Despite the combat being fairly basic, it more than makes up for it with the writing and performances. I went in expecting just a fun, lightweight space opera and I left genuinely kind of moved. But its a Guardians story, so I honestly should have expected that.

Also I have spent an embarrassingly long time in this game's frankly amazing photo mode. Whoever's idea it was to give Rocket a beard is a genius.

The sight of Bowser driving a 1930's Mercedes Grand Prix Car on monster truck wheels is honestly one of the most surreal things I've ever seen in a game.

Game's really good btw you should play it

Memes aside, this is just a ridiculously good action game. You Parrying a bunch of attacks one after another makes you feel so powerful its insane.

I spent at least 100 hours just hotlapping in this game.

Literally every single character I played in this got dropped from the roster for 11.

As the president and sole member of the Kung Jin fanclub I need him back in a game

Probably the best combat in the entire series let down by the fact I genuinely did not care about a single thing I was doing or anyone I was travelling around with (Except Drack. Only character that reaches the original trilogy's quality.)

Some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game. Seriously.

The gameplay is incredibly satisfying, but the co-op is what makes this game. Playing locally? Great time. Playing with a friend online? Great time? Playing with some random guy from the other side of the planet? Great time.

The plot itself is admittedly basic, but what elevates it is literally everything that happens around it. Everything is so over-the-top whilst playing it completely straight it becomes one of the most entertaining games ever made.

Also Chris punching a boulder in the middle of an active volcano whilst Wesker is talking shit about him is still funny over a decade later.

Literally the first game I ever played so it has a special place in my heart for that.

It was so close to being an all-timer for me but the overloading of character gimmicks you only use a handful of times really dragged the experience down for me. Shame too, I was genuinely really invested in the story and was surprised by, despite it clearly leaning towards a younger audience, how mature it was. Plus everyone feels better to control than last time.

How do you even make a main character this cool

This is like the most mid-2000's game to ever exist.

Yes I know its a remake but still

It's just fun.

Like sometimes you just need something that's fun.

I'm tired of pretending that Shadow the Hedgehog with a realistic handgun isn't cool.

It's cool.

This game has it's upsides. As pretty much everyone agrees on, the soundtrack is phenomenal and this is arguably the best Shadow has ever been as a character in the entire series, at least since SA2.

Unfortunately everything else exists. At least the game can flip into being so bad it becomes good. Getting infinite jumps as Sonic because the gem system is literally broken is funny.

2022

While fundamentally a good game, the Codies F1 games have never really captured my attention for longer than a few hours. There's always something missing for them to truly 'click' with me, and I still don't really know what it'll take for that to happen.