I have some good memories of playing this with my neighbor when it first came out, and revisited it on and off over the past couple of weeks.

"Game feel" is a hard concept to define, but Mortal Kombat II definitely lacks it. Attacks simply lack weight and don't feel satisfying when they connect, movement is awkward, and hitboxes/hurtboxes/hitframes/hurtframes/priority are extremely finicky and unintuitive. This was exacerbated by the fact that I mostly played the single-player mode this time, and the computer is nearly impossible even on the easiest difficulty. It walks forward implacably like a Terminator and has a pixel-perfect counter for everything you do. Some of the things the AI did to me consistently on the easiest difficulty:

- Duck underneath my uppercut after I had already gone into the animation for it and uppercut me instead
- Interrupt my foot sweep with a grab and throw, also after I had already gone into the animation for it
- Chain three throws in a row on me after backing me into a corner

I tried to hone my skills in little bite-sized sessions over a couple of weeks, then decided that there was no way I was ever going to complete it - about halfway (sixth match) was the best I got.

The vs mode was definitely a better experience - hence my abovementioned good memories - but even then it's nothing special compared to many of its peers.

(sonic's ultimate genesis collection 25/40)

this game's got a ton going for it, it's oozing with style and the soundtrack is nice and grunge-y, which i'm a bit of a sucker for. it's also really short, though. and i suppose to make up for this it is IMPOSSIBLY fucking difficult.

see, i've been using savestates quite freely through all games so far, that's just what i''m used to. but also like, how the fuck should anyone beat this on real hardware or something? of course it's possible lmao, but it genuinely is rather ridiculous. there are no continues or save points anywhere, and you start the game with one life (you're also not alerted when you gain another, so it's hard to even discover you can gain more). also, when you die and actually do have another life, you're put back at the start of the level, which feels really odd for a genesis beat em up.

so yeah, simply put the difficulty hinders this game hard. i would maybe like watch a longplay or something if i was you, it's definitely worth seeing! but playing it is a real dick in the ass (not thie good kind)

(sonic's ultimate genesis collection 20/40)
halfway done with the compilation BAYBEE

this took a lot of getting used to tbh, but once you do it's a very solid game. not too long nor complicated, in fact rather short compared to what i was expecting. i did not like pressing a+b+c to cancel a summon however, never quite got the hang of it and took multiple tries every time, but that's my only big problem really.

i love the enemy sfx in this game, by the way. they're much funnier than they have any right to be. alongside all the goofy screams, sometimes an enemy will deadass moan if you kill them??

(sonic's ultimate genesis collection 22/40)

this is kinda dick shit especially after the superior successor alien storm, but within its own context it's just kinda meh i suppose. enemies are really easy to figure out as well, they're either just straight up free or you just jump and slash as gilius to ultimately win every time. there's really not a lot to unpack its just made obsolete if not by its sequels then definitely by alien storm. maybe if you're a horny gremlin you'll get some enjoyment out of the girl idk her ass is always out lmfao

Grinding out a 1cc in the original mode of this game was downright painful at points. Chronicles original mode is widely considered to be the hardest Castlevania game due to the scarcity of healing, the high damage dealt by ALL enemies past the first few stages and some platforming setups that are at the level of precision that speedrunners obsess over in other games. Some sections like the falling gears in the clock tower cross the line over into bullshit design.

However finally getting that 1cc gave me a massive sense of elation that made the grind worth it, and I grew to appreciate the tightly-structured design and pacing of the levels, as well as the awesome soundtrack. Castlevania Chronicles is very fun and as a remake it surpasses the original NES Castlevania as long as you can stomach the difficulty that is very punishing even for classic Castlevania standards. The arrange mode is good too with great if somewhat less fitting remixed songs and a time attack stage select.

After playing the hell out of it Castlevania Chronicles is probably tied with Castlevania Bloodlines as my second favourite Castlevania game, with my favourite being Rondo of Blood.

Good when it came out, but is now the most irrelevant Jackbox Pack. The 3 best games (Drawful, Fibbage, YDKJ) all have better iterations in future packs.

- Drawful (5) - Drawing game where players have to create false answers and try to figure out the real prompt.
- You Don't Know Jack 2015 (3) - Trivia game with fast-paced presentation.
- Fibbage XL (3) - Trivia game where players create false answers and try to guess the real answer.
- Word Spud (1) - Experimental word-cloud making game. Doesn't usually end up being very good.
- Lie Swatter (1*) - Overly simplistic true/false trivia game.

Even if the emulation is rather lacking these days, and it's a tad barren in terms of extras, this is still a solid arcade collection, surprisingly. Has all of the mainstay Taito heavy hitters (even if there was some odd choices, like Super Qix instead of OG Qix) and more to go along with that. Rainbow Island's music is altered too, rightfully so, but still disappointing. Still highly recommended these days if you can find it at a reasonable price, though, because Taito is a little slow porting some of their more classic games to modern consoles.

Could never find a good middle ground with this game, unfortunately. Game didn't feel or reward free-form, sandboxy gameplay enough to make me want to approach it that way and the more structured, medal stuff didn't feel skill based or fun enough for me to willingly bang my head against it. Felt like I was always constantly unsure what to do with this game. I appreciate the concept, the art style and the different types of levels though. The devs clearly had some fun working on this game and it shows. Maybe I'll try it again some day.