into spoiler territory, and that's for the simple reason of them throwing a lot of plot twists at you very fast, straight from the prologue. In my best attempt at praising the cast while dodging the dozens of landmines of spoilers, the main strength is that compared to the Kodaka-written entries in the official series, where you can always believe that these guys hang out after class in a less fucked up world, you just really get the vibe that these guys would not hang out outside of a few select friend groups. This is, of course, for good reason that I have to reiterate I just cannot get into without spoiling the game which I do not want to do in this review because I want to yell at as many people as possible to play this game.

Now, of course, a Danganronpa game kind of lives and dies based on the mystery writing, and how good its murders are to solve. Again, I have to state that DR2 will always be my one true love in life and I would never do anything to harm it, but when it comes to what game in the series has the best cases... it's not even close. Myself, along with every friend I know who's played this game, can attest that there were so many moments of reeling back in your seat after getting a bomb dropped on you during a trial. I'm going to specifically call out the one case that most SDRA2 fans will call out as being especially good and well-thought out, which is Chapter 3. If you finish Chapter 3 and you aren't at least a little blown away from what you've just gone though, that's... completely fine because I'm not going to judge you based on a video game opinion, but I will also be very confused because it's such an out of control rollercoaster of a case, you would believe you're on a Thrillville ride. For one guy plotting out entire murder mysteries by himself while also doing all the art and programming, Linuj has one hell of a mind for creating spectacular crimes that leave the reader questioning their life for hours at a time.

This isn't even touching upon the overarching narrative that takes place across every chapter, or the free time events that have been vastly improved upon from DRA, or the way Linuj manages to craft his own story in the Danganronpa universe that somehow manages to improve the storytelling of the original series when you take into account both storylines are running concurrently to each other. There's just so much right about this game, so much to love and shower praises on top of praises on. Also, they borrow music from Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and, more important, The SIlver Case. That's not really extraordinary, I just really like the soundtracks from those games and I think Linuj is even cooler for agreeing with me.

I think the easiest way I can summarize how much more I loved SDRA2 than I expected to is that I walked away questioning if Sora was now my favorite Danganronpa protagonist instead of Hajime; the context that's needed here being that Hajime Hinata is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, and now so is Sora. And so is Yoruko, for that matter. And Setsuka, and Kanade, and Nikei, and Syobai, hell, there's just so many good characters and good decisions in this game. If you're put off by it because it's an RPG Maker Danganronpa fangame, you're missing out on one of the greatest mystery games I've played in recent memory.

This marks like the 6th or 7th Sonic game I've played this year. I think I might need to start playing other games, this can't be healthy for me.

I think Sonic 2's remake fares about the same as Sonic 1's, as the adjustments to the physics and Sonic's moveset are exactly the same, that being that the focus has been taken away from the platforming and more prioritizes the speed. The spin dash and drop dash are so powerful in these games that it makes Generations' spin dash smile in approval; it's finally found a worthy successor. That being said, Sonic 2's level design and themes are generally more original and well-thought out than Sonic 1's, so it makes for a slightly better experience overall.

The special stages, however, see absolutely no changes whatsoever. It's just 7 new stages for the ones introduced in Sonic 1's remake, and they're still just as incredibly easy and I got every single emerald on my first try. This might be a somewhat unfair comparison, but I couldn't help but think back to how much fun I had with Triple Trouble remake's special stages that I played earlier this year. Sure, those were an entirely new part of the game that wasn't in the original Triple Trouble, but the same applies here. I just don't think there's any enjoyment to be had from being stuck in a pink hellscape bouncing on giant springs until you find the emerald in around 30 seconds, and I honestly would've just taken an 8-bit version of the half-pipe special stages instead.

One major bonus that this game has going for it is the tag mechanic, which Triple Trouble remake would also go on to have. Instead of taking one character, you instead have the option to choose between five playable teams, and you can swap between them at any time. One character will always be suited for horizontal movement (Sonic, Shadow, Amy, etc.) and one will always be suited for vertical platforming (Tails, Metal, Knuckles, etc.). It's a really fun mechanic and encourages you to actively swap characters to explore more of the level, the only problem is that stage-specific gimmicks such as the paraglider can only be used by the speed character, and speed characters are also the only ones playable in every single boss act. It severely cuts down the amount of time you get to play as series staples like Tails and Knuckles, and seems like an unnecessary restriction. What reason is there that I can't fight the bosses as Knuckles, it's not like there's any walls for him to climb on in order to cheese any of the fights. It feels like an idea that wasn't fully realized, but the novelty of it is enough to get a thumbs up from me. If I ever get to Sonic 3 8-bit, I hope this concept gets fleshed out because it has a lot of potential with all the different character combinations.

While improvements are scattered across the experience, I can't help but give Sonic 2's remake the same score I gave Sonic 1's because it largely felt like I was going through the same motions again. Sure, the tag system is great, but why do I need Tails when Sonic is so comically broken that he turns most of the levels into a cakewalk? My strategy for this game ended up being almost the exact same as Sonic 1's: go insanely fast and spin dash jump over half of the level. If Sonic's speed was reduced just a bit when he's performing these moves, there might be something here where you could actually enjoy the platforming of the 8-bit games while also having the benefits of his modern 2D kit. There's so much potential here, and I want to see this team continue to get better and better as more games come out from them. That being said, if Sonic 3 8-bit has any springs in its special stages, it might be well and truly Joever.

I mean, it's fine?

I feel like giving 8-bit Sonic all of his modern abilities completely demolishes any challenges these levels once had, you're going to be completely demolishing these levels in less than a minute consistently with the exception of Labyrinth considering that it's, you know, Labyrinth. Having the entire Mania Plus crew playable is pretty charming, though.

While it is fun to blast through the new zones without a care in the world, the big complaint I have with this fan remake is that the method to obtain the Chaos Emeralds has been completely altered, and while it's novel to see Sonic 1's 8-bit bonus stages turned into full-on special stages at first, they're all so insanely easy that you'll have Super Sonic by pretty early into the game. It's also a shame if you preferred how Sonic 1's Master System counterpart handled emerald collecting, with one emerald being hidden away in every zone rewarding exploration by the player. It also makes an already easy game even easier that once you have all seven emeralds, every act now starts with a giant ring that grants you 50 rings upon collecting, giving you immediate access to your character's super form; that being said, it is worth noting that Sonic 2's remake would go on to partially remove this feature, which is nice.

This game ultimately feels like it applied a Sonic Advance 2 mindset to the 8-bit Sonic games, with any ideas of platforming being tossed out the window in favor of making you insanely batshit fast at any given moment--you just need to take one look at the incredibly buffed Drop Dash to see that. But hey, that doesn't make it bad, it can be fun to take these familiar zones and snap them in half just to see how hard they break when you introduce all these new movement options. It's not a bad remake, but it definitely doesn't overtake the original as a platformer in any definitive way outside of the increased 16:9 aspect ratio which is always appreciated in old Sonic games. Bridge Zone Act 2 is still an auto-scroller, though. That could've been fixed.