IriidaV
2009
Played via the UK PSN release on a Vita OLED model.
I'm sure this is a great game on the original Wii release but on the Vita it's an imprecise mess. The gyroscope controls feel jittery and improperly calibrated so you end up missing every fifth projectile that comes your way. Music and visuals are great but I couldn't last more than 10 minutes and a couple restarts in the vain hope my Vita would behave itself.
I'm sure this is a great game on the original Wii release but on the Vita it's an imprecise mess. The gyroscope controls feel jittery and improperly calibrated so you end up missing every fifth projectile that comes your way. Music and visuals are great but I couldn't last more than 10 minutes and a couple restarts in the vain hope my Vita would behave itself.
2017
Played via the UK PSN release on a Vita OLED model.
I don't know how many Sometimes You-published games I've played at this point but it seems there's a consistent theme of "1-2 hour long games people really wanted to make but lack solid polish, resulting in the feeling of a forgotten iPod Touch game from 2011" and Planet RIX-13 is no exception. Everything about this game is just kind of there, be it the narrative, the art direction, the audio or the gameplay. I wouldn't describe this as a bad game since it kept me engaged for the hour and ten I played it for but I also can't recommend it either due to the lack of any real substance.
I don't know how many Sometimes You-published games I've played at this point but it seems there's a consistent theme of "1-2 hour long games people really wanted to make but lack solid polish, resulting in the feeling of a forgotten iPod Touch game from 2011" and Planet RIX-13 is no exception. Everything about this game is just kind of there, be it the narrative, the art direction, the audio or the gameplay. I wouldn't describe this as a bad game since it kept me engaged for the hour and ten I played it for but I also can't recommend it either due to the lack of any real substance.
1994
Played via Eukaryot's Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited add-on for the Steam Sonic 3&K release on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070).
I don't feel like I'd be particularly fair if I were to give this a score so I won't. For whatever reason I really didn't care for my time with this half of the 3&K experience. It took me just shy of 4 weeks from starting the game and making my way through the first couple of stages to go back and finish the damn thing and I really was forcing myself at points. Maybe I'm burnt out from Sonic after completing Frontiers twice through back to back or maybe I'm just not in the 2D platformer mindset of late but either way this was a struggle. I was thankful at least that due to Eukaryot's S3AIR release that I didn't have to care about lives or continues or such because I died a lot in the later areas and usually to really stupid mistakes too.
For whatever reason I found the level design frustrating and I think it's because unlike newer Sonic fan games like Fallen Star you can't just blast your way through them, there is an element of caution and timing you have to keep in mind and I definitely was not keeping that in mind.
So this will be a "come back to later when I'm actually in the mood for some old school gaming" for me so I can form an actual proper opinion on it as opposed to half-arsed ramblings.
I don't feel like I'd be particularly fair if I were to give this a score so I won't. For whatever reason I really didn't care for my time with this half of the 3&K experience. It took me just shy of 4 weeks from starting the game and making my way through the first couple of stages to go back and finish the damn thing and I really was forcing myself at points. Maybe I'm burnt out from Sonic after completing Frontiers twice through back to back or maybe I'm just not in the 2D platformer mindset of late but either way this was a struggle. I was thankful at least that due to Eukaryot's S3AIR release that I didn't have to care about lives or continues or such because I died a lot in the later areas and usually to really stupid mistakes too.
For whatever reason I found the level design frustrating and I think it's because unlike newer Sonic fan games like Fallen Star you can't just blast your way through them, there is an element of caution and timing you have to keep in mind and I definitely was not keeping that in mind.
So this will be a "come back to later when I'm actually in the mood for some old school gaming" for me so I can form an actual proper opinion on it as opposed to half-arsed ramblings.
2022
Played via Steam on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070).
My second playthrough, this time on hard mode and the honeymoon period is starting to wear off for me. Don't get me wrong, I still believe this is probably Sonic Team's best effort since Unleashed, definitely their best game since the Adventure games (at least from a narrative and design concept standpoint) but the annoyances I was vaguely aware the first time round have only intensified over a "do everything that's on offer in the game + hard mode" run.
First off I still enjoy the story - actually injecting a strong narrative with great sense of character and arcs (plus throwing the occasional lore bone out to long time fans) was an incredibly refreshing experience in a Sonic game. Obvious props to comic writer Ian Flynn for the script but also shout out to Sonic Team for actually going back to this method of story-telling and filling in the timeline gaps of Sonic's world. It got a little muddied towards the end (and The End, it's still really unclear what it actually was outside of ~strange alien being~) as it wasn't clarified how much the characters actually pieced together alongside the implications of past events and the general narrative itself just seemed to be cutting corners.
The art direction and it's sense of realism still seems to be garnering criticism (despite earlier 3D Sonic titles aiming for a similar aesthetic and the highly successful Mario Odyssey doing the same but hey ho) but the open zones themselves look incredibly beautiful accompanied by the lighting system driven by the day/night and weather cycles. The one negative I have to say is about the weird pixelated rain effects on characters - maybe there's an anti-aliasing effect missing in the current build but it currently looks distracting ugly at times. Maybe kicking the game off with a grey, rainy backdrop in a generic grassy/rock setting wasn't the best showcase for Sonic Team's aim in Frontiers but there are some spectacular shots in this game, even during the cutscenes when all the in-game lighting is still in effect. The repetition of Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and City Escape level assets in the Cyber Space levels are wearing extremely thin at this point though and it's high time Sonic Team moved away from nostalgic call backs for a good long while. Character models look fine - I honestly can't really tell if anyone outside of Sonic has really gotten anything besides a boost in polygon fidelity since Generations but at least Sonic himself has some nice shaders on his fur alongside bloodflow highlights when the sun shines on him. Also shoutout to for my man Big for finally getting the HD treatment after a long absence.
Animation is where things get iffy - the effort for cutscenes still feels stuck in the days of Unleashed. Sonic and pals still emote with their eyelids more than their brows for some godforsaken reason and the scenes where Eggman is walking look comically bad - the man needs some adjusted proportions or proper effort put into him. Basic dialogue interactions between characters can also bug out with no lip syncing and the last cutscene featured some incredibly awkward facial reactions. Sometimes you'll get to a certain point along the journey where the game will cut to other characters for a cutscene, before finishing the cutscene and starting a new on with that exact same character but obviously much later than when we left them. It made for very awkward pacing at times and just felt like the story beats weren't as polished as they could have been. There were a few minor highlights however, with closeup shots on Sonic's reactionary body language and some of Eggman's final moments in the game during key story beats being standouts, but these were really few and far between and nothing done here couldn't have been done several console generations ago.
The gameplay itself feels good and addicting - it's fun to control Sonic in this game, with a suite of tweaks at your disposal to get the feel just right, and blasting off across the environments was always a delight. There were a couple of issues I had though, mainly some inconsistencies with how momentum would be handled. Running around terrain usually keeps you fairly locked to the ground geometry, even when seemingly running off a cliff, but there were always occasional moments where for no real explicable reason you'd get launched into the trick state through the air. If there was some obvious visual indicator to help me recognise where I could do this deliberately it would have lent a fuller sense of control but the lack of it resulted in a Sonic that always felt like a bit of a wild card when running at full pelt. The jump killing all momentum was another issue that sometimes appeared, sometimes didn't, and I found the only real reliable method of travel where I knew I could do exactly what I wanted was when grinding and boost-jumping. Still, it was satisfying to have familiar boost gameplay in "open zones" here.
I don't really have much to say about the combat - it can be as boring or as fast-paced as you want depending on what skills you unlock and how much you choose to memorise. I found it a reasonable attempt at some DMC-style action but it could do with some tweaking if future games continue with this gameplay in mind.
Same lack of real criticism for the audio design and soundtrack. The game sounds amazing at all times and always has a strong handle on what kind of mood it wants to put the player in. Tomoya Ohtani returns once again to lead the music department and the results are a nice change of pace from the previous games, with lulling ambient orchestral tracks for the open zones, EDM-fueled upbeat tunes for the traditional Cyber Space levels, and some surprising screamo metal songs for the bosses. It's a strange mix of genres but it really elevates the experience and makes the game a bit more unique to the "Breath of the Wild clone" a lot of people wrote it off as originally.
The designs of the Cyber Space levels are mixed - there are a few unique standouts but a lot of them take their level layouts from prior Sonic titles. This could have been neat as a 30th Anniversary celebration titles maybe, but combined with the 4 level aesthetics, Generations being 3 games ago and Forces already having gone heavy on the pointless nostalgia, it feels unnecessary. It's obvious the majority of design went into the Starfall Islands themselves with the Cyber Space levels maybe having gotten relegated to the backburner, but they almost feel like Sonic Team treated them like an obligation to meet rather than something to designate proper time and effort into. The designs of the Open Zones feel surprisingly natural - obviously not entirely given the state of grind rails, boost pads and springs being littered all over the grounded environments but it all aids in your traversal and it's enjoyable to see where certain paths will take you. Sonic Team still seems to have an insistence on changing camera angles for 2D styles of platforming however which I was never entirely fond of. Occasionally it tilts the camera towards the direction Sonic is running which I found helped a lot but there were also instances where I was traversing an open zone and would suddenly get locked into a 2D platforming area. Since these areas are designed with only X and Y movement in mind, escape can be impossible at times beyond just completing the puzzle you've stumbled into. Stumbling across enemies can be frustrating too, with certain enemy types locking you into a forced combat scenario, although even more annoying is the complete disabling of the map button whenever an enemy has been approached and their health bar is still on screen. This can lead to instances where you're trying to sprint in a direction away from an enemy so you can check where tokens are but the game just refuses to let you by ensuring more enemies are around.
By far the most inconsistent part of the game was the levelling system. boosting attack values was fine and even fun to mow down tougher enemies from earlier in single hits, but the addition of a defence stat when the ring system is still in place felt unnecessary. Upgrading the speed stat to higher levels was great but having the max ring count start at 400 with a cap of 999 felt excessive. Upgrading attack and defence stats are a breeze however, approaching the appropriate vendor and cycling through the couple stages of dialogue and a small animatic which allows you to upgrade both at the same time. Upgrading speed and ring count is where Sonic Team entirely lost me, featuring a similar vendor but instead forcing you to sit through the same amount of dialogue and short animatic for each stat's individual levels - meaning you have to select if you want to upgrade speed or rings each time for each level, and the lack of any "skip" functionality to make the process faster is non-existent. If anything desperately needs changed in this game it's this by a long country mile and only serves to waste literal minutes at a time whenever you choose to upgrade those stats.
Despite my grievances, Sonic Frontiers is genuinely a good game, but perhaps not a great one. It's a great Sonic game and that in of itself is kind of sad to think about but if Sonic Team keeps on this course of new design ideas, narrative concepts and ambitious approaches again then I have no doubt this will be seen as a curious precursor to some great new Sonic games.
My second playthrough, this time on hard mode and the honeymoon period is starting to wear off for me. Don't get me wrong, I still believe this is probably Sonic Team's best effort since Unleashed, definitely their best game since the Adventure games (at least from a narrative and design concept standpoint) but the annoyances I was vaguely aware the first time round have only intensified over a "do everything that's on offer in the game + hard mode" run.
First off I still enjoy the story - actually injecting a strong narrative with great sense of character and arcs (plus throwing the occasional lore bone out to long time fans) was an incredibly refreshing experience in a Sonic game. Obvious props to comic writer Ian Flynn for the script but also shout out to Sonic Team for actually going back to this method of story-telling and filling in the timeline gaps of Sonic's world. It got a little muddied towards the end (and The End, it's still really unclear what it actually was outside of ~strange alien being~) as it wasn't clarified how much the characters actually pieced together alongside the implications of past events and the general narrative itself just seemed to be cutting corners.
The art direction and it's sense of realism still seems to be garnering criticism (despite earlier 3D Sonic titles aiming for a similar aesthetic and the highly successful Mario Odyssey doing the same but hey ho) but the open zones themselves look incredibly beautiful accompanied by the lighting system driven by the day/night and weather cycles. The one negative I have to say is about the weird pixelated rain effects on characters - maybe there's an anti-aliasing effect missing in the current build but it currently looks distracting ugly at times. Maybe kicking the game off with a grey, rainy backdrop in a generic grassy/rock setting wasn't the best showcase for Sonic Team's aim in Frontiers but there are some spectacular shots in this game, even during the cutscenes when all the in-game lighting is still in effect. The repetition of Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and City Escape level assets in the Cyber Space levels are wearing extremely thin at this point though and it's high time Sonic Team moved away from nostalgic call backs for a good long while. Character models look fine - I honestly can't really tell if anyone outside of Sonic has really gotten anything besides a boost in polygon fidelity since Generations but at least Sonic himself has some nice shaders on his fur alongside bloodflow highlights when the sun shines on him. Also shoutout to for my man Big for finally getting the HD treatment after a long absence.
Animation is where things get iffy - the effort for cutscenes still feels stuck in the days of Unleashed. Sonic and pals still emote with their eyelids more than their brows for some godforsaken reason and the scenes where Eggman is walking look comically bad - the man needs some adjusted proportions or proper effort put into him. Basic dialogue interactions between characters can also bug out with no lip syncing and the last cutscene featured some incredibly awkward facial reactions. Sometimes you'll get to a certain point along the journey where the game will cut to other characters for a cutscene, before finishing the cutscene and starting a new on with that exact same character but obviously much later than when we left them. It made for very awkward pacing at times and just felt like the story beats weren't as polished as they could have been. There were a few minor highlights however, with closeup shots on Sonic's reactionary body language and some of Eggman's final moments in the game during key story beats being standouts, but these were really few and far between and nothing done here couldn't have been done several console generations ago.
The gameplay itself feels good and addicting - it's fun to control Sonic in this game, with a suite of tweaks at your disposal to get the feel just right, and blasting off across the environments was always a delight. There were a couple of issues I had though, mainly some inconsistencies with how momentum would be handled. Running around terrain usually keeps you fairly locked to the ground geometry, even when seemingly running off a cliff, but there were always occasional moments where for no real explicable reason you'd get launched into the trick state through the air. If there was some obvious visual indicator to help me recognise where I could do this deliberately it would have lent a fuller sense of control but the lack of it resulted in a Sonic that always felt like a bit of a wild card when running at full pelt. The jump killing all momentum was another issue that sometimes appeared, sometimes didn't, and I found the only real reliable method of travel where I knew I could do exactly what I wanted was when grinding and boost-jumping. Still, it was satisfying to have familiar boost gameplay in "open zones" here.
I don't really have much to say about the combat - it can be as boring or as fast-paced as you want depending on what skills you unlock and how much you choose to memorise. I found it a reasonable attempt at some DMC-style action but it could do with some tweaking if future games continue with this gameplay in mind.
Same lack of real criticism for the audio design and soundtrack. The game sounds amazing at all times and always has a strong handle on what kind of mood it wants to put the player in. Tomoya Ohtani returns once again to lead the music department and the results are a nice change of pace from the previous games, with lulling ambient orchestral tracks for the open zones, EDM-fueled upbeat tunes for the traditional Cyber Space levels, and some surprising screamo metal songs for the bosses. It's a strange mix of genres but it really elevates the experience and makes the game a bit more unique to the "Breath of the Wild clone" a lot of people wrote it off as originally.
The designs of the Cyber Space levels are mixed - there are a few unique standouts but a lot of them take their level layouts from prior Sonic titles. This could have been neat as a 30th Anniversary celebration titles maybe, but combined with the 4 level aesthetics, Generations being 3 games ago and Forces already having gone heavy on the pointless nostalgia, it feels unnecessary. It's obvious the majority of design went into the Starfall Islands themselves with the Cyber Space levels maybe having gotten relegated to the backburner, but they almost feel like Sonic Team treated them like an obligation to meet rather than something to designate proper time and effort into. The designs of the Open Zones feel surprisingly natural - obviously not entirely given the state of grind rails, boost pads and springs being littered all over the grounded environments but it all aids in your traversal and it's enjoyable to see where certain paths will take you. Sonic Team still seems to have an insistence on changing camera angles for 2D styles of platforming however which I was never entirely fond of. Occasionally it tilts the camera towards the direction Sonic is running which I found helped a lot but there were also instances where I was traversing an open zone and would suddenly get locked into a 2D platforming area. Since these areas are designed with only X and Y movement in mind, escape can be impossible at times beyond just completing the puzzle you've stumbled into. Stumbling across enemies can be frustrating too, with certain enemy types locking you into a forced combat scenario, although even more annoying is the complete disabling of the map button whenever an enemy has been approached and their health bar is still on screen. This can lead to instances where you're trying to sprint in a direction away from an enemy so you can check where tokens are but the game just refuses to let you by ensuring more enemies are around.
By far the most inconsistent part of the game was the levelling system. boosting attack values was fine and even fun to mow down tougher enemies from earlier in single hits, but the addition of a defence stat when the ring system is still in place felt unnecessary. Upgrading the speed stat to higher levels was great but having the max ring count start at 400 with a cap of 999 felt excessive. Upgrading attack and defence stats are a breeze however, approaching the appropriate vendor and cycling through the couple stages of dialogue and a small animatic which allows you to upgrade both at the same time. Upgrading speed and ring count is where Sonic Team entirely lost me, featuring a similar vendor but instead forcing you to sit through the same amount of dialogue and short animatic for each stat's individual levels - meaning you have to select if you want to upgrade speed or rings each time for each level, and the lack of any "skip" functionality to make the process faster is non-existent. If anything desperately needs changed in this game it's this by a long country mile and only serves to waste literal minutes at a time whenever you choose to upgrade those stats.
Despite my grievances, Sonic Frontiers is genuinely a good game, but perhaps not a great one. It's a great Sonic game and that in of itself is kind of sad to think about but if Sonic Team keeps on this course of new design ideas, narrative concepts and ambitious approaches again then I have no doubt this will be seen as a curious precursor to some great new Sonic games.
2022
Played via Steam on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070).
Sonic Frontiers is probably Sonic Team's finest work since Generations. If I was in the industry of selling some particularly spicy takes I'd argue it's their finest game since Adventure 2 and at least their most ambitious since Unleashed.
As much as this still bears the resemblance of a "hire this man, Sega" Unreal Engine fan project, Frontiers manages to toe a line between some well-refined boost gameplay from the past 14 years of Sonic games and bold new ideas for the franchise with it's "open zone" approach. It borrows a lot from contemporary games such as Breath of the Wild, maybe too much at times, but it manages to carve it's own niche and appeal to make it stand out. The visual design of the game may feel jarring at first glance but the mass of rails scattered across the landscape does have an explanation whilst the lighting on display coupled with day/night and weather cycles make this the prettiest 3D Sonic game yet. Traversing across the environments can be incredibly satisfying, with a variety of abilities at your disposal to hop around obstacles and keep your momentum as high as possible whilst the addition of Devil May Cry-style combo-fueled fighting mechanics is surprisingly fun and fast-paced, with the speed that you would expect a Sonic game to bring to the idea.
Cyberspace as a gameplay concept is fairly solid with the one big caveat being the recycling of 4 aesthetical themes (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Angel Island and City Escape(?)). The level designs themselves are also all ripped from prior titles and makes Frontiers almost feel like a Generations 2 in a way. They're not exact 1:1 matches, often featuring minor changes to accommodate some of the specific mechanics those games had but they are there and whilst I would usually find it lazy, it was very fun trying to identify them.
The story features a return to to the 00s method of Sonic narratives, with a mysterious enemy that threatens the destruction of everything whilst Sonic has to work with his friends to bring it down, all with terrific writing from long-time Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn who brings as much gravitas and maturity that you can to a story about a fast anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. The score is wholly remarkable with grand, sweeping orchestral tunes in the "open zones", fast-paced and catchy EDM for the traditional Sonic stages, and surprisingly awesome 00s screamo rock for the bosses. Rumour is the OST will have 6 CDs and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it drops in December.
Is this a perfect 10/10 GOTY game? Absolutely not. The sad fact is this is the best Sonic game made by Sonic Team we've gotten in years and it's not entirely jankless. LOD popping can vary between a mild nuisance to aggravatingly immersion-breaking. 2D platforming puzzles in the open zones can lock you into their paths, making it very difficult to escape if you just so happened to wonder into it by accident. Small cutscenes such as the star showers, Sonic hitting max ring count to unlock a faster boost mode, and guardian mini-boss introductions can interrupt the gameplay for a few seconds at a time and either distract you or drop you like a stone in the middle of air traversal. These last couple of complaints don't happen often, but they are worth mentioning.
Sonic Frontiers' probably isn't in the top tier of video games released this year but it's problems are far-outweighed by what it does right. It provides an incredibly solid foundation of which Sonic Team could build the next era of Sonic games off of if done correctly and I hope they don't throw it all away and start from scratch like they've done all too often. If you've enjoyed a Sonic title in the past then I would highly recommend checking this entry out. It's an incredibly fun time and highly accessible to newcomers whilst also throwing a lot of lore bones to the older Sonic fans out there.
Sonic Frontiers is probably Sonic Team's finest work since Generations. If I was in the industry of selling some particularly spicy takes I'd argue it's their finest game since Adventure 2 and at least their most ambitious since Unleashed.
As much as this still bears the resemblance of a "hire this man, Sega" Unreal Engine fan project, Frontiers manages to toe a line between some well-refined boost gameplay from the past 14 years of Sonic games and bold new ideas for the franchise with it's "open zone" approach. It borrows a lot from contemporary games such as Breath of the Wild, maybe too much at times, but it manages to carve it's own niche and appeal to make it stand out. The visual design of the game may feel jarring at first glance but the mass of rails scattered across the landscape does have an explanation whilst the lighting on display coupled with day/night and weather cycles make this the prettiest 3D Sonic game yet. Traversing across the environments can be incredibly satisfying, with a variety of abilities at your disposal to hop around obstacles and keep your momentum as high as possible whilst the addition of Devil May Cry-style combo-fueled fighting mechanics is surprisingly fun and fast-paced, with the speed that you would expect a Sonic game to bring to the idea.
Cyberspace as a gameplay concept is fairly solid with the one big caveat being the recycling of 4 aesthetical themes (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Angel Island and City Escape(?)). The level designs themselves are also all ripped from prior titles and makes Frontiers almost feel like a Generations 2 in a way. They're not exact 1:1 matches, often featuring minor changes to accommodate some of the specific mechanics those games had but they are there and whilst I would usually find it lazy, it was very fun trying to identify them.
The story features a return to to the 00s method of Sonic narratives, with a mysterious enemy that threatens the destruction of everything whilst Sonic has to work with his friends to bring it down, all with terrific writing from long-time Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn who brings as much gravitas and maturity that you can to a story about a fast anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. The score is wholly remarkable with grand, sweeping orchestral tunes in the "open zones", fast-paced and catchy EDM for the traditional Sonic stages, and surprisingly awesome 00s screamo rock for the bosses. Rumour is the OST will have 6 CDs and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it drops in December.
Is this a perfect 10/10 GOTY game? Absolutely not. The sad fact is this is the best Sonic game made by Sonic Team we've gotten in years and it's not entirely jankless. LOD popping can vary between a mild nuisance to aggravatingly immersion-breaking. 2D platforming puzzles in the open zones can lock you into their paths, making it very difficult to escape if you just so happened to wonder into it by accident. Small cutscenes such as the star showers, Sonic hitting max ring count to unlock a faster boost mode, and guardian mini-boss introductions can interrupt the gameplay for a few seconds at a time and either distract you or drop you like a stone in the middle of air traversal. These last couple of complaints don't happen often, but they are worth mentioning.
Sonic Frontiers' probably isn't in the top tier of video games released this year but it's problems are far-outweighed by what it does right. It provides an incredibly solid foundation of which Sonic Team could build the next era of Sonic games off of if done correctly and I hope they don't throw it all away and start from scratch like they've done all too often. If you've enjoyed a Sonic title in the past then I would highly recommend checking this entry out. It's an incredibly fun time and highly accessible to newcomers whilst also throwing a lot of lore bones to the older Sonic fans out there.
1994
Played via Eukaryot's Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited add-on for the Steam Sonic 3&K release on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070).
My childhood Sonic game was Sonic 2. I think I was vaguely aware 3 & Knuckles existed but it was a game I was never able to play until the Mega Collection compilations, and even then I kinda just dabbled in Angel Island Zone and Hydrocity Zone. And whilst I do love Sonic 2, it was always the 3D Dreamcast Adventure games that held a place in my heart, so exploring one of the "definitive" Sonic games according to fans leaves a weird taste in my mouth.
This game is great with some caveats. The art and soundtrack (uncertain if I had the original playing in the A.I.R. release) were both a great technical improvement over Sonic 2's efforts, with upgraded sprite models for our protagonists and even more lavish environments with fantastic details on display no matter what zone you're in. The soundtrack is also a welcome change from Masato Nakamura's Japanese pop, instead opting for American pop with Michael Jackson, injecting a bit more of the rebellious 'tude Sonic was so famous for at this time.
It's when I start thinking about the level design that my attention starts to waver however. I can definitely say I enjoyed the transitions, the mini cutscenes and Angel Island Zone and Launch Base Zone were genuinely fun, but honestly the others wavered between "good" to "oh god just make it stop" for me, with the first act of Ice Cap Zone and the entirety of Carnival Night Zone being especially guilty. It felt like there was too much crap thrown into these levels designed to waste your time and the gameplay devolved into a slog. If I was playing this on original hardware or just via a bare-bones emulated version without the option for infinite lives I don't doubt I would have given up at some point in the mid to late game and I just can't be arsed making the time for original experiences like that unless I want to challenge myself with a game I know I like.
I'll hold my breath out for the & Knuckles half, but Sonic 3 on it's own had some genuine greatness accompanied by some genuine crapness. A couple more replays could maybe get me to appreciate it more but as a first time experience, boy, Carnival Night and Ice Cap (Act 1) can bugger off.
Stats:
End Points: 131310
Chaos Emeralds: 4
Lost lives: 15
Time Overs: 2
My childhood Sonic game was Sonic 2. I think I was vaguely aware 3 & Knuckles existed but it was a game I was never able to play until the Mega Collection compilations, and even then I kinda just dabbled in Angel Island Zone and Hydrocity Zone. And whilst I do love Sonic 2, it was always the 3D Dreamcast Adventure games that held a place in my heart, so exploring one of the "definitive" Sonic games according to fans leaves a weird taste in my mouth.
This game is great with some caveats. The art and soundtrack (uncertain if I had the original playing in the A.I.R. release) were both a great technical improvement over Sonic 2's efforts, with upgraded sprite models for our protagonists and even more lavish environments with fantastic details on display no matter what zone you're in. The soundtrack is also a welcome change from Masato Nakamura's Japanese pop, instead opting for American pop with Michael Jackson, injecting a bit more of the rebellious 'tude Sonic was so famous for at this time.
It's when I start thinking about the level design that my attention starts to waver however. I can definitely say I enjoyed the transitions, the mini cutscenes and Angel Island Zone and Launch Base Zone were genuinely fun, but honestly the others wavered between "good" to "oh god just make it stop" for me, with the first act of Ice Cap Zone and the entirety of Carnival Night Zone being especially guilty. It felt like there was too much crap thrown into these levels designed to waste your time and the gameplay devolved into a slog. If I was playing this on original hardware or just via a bare-bones emulated version without the option for infinite lives I don't doubt I would have given up at some point in the mid to late game and I just can't be arsed making the time for original experiences like that unless I want to challenge myself with a game I know I like.
I'll hold my breath out for the & Knuckles half, but Sonic 3 on it's own had some genuine greatness accompanied by some genuine crapness. A couple more replays could maybe get me to appreciate it more but as a first time experience, boy, Carnival Night and Ice Cap (Act 1) can bugger off.
Stats:
End Points: 131310
Chaos Emeralds: 4
Lost lives: 15
Time Overs: 2
Played via v1.1.1 release on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070).
It's a disservice to simply say this is one of the best Sonic fan games out there, because this title manages to sit comfortably alongside the original Mega Drive entries and Mania. Top notch level design that captures the perfect feeling of speeding through lush and colourful environments almost aimlessly like those classic games of before without the needless complexity of CD and nostalgic callbacks of Mania. Some of the enemies are frustrating whilst almost all of the bosses are stupidly straightforward and I'd be harsher on these aspects if the old games weren't similarly guilty of this.
The art direction and soundtrack however are damn near flawless, each of the creators injecting their own flavour to their respective roles whilst keeping it undeniably Sonic. There's no substantial way I can fault either of these facets and they are a key element to making this game as approachable and attractive as it is.
If this were unveiled to be an old official project that someone blew the cobwebs off and spruced it up I feel I'd hardly question it. This is a solid videogame and a superb Sonic game with my only wish that it would be possible to have it ported to more systems.
It's a disservice to simply say this is one of the best Sonic fan games out there, because this title manages to sit comfortably alongside the original Mega Drive entries and Mania. Top notch level design that captures the perfect feeling of speeding through lush and colourful environments almost aimlessly like those classic games of before without the needless complexity of CD and nostalgic callbacks of Mania. Some of the enemies are frustrating whilst almost all of the bosses are stupidly straightforward and I'd be harsher on these aspects if the old games weren't similarly guilty of this.
The art direction and soundtrack however are damn near flawless, each of the creators injecting their own flavour to their respective roles whilst keeping it undeniably Sonic. There's no substantial way I can fault either of these facets and they are a key element to making this game as approachable and attractive as it is.
If this were unveiled to be an old official project that someone blew the cobwebs off and spruced it up I feel I'd hardly question it. This is a solid videogame and a superb Sonic game with my only wish that it would be possible to have it ported to more systems.
2021
Played via the Xbox Store version on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070)
A year ago I bought and played Sable on launch on my trusty Xbox One X. I had bought the console recently, half as a way of exploring Microsoft's exclusives and the cross-gen period, and half for this game. I said it in my previous review but Sable should never have been released for the Xbox One line of consoles, with a truly awful presentation in performance all round.
On a beefy PC, Sable handles significantly better, albeit not without it's fair share of issues. The more you run the game for a single play session, the more likelihood of the framerate slowly tanking, with my initial startup giving me around 100fps and then the game managing to slow down to the teens before I'd had to close and restart the game. The audio stutters are a consistent issue here too and can vary from mildly irritating to frustratingly annoying depending on the sound effects played via things like your bike setup and the clothes you're wearing. The dialogue selection menu can bugger up sometimes, soft-locking you in the conversation with no option to select a response and the pause menu refusing to respond, leaving me with the only option of closing the game via the desktop and rebooting again.
Those are just the major technical problems (there are more minor ones but I want to keep this concise) but I also ran into a couple of key design flaws with the game too.
This is wholly inspired by BotW, there's no denying it. Whatever this game started off as, the main traversal mechanics of Sable herself make a hefty nod to the Zelda franchise's highest-selling game of the entire franchise. When I originally played this game on the Xbox, I was fine with that - I hadn't played BotW after all and the wide-open world with a stamina-based "climb whatever you want" mechanic is fun as all hell. But after playing BotW for quite a reasonable chunk of time this year, Sable's design inspirations don't quite hold up as well.
One of the bigger differences here is that Sable gives no clear indication as to what can be climbed and what can't. Zelda has a clear texture in Guardian-related environments that once you try scaling once or twice you now know you can't climb them. Sable only relies on you understanding that when you're exploring old ships you cannot climb anything, no matter the texture. Fine, but frustrating when you see a new wall that looks different and vaguely like other climbable walls but isn't.
The other big difference is Sable does not indicate in the slightest that you can upgrade your stamina. I found this out within an hour or so of finishing the game, having believed up til that point that either the developers knew exactly how to perfectly design certain ledges and cliff faces to be scalable with the base stamina meter, or they just gave a rough estimate, leaving you to rely on out of the box ideas to cheese your way up to new heights. I knew the collectable chum eggs had to serve a purpose, but due to the way I explored the game world I simply didn't discover what that purpose was until near the end game.
My last complaint about Sable and it's BotW-inspired design is that there is simply nothing to do in the areas between locations. Do you see something that doesn't fit in with the rest of the environment? Mark the location and go straight there because anything else that blends in with the rest of the area you're currently in yields nothing and you will waste your time exploring. One of the many great design features of BotW was the fact you could go quite literally anywhere and find something that will help you on your journey or was just interesting to see. Sable's large open world only exists to give the player a relaxing vibe of riding through it's environments on a hover bike which is really great to see for the first five minutes and then becomes tediously boring in the second hour when you have a bike that barely goes faster than your sprinting speed and you're just holding down the acceleration button with nothing else happening for minutes at a time. Had the world been more enclosed and tighter with the long stretches of riding limited to once in a while sequences, Sable would have been a lot more memorable for me.
If this review sounds salty then I probably still am from that initial Xbox One play session. I had assumed after installing this game on a beefier PC that all my initial problems would vanish, but it seems they only lurked in the background with the purpose of slowly revealing themselves once again.
On it's presentation and story merits, I understand why Sable has gotten the acclaim it has - the visuals are simply stunning with the Moebius inspirations, and the story of self-discovery in the larger home away from your family is well-written. But from a gameplay perspective this was non-stop jank and I can't believe even after a year from launch that the game is still in the state it is today.
A year ago I bought and played Sable on launch on my trusty Xbox One X. I had bought the console recently, half as a way of exploring Microsoft's exclusives and the cross-gen period, and half for this game. I said it in my previous review but Sable should never have been released for the Xbox One line of consoles, with a truly awful presentation in performance all round.
On a beefy PC, Sable handles significantly better, albeit not without it's fair share of issues. The more you run the game for a single play session, the more likelihood of the framerate slowly tanking, with my initial startup giving me around 100fps and then the game managing to slow down to the teens before I'd had to close and restart the game. The audio stutters are a consistent issue here too and can vary from mildly irritating to frustratingly annoying depending on the sound effects played via things like your bike setup and the clothes you're wearing. The dialogue selection menu can bugger up sometimes, soft-locking you in the conversation with no option to select a response and the pause menu refusing to respond, leaving me with the only option of closing the game via the desktop and rebooting again.
Those are just the major technical problems (there are more minor ones but I want to keep this concise) but I also ran into a couple of key design flaws with the game too.
This is wholly inspired by BotW, there's no denying it. Whatever this game started off as, the main traversal mechanics of Sable herself make a hefty nod to the Zelda franchise's highest-selling game of the entire franchise. When I originally played this game on the Xbox, I was fine with that - I hadn't played BotW after all and the wide-open world with a stamina-based "climb whatever you want" mechanic is fun as all hell. But after playing BotW for quite a reasonable chunk of time this year, Sable's design inspirations don't quite hold up as well.
One of the bigger differences here is that Sable gives no clear indication as to what can be climbed and what can't. Zelda has a clear texture in Guardian-related environments that once you try scaling once or twice you now know you can't climb them. Sable only relies on you understanding that when you're exploring old ships you cannot climb anything, no matter the texture. Fine, but frustrating when you see a new wall that looks different and vaguely like other climbable walls but isn't.
The other big difference is Sable does not indicate in the slightest that you can upgrade your stamina. I found this out within an hour or so of finishing the game, having believed up til that point that either the developers knew exactly how to perfectly design certain ledges and cliff faces to be scalable with the base stamina meter, or they just gave a rough estimate, leaving you to rely on out of the box ideas to cheese your way up to new heights. I knew the collectable chum eggs had to serve a purpose, but due to the way I explored the game world I simply didn't discover what that purpose was until near the end game.
My last complaint about Sable and it's BotW-inspired design is that there is simply nothing to do in the areas between locations. Do you see something that doesn't fit in with the rest of the environment? Mark the location and go straight there because anything else that blends in with the rest of the area you're currently in yields nothing and you will waste your time exploring. One of the many great design features of BotW was the fact you could go quite literally anywhere and find something that will help you on your journey or was just interesting to see. Sable's large open world only exists to give the player a relaxing vibe of riding through it's environments on a hover bike which is really great to see for the first five minutes and then becomes tediously boring in the second hour when you have a bike that barely goes faster than your sprinting speed and you're just holding down the acceleration button with nothing else happening for minutes at a time. Had the world been more enclosed and tighter with the long stretches of riding limited to once in a while sequences, Sable would have been a lot more memorable for me.
If this review sounds salty then I probably still am from that initial Xbox One play session. I had assumed after installing this game on a beefier PC that all my initial problems would vanish, but it seems they only lurked in the background with the purpose of slowly revealing themselves once again.
On it's presentation and story merits, I understand why Sable has gotten the acclaim it has - the visuals are simply stunning with the Moebius inspirations, and the story of self-discovery in the larger home away from your family is well-written. But from a gameplay perspective this was non-stop jank and I can't believe even after a year from launch that the game is still in the state it is today.
2022
Digital copy played on a PlayStation 4 Pro.
A damn near perfect little game that doesn't demand too much of your time but has a powerful narrative with memorable characters. The visuals and sounds are luscious, even on the last generation of consoles and the gameplay is simple but fun. The world is similarly engaging although the second hub area felt like it just didn't get the attention the other two did.
My only real nitpicks were the jump prompts which could often land you somewhere else to where you wanted to go at the best of times and make you wind up dead when being chased at the worst of times.
Overall a high recommend - I only wish there were more indie games like this, focussed on cyberscapes long after humanity with robots and creatures.
A damn near perfect little game that doesn't demand too much of your time but has a powerful narrative with memorable characters. The visuals and sounds are luscious, even on the last generation of consoles and the gameplay is simple but fun. The world is similarly engaging although the second hub area felt like it just didn't get the attention the other two did.
My only real nitpicks were the jump prompts which could often land you somewhere else to where you wanted to go at the best of times and make you wind up dead when being chased at the worst of times.
Overall a high recommend - I only wish there were more indie games like this, focussed on cyberscapes long after humanity with robots and creatures.
2016
Played via the UK PSN release on a Vita OLED model.
I don't really know how to review this - it's a 5-8 minute educational game for young children about the changing of the seasons with some touch screen-based interactivity. It's cute but compared to Baba Yaga Games' other release, One Eyed Kutkh, it has a lot less gameplay elements or sense of narrative, instead focusing on a very matter-of-fact explaining of what happens during the seasons by a pleasant-sounding American woman. The art style and animation are still fairly cute and appealing with a good soundscape but 8 minutes was all I needed to figure out how to interact with the scenery and earn the full four trophies, triggering its completion.
For the full price it might be worth keeping a toddler or younger child entertained for an hour or two but Hardcore Serious Gamers™ won't be satisfied.
I don't really know how to review this - it's a 5-8 minute educational game for young children about the changing of the seasons with some touch screen-based interactivity. It's cute but compared to Baba Yaga Games' other release, One Eyed Kutkh, it has a lot less gameplay elements or sense of narrative, instead focusing on a very matter-of-fact explaining of what happens during the seasons by a pleasant-sounding American woman. The art style and animation are still fairly cute and appealing with a good soundscape but 8 minutes was all I needed to figure out how to interact with the scenery and earn the full four trophies, triggering its completion.
For the full price it might be worth keeping a toddler or younger child entertained for an hour or two but Hardcore Serious Gamers™ won't be satisfied.
Played via the itch.io release on a Lenovo Y50-70.
This review ultimately comes from someone who has only recently discovered Stranga's output within the last couple of months - their storytelling has been some of the most memorable to me in recent years (both across the AAA and indie spaces) and the art, sound and game design have always been compelling enough for me to want to play the next one I discover in their catalogue.
I genuinely believe Ashina: The Red Witch to be Stranga's finest output yet - all of their individual game design skills have been ratcheted up in this release, with fun catchy melodies and an art style that ranges from genuine eeriness to neon cityscapes and beyond. The scale of this game is much larger too, with multiple miniature "open-world" segments to explore a new environment and get to know the locals. There's not as many big "gotcha" moments with horror-fueled jumpscares and there's no risk of dying here either, which I do find to be a bit of a shame, but those seem to be sacrifices for the sake of a much tighter but also longer narrative than their previous works. This game is ultimately revealing backstories and filling in story gaps from Stranga's other games but nothing feels like obvious fan service moments or that it's being detrimental to the point of distraction.
It's not without it's technical issues - a couple of hitches in the gameplay for up to 10 seconds at a time left me to believe it had frozen a couple of times along with mild stuttering in certain levels and a few grammatical errors in the script prevent this from being a perfect release, but I can generally overlook these as minor inconveniences.
Ultimately, this has probably been my favourite game so far this year - it's a short one, roughly 3-4 hours depending on how good you are with puzzles and how much you want to revel in its atmosphere, but it's far from an empty or hollow experience, with memorable moments and a sharp script that endears you to it's characters.
This review ultimately comes from someone who has only recently discovered Stranga's output within the last couple of months - their storytelling has been some of the most memorable to me in recent years (both across the AAA and indie spaces) and the art, sound and game design have always been compelling enough for me to want to play the next one I discover in their catalogue.
I genuinely believe Ashina: The Red Witch to be Stranga's finest output yet - all of their individual game design skills have been ratcheted up in this release, with fun catchy melodies and an art style that ranges from genuine eeriness to neon cityscapes and beyond. The scale of this game is much larger too, with multiple miniature "open-world" segments to explore a new environment and get to know the locals. There's not as many big "gotcha" moments with horror-fueled jumpscares and there's no risk of dying here either, which I do find to be a bit of a shame, but those seem to be sacrifices for the sake of a much tighter but also longer narrative than their previous works. This game is ultimately revealing backstories and filling in story gaps from Stranga's other games but nothing feels like obvious fan service moments or that it's being detrimental to the point of distraction.
It's not without it's technical issues - a couple of hitches in the gameplay for up to 10 seconds at a time left me to believe it had frozen a couple of times along with mild stuttering in certain levels and a few grammatical errors in the script prevent this from being a perfect release, but I can generally overlook these as minor inconveniences.
Ultimately, this has probably been my favourite game so far this year - it's a short one, roughly 3-4 hours depending on how good you are with puzzles and how much you want to revel in its atmosphere, but it's far from an empty or hollow experience, with memorable moments and a sharp script that endears you to it's characters.
Played via arcade release
The time spent playing this with a friend, with the amazing driving and buttery-smooth drifting mechanics may have only lasted 15 minutes but the injury I sustained to my thumb by taking a hard turn and smacking it off the gear box will last significantly longer.
The time spent playing this with a friend, with the amazing driving and buttery-smooth drifting mechanics may have only lasted 15 minutes but the injury I sustained to my thumb by taking a hard turn and smacking it off the gear box will last significantly longer.
2017
Played via the UK PSN release on a Vita OLED.
This is the third Stranga Games experience I've had and I think this is quite possibly my favourite so far. Again, there's nothing ground breaking here in terms of gameplay, sound, art or narrative, but it pulls all aspects together rather cohesively you form a solid cozy horror experience that doesn't take more than a couple of hours to play through.
The puzzles are fun and relatively imaginative here but there were a couple of options I just would not have found out about without the help of a guide. The areas to explore keep your attention too with four very different levels to work through and a relatively soothing soundtrack to accompany you throughout. It also benefits from having a clearer narrative in comparison to Stranga's later efforts of My Big Sister and Red Bow although admittedly with aspects in both bad and good endings being a bit too vague again.
Overall if you're wanting to try a relatively interesting narrative-based point and click with some minor horror elements I really suggest giving this a go. It doesn't take long and it won't blow your mind but the characters are fairly memorable and the entire game is pretty chill.
This is the third Stranga Games experience I've had and I think this is quite possibly my favourite so far. Again, there's nothing ground breaking here in terms of gameplay, sound, art or narrative, but it pulls all aspects together rather cohesively you form a solid cozy horror experience that doesn't take more than a couple of hours to play through.
The puzzles are fun and relatively imaginative here but there were a couple of options I just would not have found out about without the help of a guide. The areas to explore keep your attention too with four very different levels to work through and a relatively soothing soundtrack to accompany you throughout. It also benefits from having a clearer narrative in comparison to Stranga's later efforts of My Big Sister and Red Bow although admittedly with aspects in both bad and good endings being a bit too vague again.
Overall if you're wanting to try a relatively interesting narrative-based point and click with some minor horror elements I really suggest giving this a go. It doesn't take long and it won't blow your mind but the characters are fairly memorable and the entire game is pretty chill.
2020
Played via the UK PSN release on a Vita OLED.
It's difficult to not compare this game to Stranga's previous effort with 'My Big Sister'. That game had a lot going for it, with a wide array of levels and the narrative really making you attached to the central characters, even if the ending felt a bit on the vague side. In fact the more concrete ending message of Red Bow is probably the one thing I'd say is superior in this game - the three levels it focuses on feature two other characters each and their stories are usually relayed to you in 10-15 minutes which feels a bit too short personally.
But mostly everything else that I enjoyed about 'My Big Sister' is still here - the art is still fun even if a couple of the reveal scares from the second story don't really land due to unclear art, and the music is fun and suitably creepy, even if there is none on offer after the second story.
Overall 'Red Bow' feels like the precursor to 'My Big Sister' despite it being the spiritual sequel. It's still worth your time for the hour or so it takes to play through but I do wish it had exceeded my expectations that 'Sister' had set.
It's difficult to not compare this game to Stranga's previous effort with 'My Big Sister'. That game had a lot going for it, with a wide array of levels and the narrative really making you attached to the central characters, even if the ending felt a bit on the vague side. In fact the more concrete ending message of Red Bow is probably the one thing I'd say is superior in this game - the three levels it focuses on feature two other characters each and their stories are usually relayed to you in 10-15 minutes which feels a bit too short personally.
But mostly everything else that I enjoyed about 'My Big Sister' is still here - the art is still fun even if a couple of the reveal scares from the second story don't really land due to unclear art, and the music is fun and suitably creepy, even if there is none on offer after the second story.
Overall 'Red Bow' feels like the precursor to 'My Big Sister' despite it being the spiritual sequel. It's still worth your time for the hour or so it takes to play through but I do wish it had exceeded my expectations that 'Sister' had set.
2017
Played via the UK PSN release on a PlayStation 4 Pro.
This game is a perfectly fine way to spend an afternoon or evening - it's relaxing and soothing but with the occasional frustrating platforming section and an opaque plot making it difficult to recommend to most folks.
The flying mechanic is probably the best feature here with an easy-to-grasp-yet-rewarding-to-master controp design - it feels extremely satisfying to fly between islands and swoop between structures and plant life, trying to avoid crashing into surfaces so you can maintain your bird form for as long as possible. Moving on ground can feel painfully slow in comparison, especially in the temples where you're unable to fly - having a sprint option would have been appreciated here. Jumping can lead to outright frustration however and is probably the weakest feature of the control scheme, being a tall jump that leaves you unable to adjust your trajectory as tightly as you'd like. This combined with some platforming that doesn't make itself clear due to low-lit environments can result in slightly frustrating falling down a gap leaving you to have to make your way slowly back up to where you were.
The artstyle and presentation of the game is fine I think - each of the menus are very simple offering very little outside of appreciated control tweaks while the overall aesthetic of the game adopts the oh-so-popular low poly style that indie games love to utilise. It looks fine here and is elevated with a good lighting system, but when comparing to other "lonely wanderer" games like Journey or The Pathless it feels like it's missing something to make it wholy unique. The sound design is similarly ok, with appreciative feedback on actions and ambient environment noised but the soundtrack often devolves into sounding like someone fell asleep on a synthesizer. It can be relaxing, and the kick of ukelele and percussion when you're flying helps keep your attention a bit more but it often has the unfortunate effect of feeling like an endless droning and the intro area feels one of the worst examples of this.
The narrative could be the make or break for a lot of people depending on your tastes however - you're given vague objectives from a handful of other villagers but it's up to you to explore the world, finding the spirits of long dead people and the scriptures and stone tablets left behind. I usually like this style of story telling, giving me an excuse to properly explore the world of the game and look in every nook and cranny but it often goes in contrast of the flying mechanic, making you fly past every single floating island in the hopes you'll find something and then struggling to land when you're going at a million miles an hour. As such you rarely want to land and you find yourself skimming over the smaller islands to more thoroughly look through the larger ones.
It all culminates in a disappointing ending too, with the world building and relationships you forge with people and creatures resulting in a 10 second cutscene of not much happening before the credits roll. I tried piecing the lore of the world together as best I could and I could probably take a guess as to what happened, but the lack of clarity to it all and with no real resolution provided was just disappointing.
I believe there were a couple of glitches too, with my system crashing once (thankfully the autosave feature helped me out) and a scene in a cave with stone tablets that gives you the hint to ask another character for help deciphering them, but you never get the option to do so. The 10-20 second loading screens were a little tiring too but I've experienced worse.
Overall AER is an ok game - the flying mechanic is very much the main attraction and if you enjoy storytelling via what you find scattered throughout the world rather than cinematic cutscenes you'll find something to keep you entertained for a few hours. But it's not without its frustrations and the overall ok presentation leaves AER feeling a little forgettable at times.
This game is a perfectly fine way to spend an afternoon or evening - it's relaxing and soothing but with the occasional frustrating platforming section and an opaque plot making it difficult to recommend to most folks.
The flying mechanic is probably the best feature here with an easy-to-grasp-yet-rewarding-to-master controp design - it feels extremely satisfying to fly between islands and swoop between structures and plant life, trying to avoid crashing into surfaces so you can maintain your bird form for as long as possible. Moving on ground can feel painfully slow in comparison, especially in the temples where you're unable to fly - having a sprint option would have been appreciated here. Jumping can lead to outright frustration however and is probably the weakest feature of the control scheme, being a tall jump that leaves you unable to adjust your trajectory as tightly as you'd like. This combined with some platforming that doesn't make itself clear due to low-lit environments can result in slightly frustrating falling down a gap leaving you to have to make your way slowly back up to where you were.
The artstyle and presentation of the game is fine I think - each of the menus are very simple offering very little outside of appreciated control tweaks while the overall aesthetic of the game adopts the oh-so-popular low poly style that indie games love to utilise. It looks fine here and is elevated with a good lighting system, but when comparing to other "lonely wanderer" games like Journey or The Pathless it feels like it's missing something to make it wholy unique. The sound design is similarly ok, with appreciative feedback on actions and ambient environment noised but the soundtrack often devolves into sounding like someone fell asleep on a synthesizer. It can be relaxing, and the kick of ukelele and percussion when you're flying helps keep your attention a bit more but it often has the unfortunate effect of feeling like an endless droning and the intro area feels one of the worst examples of this.
The narrative could be the make or break for a lot of people depending on your tastes however - you're given vague objectives from a handful of other villagers but it's up to you to explore the world, finding the spirits of long dead people and the scriptures and stone tablets left behind. I usually like this style of story telling, giving me an excuse to properly explore the world of the game and look in every nook and cranny but it often goes in contrast of the flying mechanic, making you fly past every single floating island in the hopes you'll find something and then struggling to land when you're going at a million miles an hour. As such you rarely want to land and you find yourself skimming over the smaller islands to more thoroughly look through the larger ones.
It all culminates in a disappointing ending too, with the world building and relationships you forge with people and creatures resulting in a 10 second cutscene of not much happening before the credits roll. I tried piecing the lore of the world together as best I could and I could probably take a guess as to what happened, but the lack of clarity to it all and with no real resolution provided was just disappointing.
I believe there were a couple of glitches too, with my system crashing once (thankfully the autosave feature helped me out) and a scene in a cave with stone tablets that gives you the hint to ask another character for help deciphering them, but you never get the option to do so. The 10-20 second loading screens were a little tiring too but I've experienced worse.
Overall AER is an ok game - the flying mechanic is very much the main attraction and if you enjoy storytelling via what you find scattered throughout the world rather than cinematic cutscenes you'll find something to keep you entertained for a few hours. But it's not without its frustrations and the overall ok presentation leaves AER feeling a little forgettable at times.