Sonic Advance 2 does not make me want to advance to the third... (I'll still do it anyway)

Again just like the first game, this had a horrendous spike in difficulty beyond Ice Paradise. But there is 1 thing I appreciate about this title over the first game: each level's aesthetic is very appealing with the soundtrack also lifting these themes up, and I genuinely enjoyed that.

But why do I dislike this game? Well, it narrows itself down to the very uninteresting boss fights that become an incredible hassle if you reach near the end of the game where you have to do a boss rush (although each phase has much less health) and then just the overall level design philosophy of this game is just a joke. There are so many moments throughout these levels where it honestly just screams "trial and error" where you will most likely make a mistake or miss a jump you did not expect and have to go back to a save state. Now bare in mind this wouldn't typically be that much of a problem, but if you lose your lives you're going to have to start from ground zero just like other classic sonic games, it just makes this questionable design philosophy not a joy at all. An example of this is a certain section that involves you moving at high speed and boosting upward and then using the new mechanic in this game, the mid-air tricks, to gain extra height to make it up areas. The problem is this is something you aren't gonna be accustomed to from the get-go cause it doesn't teach you this mechanic and you will most certainly die to a pitfall

Overall: while aesthetically I enjoy this game more than the first, the actual game itself I can not tolerate and by the time I made it to the X zone I just wanted to stop playing.

My what a fantastic entry into the Like a Dragon series

I loved everything about this game except one thing and that is the coliseum, a staple in the franchise and generally my favourite kind of content to spend time with in these titles. However, in Like a Dragon Gaiden, this is a major part of the game that is necessary for progression and while I can appreciate the fact you can play as other fighters that you recruit under your team, it still feels like a watered-down experience overall with only the special event stages shining here. Something I liked about the previous entries to Like a Dragon with its Coliseum is that if you did a repeat tournament type you would still face off with various opponents, keeping it fresh with their movesets and allowing farming to be enjoyable without just being loopy content through and through. But Gaiden does this instead, it is very loopy you select a tournament type and it is the very same thing over and over, you just aim to earn money that you will use on upgrades and continue this till you eventually max everything out. But there is some stuff I appreciate with the coliseum despite the monotonous nature of most of it and that is when a specific substory starts to go into effect around it because it brings all the grind you've done around it into fruition in a very satisfying way by closing it up with an enjoyable subplot.

But hey enough about the Coliseum, everything else was just wonderful, the new characters they introduce in this title were exciting and I would love to see them return. The two fighting styles in the title were incredibly fun, I did not use one over the other throughout the entire game and kept them balanced in usage because they both have their pros and cons that work perfectly for the obstacles you will be facing.

One thing I think is fantastic for pacing is the change in how substories are encountered, it isn't perfect but they have finally stepped away from randomly pushing a substory in your face for walking down the street a tiny bit while trying to do other tasks and instead made it all linked to the Akame Network where you can accept them more freely. The substories in this title were some of the best, as mentioned earlier in the review about the coliseum, these plot lines will keep you hooked some of which use real-life trends as inspiration, opening up some interesting topics these substories then tackle.

As a concept it is interesting, the location in which it is set has a certain atmosphere that personally really drew me in. It has one player take the role of a librarian - A guide that uses the various tools they have in their zones to guide the explorer to solve the puzzles

I rate this game so low because it is a very convoluted mess where things don't work out the way they are addressed to you in ways that are very intuitive and quick to pick up on. A key example of this is the theatre scene where the librarian has to guide the explorer to move props on stage to build the various scenes the narrator tries to spell out but unfortunately, none of the information makes sense. Hence, you find yourself scrambling to figure it out and you probably won't without dying a few times. It's also pretty buggy, my friend somehow moved more than one lever at once which made building the scenes janky.

I however give it some bonus points because of the chess section where I loved guiding my friend who is terrible at the game how to do a scholar mate and it was very funny to do that.

Lightning is an S tier ability!!!!!!!!

Azure Striker Gunvolt introduces enjoyable levels that become an art of mastery when you replay them for specific challenge bonuses and an enticing second ending. This can be shown in aspects such as ambushes where you can end them with haste by destroying sirens or if you want to take a more slow approach you can take on the waves of enemies as they come.

The boss fights in the title are enjoyable, having their own unique movesets. This is great enough for this style of game to have some unique boss movesets but the game goes the extra mile by allowing Gunvolts ability to interact with certain aspects such as repelling drill-based attacks. However, the only problem I find with them lies in the reuse of these bosses throughout the game which can become quite stale when they don't bring anything new.

This is not all Gunvolt provides, it introduces very interesting mechanics such as a cheat death that links itself to lore in a manner that feels natural for it to be there and when it activates in dangerous situations you can't help but feel amped up to deal some serious damage.

Overall I enjoyed this title and I'm excited to jump into the second one.

Puyo Puyo with Kirby. The game takes Super Puyo Puyo and modifies it to change the characters and music into a Kirby theme. It's a really weird one that this game exists solely because they found Super Puyo Puyo not to be marketable for international consumers, so they reskinned it for the sole purpose of release in the West.

The issue I have with this game is the difficulty curve, you finish one level then the next one feels incomparably more difficult, which can become quite frustrating. But still, it's very vibrant and it's funny to see the Kirby characters trash-talk each other.

Gunvolt 2 elevates the previous title by not only introducing 2 playable characters this time around but by having their playstyles be impressively different. Gunvolt retaining his gameplay style from the previous title, the new playable character, Copen, has a hastier gameplay style with flight that allows crossing similar paths overall game design remain fresh.

The quality of life they have brought into the title such as being able to take 3 hits before losing all your kudos is a fantastic change that makes getting hit a lot less frustrating and builds your confidence more as you take on the groups of enemies that's placements within the level design is a lot better than the first game.

What drew me in with this title especially is the step up in the narrative, gunvolt 1 had a straightforward story that was still enjoyable, but the sequel allows itself to bloom into a fascinating universe where I can't wait to see what the 3rd game has in store for me.

Truly the super Sonic process of all time

I think the game is kind of boring, to be honest, but still certainly interesting, the idea of it works really well but it feels definitely unbalanced with some characters being better and some just being not optimal. I wish I could play as Metal Sonic and Robotnik outside of offline play but I am aware the balancing issue would lie with that as well.

Overall: It's okay in ways, I felt in the arcade mode some certain match ups were entertaining but the drag to get super sonic was enough to make the experience gruelingly boring.