Mega Man X is a fantastic game. One with issues of course, but that doesn’t detract from its greatness and its legacy as one of the greatest titles in the Super Nintendo library. With that reputation in mind, how does its PSP remake hold up? Well, I’ll start off with what I view as the positives of the title.

The art style of Maverick Hunter is fantastic. As a 2.5D remake of a SNES title, the developers did an amazing job of translating those sprites into 3D models. Unlike so many other remakes, this game still ‘feels’ like its source material. That 2.5D style has always been something that I find to be quite charming, and seeing it executed in Maverick Hunter as well as it has been is delightful.

Gameplay wise, there are mostly nothing but positives. I do really appreciate how, for the most part, Maverick Hunter plays exactly the same. One new appreciated addition was the inclusion of button mapping, allowing for more unique controls than what was offered in the original title. I myself found issue with how dashing worked in the original, and strongly appreciated being able to map the controls to function similarly to how dashing worked in the Mega Man Zero titles instead.

If you’re a veteran of the original title, there’s still a lot of new content to be discovered here as well. The armor upgrades have been swapped around for example, affecting how one may tackle the boss order. The bosses themselves have new attacks, making them a significant challenge if you are used to defeating them in one way or another. A mode to play as Vile has also been added, though I can’t say too much on that as I have only currently beaten the game with X.

There’s a lot of charm in how Maverick Hunter presents itself. New animated cutscenes have been added, and voice acting is now present in the game where it wasn’t before.

Now for the negatives.

Being a PSP remake, a lot of things had to suffer in order to get it to properly function. In some ways, the presentation of the title is worse than the original. For example, the screen is a tad zoomed in, causing one to take damage in areas they didn’t necessarily mean to, or die in ways that they likely wouldn’t have done so in the original.

Some of the cool moments in the original opening mission are gone, or altered in a way that is inferior to how the original title presented them. For example, the Vile fight in that mission now has a health bar, where in the original title he did not. This may not seem like a major difference, but in a lot of aspects this diminishes the wordless story telling that moment had. Where as X was fighting an enemy who seemed so impossibly strong only to lose the battle, it is now obvious how much health Vile has. This served to showcase X’s development in the original, and served to further showcase just how stronger he was by the end of the title, where Vile’s last boss fight has a health bar. That signified that Vile was no longer the hopelessly powerful titan he was at the start, but just another enemy who could be defeated, all because of the growth X went throughout the game. That subtle bit of storytelling is no present in Maverick Hunter.

The voice acting is…okay, to say the least. I don’t hate it, and it’s not as bad as other X titles in the series, but I can’t say it’s amazing or anything. It does get annoying to have X constantly scream an attack name when fighting a boss though.

The music is just not as good as the original title. It feels a bit too light in comparison, and basically has no punch or power on its own. Mega Man X’s original soundtrack felt energetic and powerful, and these new compositions just don’t convey that same feeling, leaving certain stages (such as storm eagle) to feel deeply underwhelming.

Overall though, I’d say this isn’t a terrible version of Mega Man X. While I’d still recommend the original title over this, there is definitely a lot of fun to be had here, and there is value to be found here. I’d say that in terms of the PSP’s library, this is a very solid game.

A few months ago, I joined a book club for visual novels. As a new fan of the medium through titles like Fata Morgana, Higurashi, and Umineko, I was incredibly excited for what was to come. Our first journey through the medium had me revisiting The House in Fata Morgana, which used to occupy my top 10. I still adore the game, but some of the elements that enchanted me on my first play-through of it were less magical on my second play-through, having read through masterpieces like Higurashi and Umineko. After that experience, I was more than ready to explore new Visual Novels, and the second title we played, Wonderful Everyday, did not disappoint at all.

If you were to ask me a few months ago what my top three favorite games were, I would have quickly stated that these included Umineko When They Cry as my most favorite, followed by Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy VII. If you know how I feel about these games, you already know how difficult it would have been for any game to unseat any of these titles from their rankings. Wonderful Everyday managed to do the impossible however, with it currently sitting as one of my most favorite games of all time, which is something I do not say lightly.

Wonderful Everyday is a complicated experience to properly describe. It’s made me feel deeply uncomfortable and disturbed, while at the same time in awe of how genuine and beautiful the game can be. It’s hilarious and somber, beautiful and grotesque, sensible and absurd, all at the same time.

It's also a game that I think I needed to play through at this specific point of my life.

Depression and self-hatred have been consistent sources of various struggles for me for years, almost culminating at two separate points where I had attempted to end my own life. Learning to love and live with myself is a goal I’ve still yet to properly achieve.

Ever since I was 15, I’ve struggled to answer why I even bother to wake up each morning. Despite my efforts, it’s been difficult to truly justify living each day. That’s not something that goes away easy obviously, but my time with Wonderful Everyday has caused me to take a few steps back and reflect. Maybe one doesn’t need any specific ‘reason’ to keep going. Maybe it’s enough to just be able to laugh with friends occasionally. Maybe happiness can still be found even in the most hopeless of situations. Maybe simply ‘living happily’ is enough.

I think about Wonderful Everyday’s central message often. That idea of choosing to ‘live happily’, in spite of one’s own circumstances, has never felt more relevant to me than they have in the past few years. It’s certainly not an easy goal to accomplish, but it’s art like Wonderful Everyday that helps remind me that the pursuit is worth it no matter how far I’m away from it.

Wonderful Everyday is an experience like no other. Nothing has made me cry, laugh, and cringe like this game has. Even a month after finishing it, I can’t stop thinking about how this game has made me feel.

That being said, Wonderful Everyday is a really hard game to recommend, especially to those who are newcomers to the visual novel genre. I won’t go too deeply into spoiler territory here, but not only is it an experience that is viscerally uncomfortable and graphic at times, it’s a work that can tend to be intentionally cryptic at points. I don’t really believe that it’s something that a person who had never played through any visual novels before can properly appreciate. In one sense, it’s almost like throwing an infant into the deep end of a swimming pool. Even for myself, as someone who had a bit of experience with certain visual novels going in, Wonderful Everyday could be an incredibly uncomfortable experience at times.

I’d still say the experience was worth it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I would write some contrived bullshit about how good art should “disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed” but I think at this point you get the idea. Even with how wildly unnerving the experience could be at times, Wonderful Everyday is still one of the best games I’ve had the pleasure of playing through.

Live happily.

Silent Hill is perhaps one of the greatest horror games out there. It’s not just one of the greatest PS1 titles, I’m comfortable calling it one of the best games out there.

The horror of Silent Hill is extremely effective in a way no other game is. Its aged flaws, while obviously dated, don’t at all detract from the experience. I’d even go as far as to say that those qualities ended up helping Silent Hill be the quality horror title it is.

Silent Hill is not a game that relies primarily on cheap jump scares or any other in your face moments. Rather than a loud and bombastic horror romp, Silent Hill is a quiet and mournful game. It’s a game that feels like wading through a nightmare, further supported with the cryptic nature of the puzzles and the sense of isolation present throughout every facet of the map. The fog and low draw distance-both features present entirely due to the low power of the PS1’s hardware-all serve to make the experience feel that more surreal and dreamlike, as well as the graphics and voice acting. This is not a game that could be remade and properly given justice: Silent Hill’s horror comes FROM its dated visuals and gameplay. Something that tried to “fix” Silent Hill by giving it remastered graphics and modern gameplay would be a title that would have missed out on what made the horror of Silent Hill so effective.

Silent Hill is a fantastic experience that is very much so worth checking out, even if you’re someone who typically doesn’t play older games. Through what might seem like a game that hasn’t aged the best, I think you’ll come to find that it’s a game drenched in atmosphere, and that it’s a title that remains superior even among horror releases to this day. It’s a fairly short game too, clocking in at about seven hours. I encourage you to check this title out.

And P.S. Watch Jacob’s Ladder.