KamiRappa
2017
This review contains spoilers
Hey, nostalgia is making a lot of money! Let’s throw in an excessive amount of cynical nostalgia callbacks and hire fans to make it seem good with little originality to it!
And that’s the story of how Sonic Mania happened.
Lack of original zones aside, the level design is just horrifically unfocused, as if it’s constantly pushing you back and forth with forced level gimmicks, combined with retaining dated aspects from Sonic 3 that really should’ve been left out at this point, particularly the save system forcing you to play the entire 2 act zone instead of letting you stop inbetween.
On top of that, Mania does almost NOTHING to push the series forward in any meaningful way, nor does it feel like a proper follow-up to 3. The only new thing it gives us is Sonic’s drop-dash move, which is admittedly very useful, but that’s it really. Mania is not a true Sonic 4 at all, it’s a poor imitation of Sonic 3 in the same way Wrath of Cortex is a poor imitation of Warped.
And no, I don’t think the music is all that great either, at least not the remixed tracks. The new stuff is good enough, but the remixes sound very tacky and most of them end up sounding the same from each other, especially the brass instruments. I know it’s all from the same composer, but come on, at least try to spice them up some more. The original tracks all sound significantly distinct from each other and have their own flair, so what happened with the remixes?
The original content is obviously the highlight of the game. The special stages make for an excellent challenge, and the four new zones we ended up getting are actually pretty okay. They still don’t hold a candle to Sonic 3’s zones, but it’s better than nothing. Mighty and Ray, who were added in the Encore DLC, are pretty good characters to play as too. Mighty’s shell makes him immune to some attacks, and Ray can glide in the air with rhythmic taps to the D-pad. As for that Encore mode, it’s just a glorified harder version of the normal mode. Instead of a lives system, you have to hold on to all 5 of your characters. Dying doesn’t take you back to a checkpoint, but instead it automatically brings out the next character in line. However, game overs still punish you by taking you all the way back to the first act of the Zone, so no, the DLC does nothing to fix the dated save system unfortunately. Lastly, Encore mode has no ending when you get the emeralds. I took the time to complete Encore mode, and yet the game doesn’t even let me fight the Egg Reverie fight? Instead, it just ends after the Titanic Monarch boss. So in short, I spent all that extra time on a harder game mode, and not only do I get nothing to show for it, I get less than what I got in the normal mode! Yeah, don’t waste your time with Encore mode, it’s not worth it.
Sonic Mania is a cheap nostalgia-bait cash grab that has the style of a classic Sonic game, but none of the substance that made those games so good in the first place. To be honest, I think Sonic 4: Episode II does a far better job at evolving the classic formula than this game.
And that’s the story of how Sonic Mania happened.
Lack of original zones aside, the level design is just horrifically unfocused, as if it’s constantly pushing you back and forth with forced level gimmicks, combined with retaining dated aspects from Sonic 3 that really should’ve been left out at this point, particularly the save system forcing you to play the entire 2 act zone instead of letting you stop inbetween.
On top of that, Mania does almost NOTHING to push the series forward in any meaningful way, nor does it feel like a proper follow-up to 3. The only new thing it gives us is Sonic’s drop-dash move, which is admittedly very useful, but that’s it really. Mania is not a true Sonic 4 at all, it’s a poor imitation of Sonic 3 in the same way Wrath of Cortex is a poor imitation of Warped.
And no, I don’t think the music is all that great either, at least not the remixed tracks. The new stuff is good enough, but the remixes sound very tacky and most of them end up sounding the same from each other, especially the brass instruments. I know it’s all from the same composer, but come on, at least try to spice them up some more. The original tracks all sound significantly distinct from each other and have their own flair, so what happened with the remixes?
The original content is obviously the highlight of the game. The special stages make for an excellent challenge, and the four new zones we ended up getting are actually pretty okay. They still don’t hold a candle to Sonic 3’s zones, but it’s better than nothing. Mighty and Ray, who were added in the Encore DLC, are pretty good characters to play as too. Mighty’s shell makes him immune to some attacks, and Ray can glide in the air with rhythmic taps to the D-pad. As for that Encore mode, it’s just a glorified harder version of the normal mode. Instead of a lives system, you have to hold on to all 5 of your characters. Dying doesn’t take you back to a checkpoint, but instead it automatically brings out the next character in line. However, game overs still punish you by taking you all the way back to the first act of the Zone, so no, the DLC does nothing to fix the dated save system unfortunately. Lastly, Encore mode has no ending when you get the emeralds. I took the time to complete Encore mode, and yet the game doesn’t even let me fight the Egg Reverie fight? Instead, it just ends after the Titanic Monarch boss. So in short, I spent all that extra time on a harder game mode, and not only do I get nothing to show for it, I get less than what I got in the normal mode! Yeah, don’t waste your time with Encore mode, it’s not worth it.
Sonic Mania is a cheap nostalgia-bait cash grab that has the style of a classic Sonic game, but none of the substance that made those games so good in the first place. To be honest, I think Sonic 4: Episode II does a far better job at evolving the classic formula than this game.
2002
Sonic Advance 2 is not only the worst Sonic game to ever exist, it is also one of the worst games ever made.
The sheer amount of horrible game design that plagues this piece of junk is unbelievable. From the horrible bosses that all play the same, to the uninspired and automated level design, to the means of trying to reach the special stage and extra zone being extremely complicated and irritating that it’s nearly impossible to actually finish the game.
Sonic Advance 2 is the perfect reason as to why a Sonic game should never be focused on just going fast, and why Dimps should never be allowed to touch the Sonic license ever again!
The sheer amount of horrible game design that plagues this piece of junk is unbelievable. From the horrible bosses that all play the same, to the uninspired and automated level design, to the means of trying to reach the special stage and extra zone being extremely complicated and irritating that it’s nearly impossible to actually finish the game.
Sonic Advance 2 is the perfect reason as to why a Sonic game should never be focused on just going fast, and why Dimps should never be allowed to touch the Sonic license ever again!
This is the Simpson Family’s first outing in a video game, and it’s still the only one I can confidently say is amazing.
Not a very high bar to begin with, given nearly every other Simpsons game that came out after is mediocre at best.
It’s a real shame this gem doesn’t have a home console port at the moment.
Not a very high bar to begin with, given nearly every other Simpsons game that came out after is mediocre at best.
It’s a real shame this gem doesn’t have a home console port at the moment.
Hit & Run is a game with the most questionable reputation. A lot of people regard it as an all-time classic or the best Simpsons game ever made.
After playing it to the end, I feel like I have been tricked by popular opinion.
Outside of the many Simpsons references and the excellent soundtrack, Hit & Run is just a terrible and painfully repetitive game that’s pretty much on-par with any other crappy licensed game.
Most of, if not all of the missions in this game revolve around nothing but driving. Sometimes you’ll have to race somebody or reach another destination or pick up something and then come back to pick up another thing, or go on fetch quests. This would be bad enough, but the game has a serious obsession with strict time limits, which is probably the game’s most critical flaw. Later missions from mission 4 onward start forcing you to take obscure or elaborate shortcuts just to pass the mission, and some missions have a chain of tasks to do so if you fail the third task in a mission, then you have to start the entire mission over again, no checkpoints. The time limit is just plastered onto every mission, sometimes for no reason! Like why do I have to harvest ketchup in a specific amount of time? It makes absolutely no sense because each level takes place in the span of one day, and the mission says to harvest ketchup before WINTER, and yet the level itself is only three days from Halloween!
Having an unforgiving time limit is one thing, but the driving physics are another key element as to why this game fails miserably. They feel extremely floaty and unnatural. More often than not, running into anything is only going to halt ALL of your momentum and not most of it lime other competent driving games. Hitting a car would normally have both of you go off track, but here, it just stops you completely and lets the NPC drive like nothing happened. Your vehicle is also absurdly sensitive to damage and because of how many pedestrians and drivers there are to get in the way of the mission, you’ll find yourself failing because of some idiot on the road or you hit too many pedestrians to alert the cops, have them fine you, and waste so much of your time!
In fact, the wanted system is just poorly implemented, it’s way too sensitive and the fine is enough to hinder your progress because you’re required to purchase specific costumes and vehicles at certain times, so if you get fined before you earned enough to buy that cool looking car, then tough luck loser, go and grind some more!
Look, I’m not trying to bash this game for the sale of trying to be different or cool, I just have to point out some glaring issues that other people seem to ignore. Hit & Run could’ve been a good game, but like Simpsons Skateboarding and Road Rage, it tries to copy elements from another popular game at the time, but completely fails to understand what made that game so good. Hit & Run is not an open world game like GTA as people seem to lie about. It’s just a terrible driving game with repetitive missions bogged down by horrible physics and a time limit so unforgiving that it would make Superman 64 blush.
If you want a GOOD Simpsons game to play, then just go and play the amazing Simpsons Arcade game or the 2007 game. This game is not worth your time whatsoever.
After playing it to the end, I feel like I have been tricked by popular opinion.
Outside of the many Simpsons references and the excellent soundtrack, Hit & Run is just a terrible and painfully repetitive game that’s pretty much on-par with any other crappy licensed game.
Most of, if not all of the missions in this game revolve around nothing but driving. Sometimes you’ll have to race somebody or reach another destination or pick up something and then come back to pick up another thing, or go on fetch quests. This would be bad enough, but the game has a serious obsession with strict time limits, which is probably the game’s most critical flaw. Later missions from mission 4 onward start forcing you to take obscure or elaborate shortcuts just to pass the mission, and some missions have a chain of tasks to do so if you fail the third task in a mission, then you have to start the entire mission over again, no checkpoints. The time limit is just plastered onto every mission, sometimes for no reason! Like why do I have to harvest ketchup in a specific amount of time? It makes absolutely no sense because each level takes place in the span of one day, and the mission says to harvest ketchup before WINTER, and yet the level itself is only three days from Halloween!
Having an unforgiving time limit is one thing, but the driving physics are another key element as to why this game fails miserably. They feel extremely floaty and unnatural. More often than not, running into anything is only going to halt ALL of your momentum and not most of it lime other competent driving games. Hitting a car would normally have both of you go off track, but here, it just stops you completely and lets the NPC drive like nothing happened. Your vehicle is also absurdly sensitive to damage and because of how many pedestrians and drivers there are to get in the way of the mission, you’ll find yourself failing because of some idiot on the road or you hit too many pedestrians to alert the cops, have them fine you, and waste so much of your time!
In fact, the wanted system is just poorly implemented, it’s way too sensitive and the fine is enough to hinder your progress because you’re required to purchase specific costumes and vehicles at certain times, so if you get fined before you earned enough to buy that cool looking car, then tough luck loser, go and grind some more!
Look, I’m not trying to bash this game for the sale of trying to be different or cool, I just have to point out some glaring issues that other people seem to ignore. Hit & Run could’ve been a good game, but like Simpsons Skateboarding and Road Rage, it tries to copy elements from another popular game at the time, but completely fails to understand what made that game so good. Hit & Run is not an open world game like GTA as people seem to lie about. It’s just a terrible driving game with repetitive missions bogged down by horrible physics and a time limit so unforgiving that it would make Superman 64 blush.
If you want a GOOD Simpsons game to play, then just go and play the amazing Simpsons Arcade game or the 2007 game. This game is not worth your time whatsoever.
2005
Aside from Hideki Naganuma’s excellent compositions, Sonic Rush is nothing but a bland and forgettable Sonic game with uninspired level design and poor visibility issues.
It’s definitely better than the mediocre Advance Trilogy, but not by much.
It’s definitely better than the mediocre Advance Trilogy, but not by much.
I didn’t think Sonic Genesis was going to be as bad as everyone says it is, but boy was I wrong. Sonic Genesis is not only the worst version of Sonic 1, but it’s one of the worst ports I’ve ever played in my life. It’s so horrible and incompetently programmed that it makes Sonic Heroes’ garbage GameCube port look good by comparison.
Before I get into all of its flaws, I should start with some positives. For one, the game does retain the colorful visuals of the original and the addition of a save feature and the spindash is pretty nice.
That’s pretty much it for positives because literally everything else about this has been screwed over big time. The first and most obvious problem is how huge the sprites are. It’s just as bad as Rockman & Forte’s screen crunch. Simple platforming segments have been made significantly harder and more stressful because now you’re never sure where to land. It also ends up making special stages and the final boss more difficult because you can’t see enough to get by.
The sound design is absolutely retched. While some tracks sound pretty decent like the boss theme, Star Light and Marble, the rest sound like ass. I think a large part of that is because of the weak drums and the crappy 8-bit sounding instrument. The sound effects are also pretty terrible too as they all sound like they came from different games.
But the worst aspect of Sonic Genesis have to be the physics and slowdown. Good physics are pretty much essential for Sonic 1, and yet here’s this crappy GBA remake failing miserably with the physics. Sonic’s running speed increases so sporadically and sometimes he’ll keep his momentum after jumping from behind a wall. The special stages have no physics whatsoever, Sonic just falls down at one speed, and bumpers have so little effect on him. The controls feel extremely unnatural and sluggish. As for the slowdown, it is extremely terrible. I normally don’t care about framerates in my game, because they usually don’t impact the experience that much, but Sonic Genesis’ framerate is constantly slowing down every 2 seconds and will sometimes go so slow that it makes certain sections unbearable to get through. The most egregious example is in Labyrinth Zone. What was already a slow stage has been made even more sluggish and is now an unpleasant experience all around. Because of the screen crunch, the boss is nearly unbeatable as well, since all you have to defend yourself with is a shield, and if you get a game over, you lose all your emeralds.
Speaking of which, you can also unlock a sound test by beating the game normally and listen to those “lovely” sound effects after beating the game with all the emeralds. I actually managed to do so and not only does it get some sound effect names wrong, but some “unused” ones are actually used in-game.
I think it’s safe to say how atrocious Sonic Genesis is. It’s one of the worst excuses for a remake I’ve ever played. There is absolutely nothing here that you can’t get from much better versions, which is literally anywhere else but here. The funniest part is that Sonic 1 got another rerelease around the same time, that being the Sega Mega Drive Collection on PS2 and even PSP. So at the very least kids in 2006 weren’t completely screwed over by Sonic 1.
If there’s one good thing I can say, is that this is still a better experience than Sonic Advance 2.
Before I get into all of its flaws, I should start with some positives. For one, the game does retain the colorful visuals of the original and the addition of a save feature and the spindash is pretty nice.
That’s pretty much it for positives because literally everything else about this has been screwed over big time. The first and most obvious problem is how huge the sprites are. It’s just as bad as Rockman & Forte’s screen crunch. Simple platforming segments have been made significantly harder and more stressful because now you’re never sure where to land. It also ends up making special stages and the final boss more difficult because you can’t see enough to get by.
The sound design is absolutely retched. While some tracks sound pretty decent like the boss theme, Star Light and Marble, the rest sound like ass. I think a large part of that is because of the weak drums and the crappy 8-bit sounding instrument. The sound effects are also pretty terrible too as they all sound like they came from different games.
But the worst aspect of Sonic Genesis have to be the physics and slowdown. Good physics are pretty much essential for Sonic 1, and yet here’s this crappy GBA remake failing miserably with the physics. Sonic’s running speed increases so sporadically and sometimes he’ll keep his momentum after jumping from behind a wall. The special stages have no physics whatsoever, Sonic just falls down at one speed, and bumpers have so little effect on him. The controls feel extremely unnatural and sluggish. As for the slowdown, it is extremely terrible. I normally don’t care about framerates in my game, because they usually don’t impact the experience that much, but Sonic Genesis’ framerate is constantly slowing down every 2 seconds and will sometimes go so slow that it makes certain sections unbearable to get through. The most egregious example is in Labyrinth Zone. What was already a slow stage has been made even more sluggish and is now an unpleasant experience all around. Because of the screen crunch, the boss is nearly unbeatable as well, since all you have to defend yourself with is a shield, and if you get a game over, you lose all your emeralds.
Speaking of which, you can also unlock a sound test by beating the game normally and listen to those “lovely” sound effects after beating the game with all the emeralds. I actually managed to do so and not only does it get some sound effect names wrong, but some “unused” ones are actually used in-game.
I think it’s safe to say how atrocious Sonic Genesis is. It’s one of the worst excuses for a remake I’ve ever played. There is absolutely nothing here that you can’t get from much better versions, which is literally anywhere else but here. The funniest part is that Sonic 1 got another rerelease around the same time, that being the Sega Mega Drive Collection on PS2 and even PSP. So at the very least kids in 2006 weren’t completely screwed over by Sonic 1.
If there’s one good thing I can say, is that this is still a better experience than Sonic Advance 2.
2004
This review contains spoilers
Twinsanity is a significant step up from TT’s previous effort, that being Wrath of Cortex. Instead of trying to ape off elements from Crash Bandicoot Warped, they decided to take a new approach to the Crash formula and adapt it into an open world platformer akin to Jak and Daxter. It does retain some classic elements from Crash 1, but also goes the extra mile to add in 2 playable characters, a large number of cutscenes and bosses, and some really neat secrets and puzzle elements.
The soundtrack is also the most unique in the entire series as it’s composed entirely of acapella music by Spiralmouth, and they all sound great.
That being said, for as good as this game is, it’s extremely obvious that this game was rushed out the door. For starters, the game’s story feels like it’s rushing itself along. This is evident with most characters like Coco, the mask brothers, N. Gin, N. Brio and N. Tropy all being one and done characters only getting a few seconds of screen-time at most before disappearing from the game forever. The game is incredibly short too with only 16 areas, some of them are incredibly short too. Lastly, the game can sometimes feel rather unpolished, like if they didn’t get to finish play-testing the game. A lot of instances where you’ll be dying from some roughly designed areas or making easy unintended shortcuts.
There is a hefty amount of concept art to be unlocked by collecting gems, and 90% of it is cut content that we never got to see. It’s a real shame the game didn’t get enough development time. There was also a GameCube port planned but that was also scrapped as well.
Despite how rough around the edges this game is, I still recommend getting it. It’s not too expensive online, and while it is a short game, the time I had with it was very good. Would I consider it one of the best Crash games? Not really.
The soundtrack is also the most unique in the entire series as it’s composed entirely of acapella music by Spiralmouth, and they all sound great.
That being said, for as good as this game is, it’s extremely obvious that this game was rushed out the door. For starters, the game’s story feels like it’s rushing itself along. This is evident with most characters like Coco, the mask brothers, N. Gin, N. Brio and N. Tropy all being one and done characters only getting a few seconds of screen-time at most before disappearing from the game forever. The game is incredibly short too with only 16 areas, some of them are incredibly short too. Lastly, the game can sometimes feel rather unpolished, like if they didn’t get to finish play-testing the game. A lot of instances where you’ll be dying from some roughly designed areas or making easy unintended shortcuts.
There is a hefty amount of concept art to be unlocked by collecting gems, and 90% of it is cut content that we never got to see. It’s a real shame the game didn’t get enough development time. There was also a GameCube port planned but that was also scrapped as well.
Despite how rough around the edges this game is, I still recommend getting it. It’s not too expensive online, and while it is a short game, the time I had with it was very good. Would I consider it one of the best Crash games? Not really.
This is more of a review of SADX specifically as opposed to Sonic Adventure in general.
So SADX has garnered a lot of hate in the Sonic community, mostly because of its graphics and how it’s “so glitchy to the point of being unplayable.”
As someone who’s played SADX since forever, I can say that a lot of the criticisms against it have been ridiculously exaggerated, and even fabricated in some instances.
To get the most obvious change out of the way, the graphics have seen an update. Many of the textures have been replace with newer ones to make the world look more modern and realistic. Some of the character models have also seen an upgrade from their original Dreamcast models. The game has also been updated to run at 60fps which is pretty good. I think the new visuals are very good overall and look better than the original visuals. Sure, the lighting doesn’t look as good as the original, but that can easily be forgiven since it doesn’t have any impact on gameplay. Really, the major gripe is that SADX doesn’t go the full nine yards to update every character. Eggman hasn’t seen any touch ups and still looks bad for example. And even the animations and lip syncing are still the same as they always were.
As for gameplay changes, there are actually quite a few of them. For starters, the controls have seen a mild downgrade. This is to be expected from a GameCube port, but in the case of SADX, while it does make a few areas a little bit harder, it’s not so big a deal that it ruins anything (unlike Sonic Heroes on GC which is completely destroyed by its poorly optimized controls). You can also set an option for free camera mode, which is unfortunately really useless and has no inversion options which always annoys me.
But I think I need to bring up the two biggest reasons on why I feel SADX is better than the original. First up is the addition of a map, which can really come in handy for first time players in case they get lost, especially in Mystic Ruin. Second, and most importantly, the cutscenes can now be skipped. This doesn’t sound like much, but when you remember how stilted, long and drawn out the cutscenes are in SA1, the ability to skip them at any time is enough to elevate it over the original and makes revisiting SA1 a lot less of a boring chore.
SADX also sports an updated Chao Garden to match up more with Sonic Adventure 2’s chao garden, minus the chaos drives. On GameCube, you can connect the game to a GBA link cable and transfer your chao to a Sonic Advance 1, 2, or Pinball Party cartridge to raise on the go.
The game also sports a new mission mode, which has you performing 60 tasks scattered all over the game across all 6 characters. You can also unlock Game Gear titles for every 20 emblems you get.
Lastly, I want to discuss the glitches, since that seems to be the talking point. The only real glitch that I’m aware exists is the loop at the beginning of Emerald Coast. Basically, if you let go of the Control Stick, Sonic will clip through the loop and die. However, this glitch doesn’t do any harm to the game, because you’d have to actively trigger the glitch. Any reasonable person would simply hold up and not do anything else. In fact, I’m convinced that every glitch falls into 2 categories:
1. You have to arbitrarily find and trigger them yourself.
2. They do nothing and are just harmless.
Really, I don’t see the point in complaining about glitches if you have to intentionally trigger them yourself. Why do games like Assassin’s Creed Unity or Skyrim get free passes with their constant game breaking bugs that actively harm the game, yet when Sonic Adventure DX has one loop that’s only mildly glitchy it gets lambasted into being called a bad game?
Overall, Sonic Adventure DX is a nice upgrade from the DC original. The fact that cutscenes are slippable now is enough to consider DX the superior way to play SA1.
So SADX has garnered a lot of hate in the Sonic community, mostly because of its graphics and how it’s “so glitchy to the point of being unplayable.”
As someone who’s played SADX since forever, I can say that a lot of the criticisms against it have been ridiculously exaggerated, and even fabricated in some instances.
To get the most obvious change out of the way, the graphics have seen an update. Many of the textures have been replace with newer ones to make the world look more modern and realistic. Some of the character models have also seen an upgrade from their original Dreamcast models. The game has also been updated to run at 60fps which is pretty good. I think the new visuals are very good overall and look better than the original visuals. Sure, the lighting doesn’t look as good as the original, but that can easily be forgiven since it doesn’t have any impact on gameplay. Really, the major gripe is that SADX doesn’t go the full nine yards to update every character. Eggman hasn’t seen any touch ups and still looks bad for example. And even the animations and lip syncing are still the same as they always were.
As for gameplay changes, there are actually quite a few of them. For starters, the controls have seen a mild downgrade. This is to be expected from a GameCube port, but in the case of SADX, while it does make a few areas a little bit harder, it’s not so big a deal that it ruins anything (unlike Sonic Heroes on GC which is completely destroyed by its poorly optimized controls). You can also set an option for free camera mode, which is unfortunately really useless and has no inversion options which always annoys me.
But I think I need to bring up the two biggest reasons on why I feel SADX is better than the original. First up is the addition of a map, which can really come in handy for first time players in case they get lost, especially in Mystic Ruin. Second, and most importantly, the cutscenes can now be skipped. This doesn’t sound like much, but when you remember how stilted, long and drawn out the cutscenes are in SA1, the ability to skip them at any time is enough to elevate it over the original and makes revisiting SA1 a lot less of a boring chore.
SADX also sports an updated Chao Garden to match up more with Sonic Adventure 2’s chao garden, minus the chaos drives. On GameCube, you can connect the game to a GBA link cable and transfer your chao to a Sonic Advance 1, 2, or Pinball Party cartridge to raise on the go.
The game also sports a new mission mode, which has you performing 60 tasks scattered all over the game across all 6 characters. You can also unlock Game Gear titles for every 20 emblems you get.
Lastly, I want to discuss the glitches, since that seems to be the talking point. The only real glitch that I’m aware exists is the loop at the beginning of Emerald Coast. Basically, if you let go of the Control Stick, Sonic will clip through the loop and die. However, this glitch doesn’t do any harm to the game, because you’d have to actively trigger the glitch. Any reasonable person would simply hold up and not do anything else. In fact, I’m convinced that every glitch falls into 2 categories:
1. You have to arbitrarily find and trigger them yourself.
2. They do nothing and are just harmless.
Really, I don’t see the point in complaining about glitches if you have to intentionally trigger them yourself. Why do games like Assassin’s Creed Unity or Skyrim get free passes with their constant game breaking bugs that actively harm the game, yet when Sonic Adventure DX has one loop that’s only mildly glitchy it gets lambasted into being called a bad game?
Overall, Sonic Adventure DX is a nice upgrade from the DC original. The fact that cutscenes are slippable now is enough to consider DX the superior way to play SA1.
A full priced redundant remake of a fantastic kart racing game that is tainted by post-release microtransactions.
That’s really all you need to know to see how much this remake got severely screwed over by Activision.
That’s really all you need to know to see how much this remake got severely screwed over by Activision.
Tag Team Racing has to be the most unfocused racing game I think I’ve ever played. In fact, I’m not even sure you can call it a racing game since the racing doesn’t take up the majority of the game. Instead the hub worlds and platforming take up a large chunk of it.
The platforming bits don’t tie in with the racing very well and only serve as a means of unlocking tracks and challenges, there are plenty of side quests to do and collectibles to grab, but once you unlock the tracks and challenges within the hub, there’s really no reason to keep exploring unless you’re aiming for 100%.
The racing itself is the most broken thing in the world. So the main gimmick and selling point is the clashing mechanic. Basically it’s so that you can merge with another racer and they’ll back you up by shooting at other opponents, or they can drive for you and you do the shooting. Some of these characters have ridiculously overpowered weapons like N. Gin’s rocket launcher. It’s very long range, has a lot of ammo, and can kill opponents in one hit.
It’s because of this gimmick and the fact that you can simply remerge if you run out of ammo, that Tag Team Racing ends up becoming an autopilot racing game of sorts. Kind of like how Miitopia is an auto-pilot RPG, though TTR is nowhere near as horrendously automated as that train-wreck.
The unlockables are the only real incentive to keep on playing. You can unlock a wide variety of costumes, vehicles, and short videos in the form of Gags, which depict Crash doing a bunch of silly things, sometimes at the expense of others, as well as Die-O-Ramas, which showcase Crash getting killed in the most over-the-top manners.
Oh and you can also make burps and farts on the loading screen… okay then…
Tag Team Racing can have its moments of fun, but it’s seriously brought down by a broken clashing mechanic and a hub that only exists just to pad out game time. TTR is easily the weakest of the Crash racing trilogy (Nitro Fueled doesn’t really count because it’s a remake). If you’re curious about this game, then I suppose there’s no harm in checking it out, but if you’re looking for a fun and frantic racing game with Crash Bandicoot, then just go play the original Crash Team Racing or Crash Nitro Kart instead.
The platforming bits don’t tie in with the racing very well and only serve as a means of unlocking tracks and challenges, there are plenty of side quests to do and collectibles to grab, but once you unlock the tracks and challenges within the hub, there’s really no reason to keep exploring unless you’re aiming for 100%.
The racing itself is the most broken thing in the world. So the main gimmick and selling point is the clashing mechanic. Basically it’s so that you can merge with another racer and they’ll back you up by shooting at other opponents, or they can drive for you and you do the shooting. Some of these characters have ridiculously overpowered weapons like N. Gin’s rocket launcher. It’s very long range, has a lot of ammo, and can kill opponents in one hit.
It’s because of this gimmick and the fact that you can simply remerge if you run out of ammo, that Tag Team Racing ends up becoming an autopilot racing game of sorts. Kind of like how Miitopia is an auto-pilot RPG, though TTR is nowhere near as horrendously automated as that train-wreck.
The unlockables are the only real incentive to keep on playing. You can unlock a wide variety of costumes, vehicles, and short videos in the form of Gags, which depict Crash doing a bunch of silly things, sometimes at the expense of others, as well as Die-O-Ramas, which showcase Crash getting killed in the most over-the-top manners.
Oh and you can also make burps and farts on the loading screen… okay then…
Tag Team Racing can have its moments of fun, but it’s seriously brought down by a broken clashing mechanic and a hub that only exists just to pad out game time. TTR is easily the weakest of the Crash racing trilogy (Nitro Fueled doesn’t really count because it’s a remake). If you’re curious about this game, then I suppose there’s no harm in checking it out, but if you’re looking for a fun and frantic racing game with Crash Bandicoot, then just go play the original Crash Team Racing or Crash Nitro Kart instead.
2007
This review contains spoilers
I went into this game with full knowledge of its unfair reputation of it being bad because of the character redesigns… yeah it’s about as dumb as Live & Reloaded being called bad because it censored a few swears… Really goes to show that popular opinion is not worth following…
Anyway, as for this game, I went into it with an open and optimistic mind as a long time fan of Crash Bandicoot. I chose to play the PSP version of this game, mostly for the portability factor. It’s basically just a one-to-one downgrade of the console version and keeps everything intact, minus the co-op mode.
To get the character redesigns out of the way, I think they look great. This game has, by far, my favorite design of Crash, with his cool looking mane and stylish tattoos. Everyone else ranges from good to excellent like Cortex’s redefined appearance and Uka Uka’s incredibly menacing appearance. The only redesign I’m not a fan of is Crunch, since his appearance does not match his Mr. T personality and he honestly looks like a deviantart redesign (Thankfully the sequel fixed his design immensely). I guess I should also mention Tiny as well, who is probably the one that most people seem to agree is bad. The design itself I can get past, a tiger with army fatigue. The problem is that not only is Tiny a completely different species, but his personality has also changed drastically to the point that he is pretty much unrecognizable. The actual character himself isn’t necessarily bad, in fact I think the voice was pretty funny and surreal when paired with an army tiger, it’s just not at all like the character it was supposed to represent, a dimwitted brute. I don’t want people to mistake this for being “different and therefore ruined” because that’s not what I’m getting at. It’s different to the point of not being familiar.
When it comes to the gameplay, a lot of people are quick to say that it’s “not a Crash Bandicoot game.” In reality, it does retain several familiar elements of classic Crash gameplay. The level design is straightforward and linear, there are crates to break open (though they aren’t required anymore) and wumpa fruit to collect, there are bonus rooms in every level, and there’s a healthy amount of good platforming to be had.
The one thing that separates Titans from traditional Crash is the combat. Typically combat in games is very last minute and amount to nothing more than just beating up an enemy with a button or two and you win. Examples being Pac-Man World 3 and TLoS: A New Beginning. Crash of the Titans does appear to have that typical combat at first, but as you collect mojo, you will unlock more combo moves and upgrades to already existing moves, such as a move that can attack enemies that are blocking as well as an unlimited spin attack which is really useful if you want to complete all the combo king scores. The cherry on top of the combat is the new Titan jacking mechanic. Basically this system works like a food chain, where the game encourages you to work your way up to the bigger enemies by starting with the smaller ones, while every enemy has their own set of moves to further deepen the combat mechanic. There are enemies that move fast but are weak, strong enemies that are slow, and enemies that can shoot projectiles. The food chain aspect really comes into play during bosses, which are admittedly pretty disappointing as bosses since you’re mainly fighting the Titans and not the actual boss themselves. The only exceptions being the two last bosses, Uka Uka and Nina, which are the best bosses in the game.
Crash of the Titans is a game I was fully invested in from start to finish. I had no nostalgic attachment to this game and yet I do for the Naughty Dog games. Despite that, I still came out really enjoying Titans a lot. I’d say it ranks in my top 5 best for Crash Bandicoot. If I’m being honest, I would probably play it over Crash 2. I strongly recommend this game to any Crash fan that is looking for something new.
Anyway, as for this game, I went into it with an open and optimistic mind as a long time fan of Crash Bandicoot. I chose to play the PSP version of this game, mostly for the portability factor. It’s basically just a one-to-one downgrade of the console version and keeps everything intact, minus the co-op mode.
To get the character redesigns out of the way, I think they look great. This game has, by far, my favorite design of Crash, with his cool looking mane and stylish tattoos. Everyone else ranges from good to excellent like Cortex’s redefined appearance and Uka Uka’s incredibly menacing appearance. The only redesign I’m not a fan of is Crunch, since his appearance does not match his Mr. T personality and he honestly looks like a deviantart redesign (Thankfully the sequel fixed his design immensely). I guess I should also mention Tiny as well, who is probably the one that most people seem to agree is bad. The design itself I can get past, a tiger with army fatigue. The problem is that not only is Tiny a completely different species, but his personality has also changed drastically to the point that he is pretty much unrecognizable. The actual character himself isn’t necessarily bad, in fact I think the voice was pretty funny and surreal when paired with an army tiger, it’s just not at all like the character it was supposed to represent, a dimwitted brute. I don’t want people to mistake this for being “different and therefore ruined” because that’s not what I’m getting at. It’s different to the point of not being familiar.
When it comes to the gameplay, a lot of people are quick to say that it’s “not a Crash Bandicoot game.” In reality, it does retain several familiar elements of classic Crash gameplay. The level design is straightforward and linear, there are crates to break open (though they aren’t required anymore) and wumpa fruit to collect, there are bonus rooms in every level, and there’s a healthy amount of good platforming to be had.
The one thing that separates Titans from traditional Crash is the combat. Typically combat in games is very last minute and amount to nothing more than just beating up an enemy with a button or two and you win. Examples being Pac-Man World 3 and TLoS: A New Beginning. Crash of the Titans does appear to have that typical combat at first, but as you collect mojo, you will unlock more combo moves and upgrades to already existing moves, such as a move that can attack enemies that are blocking as well as an unlimited spin attack which is really useful if you want to complete all the combo king scores. The cherry on top of the combat is the new Titan jacking mechanic. Basically this system works like a food chain, where the game encourages you to work your way up to the bigger enemies by starting with the smaller ones, while every enemy has their own set of moves to further deepen the combat mechanic. There are enemies that move fast but are weak, strong enemies that are slow, and enemies that can shoot projectiles. The food chain aspect really comes into play during bosses, which are admittedly pretty disappointing as bosses since you’re mainly fighting the Titans and not the actual boss themselves. The only exceptions being the two last bosses, Uka Uka and Nina, which are the best bosses in the game.
Crash of the Titans is a game I was fully invested in from start to finish. I had no nostalgic attachment to this game and yet I do for the Naughty Dog games. Despite that, I still came out really enjoying Titans a lot. I’d say it ranks in my top 5 best for Crash Bandicoot. If I’m being honest, I would probably play it over Crash 2. I strongly recommend this game to any Crash fan that is looking for something new.
2003
Going into Sonic Heroes, my expectations were all over the place. After the many ups and downs I’ve heard about this game, picking it up and putting it down many times in the past, it’s no wonder it took me so long to finally play this game for myself. When I did, I couldn’t have been more happier to finally unlock the Super Hard mode. Sonic Heroes is one of the biggest surprises I’ve had with this series, from its lively art direction, the three-team system, the soundtrack, and the fun & entertaining writing. Sonic Heroes has to have some of the most diverse and best designed levels the series has ever had, from the inviting and breezy Seaside Hill, the fast paced and reflex testing Rail Canyon, the open and luscious Frog Forest, and the epic finale that is the Egg Fleet which does an amazing job testing all of your abilities. Sonic Heroes has not only become one of my favorite PS2 games, but it’s one of my favorite games of all-time, full stop.
That said, there are still things that hold it back from being my absolute favorite Sonic game. The pinball physics are not good, the camera can be pretty annoying at times, the bosses put up no challenge (outside of the last two), some of the Chaotix missions are pretty monotonous, and the act of reaching the Last Story can be fatiguing.
Additionally, the GameCube port specifically suffers from significantly slower camera rotation, horrendous sound mixing that would make Sonic Adventure 2 blush, and badly optimized controls that result in more instances of slipping off the stage from way too sharp turns, simply because of the GameCube controller’s 8-directional control stick, making accurate turns much harder on GameCube and you’re more likely to run into a hazard by accident.
Besides those drawbacks, I still wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone that has never played it before and are curious about it. Just do yourself a favor and avoid the atrocious GameCube port, okay? Okay.
That said, there are still things that hold it back from being my absolute favorite Sonic game. The pinball physics are not good, the camera can be pretty annoying at times, the bosses put up no challenge (outside of the last two), some of the Chaotix missions are pretty monotonous, and the act of reaching the Last Story can be fatiguing.
Additionally, the GameCube port specifically suffers from significantly slower camera rotation, horrendous sound mixing that would make Sonic Adventure 2 blush, and badly optimized controls that result in more instances of slipping off the stage from way too sharp turns, simply because of the GameCube controller’s 8-directional control stick, making accurate turns much harder on GameCube and you’re more likely to run into a hazard by accident.
Besides those drawbacks, I still wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone that has never played it before and are curious about it. Just do yourself a favor and avoid the atrocious GameCube port, okay? Okay.
When it comes to Tetris games, there’s not much to say in terms of gameplay, since most of them are just Tetris with a new coat of paint. This game is no exception, but that definitely doesn’t make it a bad thing. It’s Tetris with mickey mouse characters, but even then, the presentation and audio are really solid, even on the N64. The soundtrack is easily the highlight of this game, a lot of funky tunes that I could listen to for hours. Seriously, give this soundtrack a listen if you haven’t already, it’s enough to make this otherwise simple game worth your time.
Surprisingly good is an understatement, this is hands down, one of the best movie tie-in games I have ever played. The controls are buttery smooth, the level design varied and puts Buzz’s moves to great use, and the missions are also very fun and rewarding. However the presentation does leave something to be desired. While the Stage Select screen is very cool with the Etch-A-Sketch thing going on, most of the menus, loading screens, and stage clear screens are static images with little to nothing. Despite the less than stellar presentation, Toy Story 2 is a very worthwhile game for those that love the movie (like I do), as well as those that are looking for a good platformer.