Ok yeah, maybe I have a bias towards this game that really affects my viewpoint of it but even disregarding that for a moment, Super Mario Sunshine is just peak fiction to me. Everything from like the movement, the setting, and the bad voice acting, everything comes together and works well. Having this being a different Mario game set in a different location the environments are beautiful and they really sell you on that whole tropical vacation vibe. I can't tell you how many times I just stayed in Pinna Park and just sat around as the time flies by. Or even the calming but mysterious vibe from Hotel Delfino.

Look I don't have to write a whole paragraph on why I love this game, but I can't help it. I know this game in particular has many fans mixed because while there are legitimately good things about this, there are also things the general consensus is not ok with. The Sand Bird, The Pachinko, The Lilly pad level, the Blue coins, and yeah I get it. Those can be unnecessarily difficult but I don't know, I think even with that they never really bothered me all too much. Probably because I've played this game so much that it's all second nature to me how to overcome these, even something such as writing down how many blue coins I have and what specific episodes to get them to help out a lot.

So yeah, this is my favorite 3D Mario, I grew up with this one and everything about it just clicks with me. Odyssey came very close to dethroning it, but it'll never be topped in my eyes.

Oh my god. They- They did it. They fixed every problem the original Judgment had. I almost can't believe it, never before have I played a game where they took everything from the first game and improved upon it in every single way. If you're new here I made a review on Judgment saying it was lost potential, but this game, dare I say the potential was found. Every criticism I had from the original Judgment here was taken and beaten over with tiger style. We've finally escaped the clutches of Kamurocho being the main setting and now this game mostly takes place in Ijincho, the area in Yakuza 7. I'm fine with them reusing because this place isn't as overused as Kamurocho is to the point where we're sick of it. It even offers the player a fun way to traverse via the skateboard. The combat is the best we've ever gotten in a dragon engine game, so fluid, so fast, so much fun. And we did it, boys, we found Yagami's 3rd fighting style, Snake. Reminds me heavily of Tanimuras fighting style from 4 but improved upon every way and is really fun to chain combos with the new combat system. We've reached DMC5 levels of combat with how fast you can style switch here, hell, even Yakuza 0 couldn't manage to do it this fast. They also removed the stupid mortal wounds mechanic and now the pace is perfect but the game still incentivizes you to avoid heavy attacks despite the risk not being that high anymore. This is a good trade-off for having fun combat that doesn't punish the player severely for just playing the game. The combat is beautiful, but what about the side content, well, you're not gonna believe this jimmy but this game features things we've never done in any other Yakuza game. Boxing, Skateboarding, Robotics, Bike races, Dancing, so much variety that it will leave you wanting to do it all. Not only did they add in more minigames but there are entirely new stealth sections and wall climbing sections that add more to the overall gameplay. For the first time ever these stealth sections actually don't suck, with how much you can do. THEY EVEN FIXED TRAILING MISSIONS, no longer are you forced to scramble trying to find out where Yagami can hide he will automatically hide if it's a reasonable spot to hide in. Along with giving you more options to save yourself should you get caught.

So they fixed the combat, side content, trailing missions, and detective content, what else did they do? Well let me you tell you, this story is even better than what the first game did. I feel like with the school setting we get more realistic situations other than a crime drama, bullying is a serious theme this game loves to discuss, and the way they handle it is done so masterfully that if the game's antagonist makes you stop and think then you're doing something right.

I almost still can't believe how much of a glow-up this was from the first judgment, I didn't think they could pull it off but they did it. Now I have no idea how they could top this one off with the next game but I suppose we'll find out in the future. Play, this, game, it is amazing, if the original judgment lost you, then this game will find you and bring you back into the realm of peak fiction.

After having played every Yakuza game before this release I was highly optimistic about a brand new IP in RGG's lineup. What we ended up getting was instead lost potential. I think this is one of the weakest RGG titles we've gotten, but I guess I should explain myself. For a new IP I would have hoped this game's setting was taken place somewhere else but what we got was the same overused kamurocho area again, with none of the new additions that Yakuza 4 added. Everything in terms of side content has been reused from Yakuza 6 or Kiwami 2, there's not something here you'll find that's unique other than the drone races and VR game board. The combat is missed potential because we not only have 2 styles to work with, one is clearly superior to the other. There's no reason to use crane style when everything just dies with the tiger style. The one thing that really annoyed me playing was the mortal wounds system. In other RGG games, if you get hit with a powerful attack your character gets up no problem, in Judgment if Yagami gets hit with a powerful attack then that's it, you lose part of your health bar that can only be recovered if you waste large amounts of money on health packets that are located in the sewers of Kamurocho. Some may argue this incentivizes you to play well so you don't get hit but I think it's more of a pace breaker. As it is the game is not hard and is only difficult if you limit yourself. The detective side stuff is really underwhelming and handled poorly, trailing missions constantly plague this game as one of the most boring and uninteresting parts of this whole experience. When you try to find a good hiding spot there's a blue light to signify what things you can hide behind, problem is it only shows up if you're right close to it. So those times where you're scrambling to find a hiding spot because the target spotted you, good luck redoing that entire section. For a detective, you sure don't do much. Lock picking and safe breaking can only be so fun after a while, cause then it starts to get tedious.

If you made it this far congratulations, you now get to hear the things that I DID like from the game, isn't that nice. One thing that RGG has always done well is the story, this game for what it's worth has a very interesting narrative with a lot of twists and turns and it's almost enough to make you forget you're playing a mediocre game. I tried thinking about what this game does differently than any other to give it its own identity and the friend system comes to mind. In Kamurocho you're able to befriend local residents and get to know more of their own life and even open up new side quests for you to do revolving around them. This system was what gravitated me to completing all that I could because Yagami's character interactions are all so charming and hilarious. The music itself is also pretty good but I can only really remember a few tracks, a lot is mostly background noise.

I really didn't want to hate this game but I just don't see the need to replay it whenever games like Yakuza 0 provide a much better experience with better side content and combat. If you like this game, more power to you, but unless they can fix what was established here into a possible sequel.
Then hey, maybe it'd be one of RGG's best.

For every good thing this game does a bad thing just comes in and ruins that good thing entirely. This has gotta be one of Sonic's worst adventures, the overly demanding and unforgiving level design, the excessively tough bosses, and the overall replayability is what made this one hard to finish. The game starts off very promising and then by the later levels it nose dives into the worst bit of platforming and level design you've seen in a 2D Sonic game. The amount of bottomless pits is similar to Mega Man and Bass with the number of spikes that are on each level. It's borderline insanity. You know with a game called Sonic Rush you often are forced to wait and do some awkward platforming and wait a lot with some zones. Some zones have you stop entirely just to fight the stupidly easy enemies on the screen, why? why do that? What's the point of stopping the player's progression just to attack very easy and common enemies. Why did this game think bringing in these segments from Sonic Heroes would be fun, they're just an overall pace breaker.

I'm gonna say right now these are the WORST Sonic bosses in the entire franchise, everything about them is completely against the whole "rush" this game wants to stand for. You wait for an attack, hit it in the very small frame window, wait again, the attack window opens, miss, have to wait for another hit, miss that one again, you see the problem here?
The problem is if you miss the attack window you're forced to wait for another invincibility attack before the boss decides to open up its hit point. Which drags these bosses on when they have no reason to be. And let me tell you there is nothing more frustrating than having the boss be at its lowest point only to miss that very small window of opportunity and then you end up dying having to reset that whole 5-6 minute boss fight.

It sucks that I didn't have fun with this one, because I love the style and ost this game has, this is one of the funkiest original soundtracks I've seen in a Sonic game, and in that regard, it stands out from the rest of the titles. But what does good music and style mean when my gameplay experience was awful.

As it is, I'd recommend you skip this one, look up the music online, and don't bother with the headache that is Sonic Rush.

I struggle to think of any flaws with Pizza Tower, I legit think this is a perfect 5/5. The amount of control you have is nothing like I've played before and Peppino's movements feel both snappy and precise. Once you continuously replay the level and learn the ins and outs of it, finding the best route possible so that the 2nd lap of pizza time is much more easier on you is the best feeling. This is a game I cannot recommend enough, please support the dev for all the hard work and time it took to release this game. Alright guys I know the year just started but... I think this is my goty. Easily. Zelda you're gonna have to do pretty damn well to beat this one out. Just saying.

From all the other Metroidvanias that had been released at the time, this one stood out from the crowd. There was something about this game's art direction is that drove me to download it, and ever since I beat it, I'll never forget the experience that was my first playthrough of this game. Hollow Knight from the very start drops you in with no questions asked. You're a lone knight in this dark and depressing world filled with many creatures and things you have no way of knowing what could be around the next corner. It's the mysterious factor of the game along with the atmospheric soundtrack that draws you in and keeps you exploring for hours on end. Like most Metroidvanias, you will get more abilities the more you progress making the adventure smoother the more you play, but the game in turn also gets harder. You'll notice immediately when you die and realize that you lost all your currency, you'll probably end up scrambling back to get to where you died to collect it all again only to have died again, meaning that past soul with all your currency is gone. It stings, but it's something you'll learn throughout the game, the fact being that it won't hold your hand. It respects the player enough to check their surroundings and pick and choose their battles carefully. It's not the best I've played in terms of design but for their first time attempting this genre, they nailed it.

After the underwhelming release of the Kickstarter game yooka laylee this masterpiece was about to end its entire career. Hat in Time is an amalgamation of things you've probably played before all put into one, solid little package. If you're big into 3D platformers then this game will satisfy you to no end. This game oozes charm with its title cards for each episode and I can't remember a game ever going through the length this one does in its presentation. A masterpiece in 3D platforming taking after its uncle Mario.

In a sea of positive reviews, I feel like I should be brutally honest and say that this game really isn't as good as people make it out to be. Now there are a number of factors that play into this, I will say that on a technical level this is one of the most impressive games I've played this year. That's kinda where the positives end though. This game roughly has the same issues the 2016 reboot had, soulless writing, a predictable plot, and overall a pretty unmemorable experience. The gameplay is... fine, there's nothing inherently wrong with it. If you were to put this game and Ratchet and Clank on PS2 in a room, I'd easily pick the PS2 game. While it isn't as technical as Rift Apart I would still pick it over because the gameplay means something and the plot and characters are enjoyable. I feel like in this game no one ever shuts up and there's constant yelling and screaming to the point where I'm annoyed. The music is very forgettable too I don't remember any tracks at all with this game, they all felt like they fit in with their area too well that it doesn't hold a candle to the original PS2's funky beats.
Is it fair to compare this game and the original PS2 Ratchet and Clank? Yes, cause if anything if I were to compare it to the 2016 Reboot what different does this game do then give us another ratchet and clank except the gender is switched. Really I felt nothing when playing this and I platinum'd it! So I clearly don't hate it but it was just... there. Nothing stood out to me and the RYNO sucks in this one.