(!)Played on Steam via the SADX Mod Manager. This included making the game widescreen, Dreamcast conversion, etc

Sonic's first traditional outing in a 3D setting (not counting Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R) is still pretty good even to this day! This game still has, for better or worse, something that modern 3D Sonic games don't and that being multiple characters. Most Sonic games nowadays just have you play as the titular hedgehog, but you have 5 whole other options here and each character has their own moveset and campaign to go through after (or during) Sonic's story

Speaking of, the plot SA is the pretty standard formula of Eggman is trying to harness an evil power so Sonic has to stop him, but what makes it unique from other games is how the story is told. Characters keep popping in and out of Sonic's story, but you never really get the full scope of the story until you've played through all 6 characters. You can find a pretty nifty visualization here (spoilers ofc)

That being said, its definitely not flawless. While everyone's stories overall I would say are pretty different, there are sometimes where they overlap a little too much for my liking. Meaning that if you want to get the full story, you need to fight the same boss 3 or so times with different characters and that's a little boring ngl. Not every story is made equal too, while Sonic and Knuckles' stories are perfectly fine, E-102 Gamma and Big's are severely lacking in any actual involvement in the overall narrative. I understand that Big's (really awful gameplay-wise btw) story is mainly a shitpost, Gamma not really being a part of anything was a little unfortunate

Anyway, story aside now. Gameplay wise, I would say that this game as a hit overall. I've only ever played the boost games so I was worried about how controlling Sonic would feel super awful and slippery, but I was pleasantly surprised! You can actually make slight adjustments to your movements now without Sonic slipping and sliding all over the place. Granted, some gameplay gimmicks are a little annoying. Apart from Big's whole story which has been shat on since 1998, a couple level specific gimmicks are pretty bad too. The ice stalagmites in Ice Cap Zone, the tilting mechanic in Egg Carrier, both flying stages, etc. These all take away from the gameplay a fair bit imo

One thing that later games do improve on that I think was kinda bad here is the homing attack. Sonic's homing attack is the definition of okay. Later games add a reticle and thank goodness they do, because 8/10 times the homing attack is responsive, but the other 2 times you will end up losing a life because Sonic went where you didn't want him to go and that's frustrating. That combined with this game's worst aspect: the camera

Now, I admit that this might be because of the mods I had installed, but the camera in this game is fucking awful at times. There is a certain part in Amy's story where I lost 4 lives because the camera was in a fixed position incredibly far away from her and I just end up walking off the platform. Ofc, this is not to mention the several other times throughout my playthrough where the camera just got stuck or clipped into walls completely obstructing my view of anything which definitely pissed me off for a bit

But if there was one thing I had to highlight in this review specifically, is the goddamn Egg Viper boss fight. Happens near the end of Sonic's story and this is probably the worst and most unfair boss fight I've played in awhile. What's crazy is that the boss isn't even that hard, its just that 80% of the time your homing attacks don't fucking work. I have GRAZED Doctor Eggman's eyeballs several times throughout that fight because of how close I was to him, but still never did any damage because the game registered that homing attack as a miss. Screw the Egg Viper seriously

That being said, I would still say that this is a good Sonic game. Definitely not timeless, its a little aged in a couple areas here and there, but overall still a fun experience. Likely would not go back to it all too much tho

I've literally played all the other Arkham games, but NEVER got around to the one that started it all, funny enough. So a good amount of this review is really just comparing it to what comes later, while still acknowledging the game based on its own standalone merits

But yeah, this shit rocks. I can 100% see 10 year old me getting lost in this game had I played it when it was new, everything from the atmosphere, music, gameplay, it all works together to really make you, say it with me now, feel like Batman

While freeflow combat and predator sections absolutely revolutionized gaming as a whole, its obviously pretty bare bones here compared to what came later. In fact, it started out pretty frustrating, but actually ended up like a pretty fun challenge not having access to knife counters, cape stun beatdowns, etc

What AA makes up for that the rest of the franchise seemed to lose overtime is atmosphere. Arkham Asylum is filled to the brim with detail and love. It's the most comic-booky out of the Arkham franchise (later games being more its own thing), and it works wonders with fleshing out the world that its set in.

The only honest to god issues I have with the game is that some of the level design is ass sometimes. Its really the only metroidvania in the main series, so its a little annoying when navigating some areas aren't as smooth as they should be with really weird placements of ledges and grapple points

Another SUPER big issue (that they fix in the sequels, thank GOD) is that not every interactable object is highlighted in detective mode. Doors and some collectibles just don't show up and its insanely frustrating to find some things and progress without knowing where the fuck to go. I spent 20 minutes wandering around the same place, because the placement of the doors were so obscure and painted the same color as the rest of the wall

Other than being a little dated, this is still an amazing game and I'm glad I finally got around to playing it after all this time!

Pretty good! It is a pretty short game, most people finishing it in around 40 mins to an hour, I finished it in around an hour and 30 because I was messing around the place a bit

The story is definitely a highlight and maybe I was just a little slow to catch on, but the ending was quite unexpected, but in a good way. (I'm being vague about it to avoid spoilers, however there are already a couple Backloggd reviews on here that aren't tagged, so be weary of that I guess). This just gives the game a replayability factor of at least one more playthrough once you understand what's going on

I've seen some people on here describe this game as a walking sim, and they're kinda right? But not entirely... In terms of walking sims, it's more akin to something like Firewatch and less like Gone Home or Edith Finch. Like in Firewatch, you get to play through these "scenarios" where a majority of the gameplay really just consists of listening to two people talk to each other, there are a couple mini games sprinkled here and there, but overall, its very light on gameplay

In terms of gameplay, the most fun I had was trying to break some of the scenarios by screwing around and clipping into things. The funniest instance was when I was able to get on top of the dude's car while he was having a serious conversation with the farmer (the player)

There's really not much else to say tbh. The writing and voice acting are pretty stellar, but this game really could have used more memorable music. That's probably the only thing it was lacking-- experience-wise, anyway. Graphics were okay too

Overall, I'd say its well made, but just "okay" in the grand scheme of games similar to this. Still enjoyed it tho! I guess final thoughts are that this game is ridiculously easy to 100%. I don't even care about achievements all too much, but I got a good bulk of it in my first playthrough so I'd say go for this one, achievement hunters!