On release, Wonder was quickly crowned the new king of the 2D Mario series by legions of folks who’d been burned deeply by the New Super Mario Bros. tetrology's shallow and uninspired aesthetic. I was there. I’ve played all of these games. 2D Mario games are important enough to me that I will play them on a TV, even if it means passers-by can look in and clearly tell that I’m not filing my tax returns. I finished Wonder with 100% completion on the weekend of October 20th, 2023 (unless you count the standees. I don’t). I’ve replayed all of its levels at least twice, with and without grabbing each Wonder Flower. You know I like this game a heck of a lot. Nevertheless, I’ve got a lot to say, not all of it good. This is gonna sound a bit dry.

On Super Mario Bros. Wonder (OR — "No Country for New Super Mario Bros.")

Visually, Wonder is closer to my Dream Mario than any other this side of Yoshi’s Island, and I do hope the next one commits even harder to the cartoonishness of this aesthetic. My first impression was that it had the best control of any game in the 2D series, and in most respects, I do still believe that. The “New” games carried with them this lumbering heaviness that I’m glad we’ve shed away. The Elephant power-up is a bit undercooked, but the other two additions appropriately shake up the player's relationship with enemies and the environment. Just being able to jump into enemies from below while at a full sprint makes the Drill a treat, even without considering its burrowing ability. The removal of a flight-based power was likely due to multiplayer, but in principle, it helps the game stay centered squarely on running and jumping, and encourages creative use of the Bubble Flower (which, yes, is more or less a retooled Bubble Yoshi from off of NSMBU). The Demon’s Souls online feature is welcome; I didn’t see myself playing as a guardian angel in a Mario game, but here we are. Badges are a solid addition too, especially for newcomers. I can play as Daisy. Awesome stuff. Promising. Shame that, to my taste, there’s a lot left on the table here.

Every stage of this game locks its enemies and visuals and stage gimmicks down almost completely; you’re not likely to see much crossover. There’s one rolla-koopa stage, one hoppycat stage, one condart stage. These guys are stuck in their zones. It results in an impressive level of variety, but also prevents the game from meaningfully building on concepts from stage to stage. You don’t get that blending of flavors you’ll find in the series’ earliest entries. In this respect, it’s arguably even more formulaic than the games it’s trying to subvert. Each level’s gimmicks undergo a similar arc before being put away, each of them with a Wonder Flower to find which activates a minigame or setpiece. Nothing so plain as the well-documented and scientifically-proven "Four Step Level Design" of New Super Mario Bros., they just remembered to add the sugar. Would people still be talking about Mario 3's Angry Sun if you had to pop a regularly-mandated Wonder Flower to activate it? I don’t think it helps that these stages are threaded together as loosely as they are.

Playing into its save feature, Super Mario World invited its players to revisit levels for alternate exits and hidden secrets. Wonder doubles down on that attitude, with a wide-open map and only a single file per user. You’re meant to dig around in these levels and scour the world, but there isn’t really a whole lot to find. Yes, there are large coins to collect, tops of flagpoles to grab, but – and I hate to grumble – these pale in comparison to the discovery of warp zones, unique power-ups, and routes which alter the trajectory of a playthrough. I think they’d have been better off hiding badges within full stages than keeping them in shops or bespoke levels on the overworld. I’m of the opinion that collectibles should feel immediately tangible and exciting. Wonder sidesteps the checklist school of design for the most part, but I’d like to see it drop outta these games completely.

Here's what I'm getting at – I don’t think Wonder is adept at curating its adventure, and I don’t get the impression that its developers made that a priority. There’s a sort of halfhearted effort to add a single story beat to each world, and it's unconvincing. Possible plants just don't tend to pay off. The talking flowers never do. Stages are clustered together with respect to difficulty and theming, but any pretense of a “flow” between them, that levels together form an arc, is rarely suggested. A level is an island unto itself. It’s because the game isn’t concerned with its own replayability, actively obfuscating the option to start a New Game. It’s because Wonder isn’t all that interested in blending ideas between stages. It’s because the “Wonder” gimmick, ironically, requires each level to follow the same general beats.

I came for an album, and what I got was a collection of singles. They’re good, even great singles, but I don’t think it comes together as a whole game in the same way each of the old classics did. I hope Wonder is a sign that Nintendo is open to getting even more experimental with the conventions of this series (maybe cut out the world map next time, have one continuous game of back-to-back platforming levels), and I’m glad it was well received. You can feel those seasoned designers stretching their legs with this one — it beats out the New Super Marios on charm factor alone — and I squeezed every last drop I could out of it. I believe greater heights are within reach for this series, but if this is the last for a while, I'll still be more than appreciative that Wonder got its moment in the spotlight.

(...if you'd like to see where this falls on my list of the Thirty-Five Best Games I Played in 2023, you can check it out here. Thanks for reading!)

I would like to thank @duhnuhnuh for gifting me this game, as a part of their massive Steam Key giveaway, and I’d recommend checking it out if you’d like to try some games out for the cost of absolutely nothing.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is sure the fifth video game entry in the Shantae video game series released on video game consoles in 2020.

Going back a few years, Shantae and the Seven Sirens feels bizarre. It entered development around March 2018-ish, and was revealed about a year later, simply as Shantae 5. It was somewhat exciting to me, as someone who hadn't played a Shantae game yet but was definitely interested in the series. I grew up watching the Shantae Pirate’s Curse commercials on the 3DS, so I knew all of the characters, and I also heard that FUCKING MUSIC! But fast-forward a few months, it was eventually revealed that it would be a timed Apple Arcade exclusive, and I think the Shantae fans died a little inside, but rest assured, the game was fully released… to no avail! I had genuinely not seen anybody talk about the new game. The Steam reception seemed positive, the Metacritic scores were solid, so what happened? It wasn't until my Summer of 2022 Shantae binge that I would beat and finish almost every game in the series, save for two. Shantae (the first one), because of a crash that was seemingly exclusive to Switch and 3DS, and Seven Sirens, and by god. I could tell why this game went under the radar. It was really… meh, for the lack of a better term. I had only played till about the first zone, but the game really lacked the fun factor of Pirate’s Curse, nor did it have the phenomenal level design of Half Genie Hero,and overall, it was just really fucking easy. Over a year later after release though, the game received a brand new update which gave it a Definitive Mode alongside 3 other modes, which was nice, although it also released to basically no fanfare. Did every Shantae fan just… disappear between 2018 and then? I wasn't aware of the new update as I was using a less than legal copy, but now that I have the Steam version, it's time to give the game another look. With the Definitive Mode, is Shantae and the Seven Sirens a worthwhile package? Or does it give me scurvy? The biggest issue is it’s lack of risk taking with the tried-and true Shantae formula, unlike the previous 3 games, making it feel very by the numbers as yet another entry in the Shantae franchise. And none of the games have felt so... generic before. Let’s pop open the hatch, and see why Seven Sirens is so disappointing (to me, at least).

Right off the bat, I do have a few praises regarding how WayForward implemented these 4 new game modes. While the Definitive Mode takes precedence over the Legacy Mode, if you wish, you can also revert to the Legacy Mode on a save by save basis, which is pretty nice. But also, another negative right off the bat. The graphics. I don’t like em, never have and never will; hell, I’ll goes as far as to say that the aesthetics are fundamentally flawed. A majority of this game’s graphics are follow the style of Half Genie Hero, but there’s a big issue with how the game is presented. Half Genie Hero was a beautiful game, being presented in the 2.5D art style that looked incredible on the eyes. The background had so many layers, the models were high quality, it was a really pretty looking indie game. Compare this screenshot to this one from Seven Sirens and the problem should be immediately apparent. Seven Sirens is presented in a 2D plain, and it looks flatter than my man boobs, not to mention the occasional model in the overworld which just looks out of place, like the many plants you’ll find. The cutscenes are the strongest visual aspect to the game. Studio Trigger animated the intro to the game, and it looks great. It's a bit too general for my tastes, as Risky really isn't a major part of the story, but it still looks frantic and fun overall. The in-game cutscenes aren't as fast paced as the first, but it still looks okay to me. But aside from the in-game cutscenes, it just doesn’t look appealing to me, akin to how the soundtrack never caught my ears.

You can really feel the loss of Jake Kaufman in the sound department here. The soundtrack of each individual Shantae game has been mostly solid, maybe save for the first game, but at least that released on GBC, and the compositions were actually pretty catchy. The composition team behind Seven Sirens was lead by Professor Sakamoto, and a variety of composer contributed to the soundtrack. But, what happened here??? All of it takes a chiptune-esque approach, which is fine (albeit odd for a hand-drawn graphic platformer), but it simply doesn’t sound memorable, nor really all that good. There’s a few decent songs here and there, but for the most part, the music is just… noise. No cohesion or anything., just… music… It’s easily my least favorite soundtrack in the entire series, and I really hope they can clap back with Advance.

When it comes to the game itself, it’s... odd to say the least, at least when it comes to progression and structure. Classic Shantae (2000 and Risky’s Revenge) had a big open map, while the Modern Games (Pirate’s Curse and Half Genie Hero) had much smaller, multiple maps. Sure, Half Genie Hero made it a level-by-level structure, but you still had to use your abilities to explore through to progress. It worked, although it was awkward at times to backtrack. Seven Sirens returns to the Classic Shantae style while also mixing in Modern Shantae, to somewhat mediocre results. Unlike previous Shantae games which had you use your abilities to progress, Shantae and the Seven Sirens opted for a more “find x item, bring it to here” design. It’s not terrible, but a part of me really missed the more character based progression of the previous games. It gave you an “Aha!” moment, but Seven Sirens doesn’t really do that all too well. At best, I really felt a sense of satisfaction that I was at least making progress, but what game fails at that? Maybe it’s because the abilities themselves... kind of suck.

Seven Sirens attempts to integrate the animals into your moveset, but it doesn’t really feel as great at how Pirate’s Curse did it. In Pirate’s Curse, you were always using all of your abilities at once. Not because you necessarily had to, but it was really fun to do so, and most of the level design in that game encouraged that. Big, flat open plain with a bunch of enemies you don't want to deal with? Annihilate their asses with the Dash. Seven Sirens, on the other hand, fails at this. I really only enjoyed the Newt Dash. The rest are kind of okay. You use them to progress. That’s it. No practical uses outside of combat, like Elephant, or Monkey from the classic games. But, if Shantae is a belly dancing genie, watt about her dances though? So… the dances. They’re all pretty annoying. Not only do they eat up your magic, meaning players going for the most combat-positive upgrades are essentially shot in the foot. But the dances themselves are really, really boring. Shantae uses an element, changes something in the current room, get the thing you need, move on. Needless to say. It’s not FUN. It’s so boring, like, is this REALLY the best you could do? What if the transformations changed your player character, but they all have different movesets which provide individual benefits? As it stands, the current system, it’s really not all that great.

As for the level design… it’s just your average Metroidvania level design. Well, what’s the issue? It’s JUST your average Metroidvania level design. Enemies are present in the map, everything connects together, use ability (without any inherent satisfaction to be had as it’s the most predictable thing you can fucking imagine), move on. Seriously, what happened to the level design in between Half Genie Hero and Seven Sirens? The levels aren’t dynamic at all, and not even the fucking enemies are different. It’s just so… AVERAGE. Ugh. At least the enemies are occasionally fun to fight, but good lord. Not to mention the multi-staged fetch quests throughout Paradise Island. Shantae’s fetch quests, at least since Pirate’s Curse, have been pretty reserved. Usually you have to return to an area only once, rarely twice, and never again. And it was actually fun, since all of your abilities were awesome to use, complimenting the previous level design. Sure, Half-Genie Hero wasn't as great in this aspect, as the animals weren't integrated into your moves, but at the very least you had the teleport dance, as well as less backtracking in general. Seven Sirens is absolutely loaded with this, but unlike Pirate’s Curse, the moveset is just too unviable for general use. There's a few more than Pirate’s Curse, but once again, they're not all for general use. The best out of the few is easily the triple jump and dash. The rest are just awkwardly bad. The shell is too unwieldy for general platforming, and hitting a big enough enemy completely stops it. It's thankfully manually charged, unlike Pirate's Curse, which was a bit finicky, but it's still eclipsed by the Pirate's Curse dash. And the Drill and Frog just kinda… sucked. They're just too slow and tedious, good lord. That's the best way to describe this game. It's not doing anything innovative, just existing half of the time. And it infuriates me. There needs to be a case study on how Seven Sirens fails at competent modern Metroidvania design. Rather than expressing its level design through your own player character, it remains stagnant by only requiring the bare minimum of you, leaving it as the least engaging of the centrilogy, soon to be hexology. Advance better not have these problems, because this game is severely lacking in the fun factor of the previous games.

But why are we traveling through this big, open world, gaining new abilities and rescuing these half-naked women? Well, look no further than the plot. Shantae and her friends are invited to “Paradise Island” (seriously???), an island filled with sunshine non-stop. It's here where Shantae meets four other Half Genies, as a plot point established in the first game; Plink, the smallest one, Vera, the best one, Zapple, the strong one, Filin, obviously Rottytops, and Harmony, the tallest one, holy shit. All of them get ready for a massive Half-Genie Festival, but on the night of the festival, all of the genies (sparing Shantae) disappear. Determined to find answers, Shantae explores all throughout Paradise Island in search of the Half-Genies. Risky Boots is encountered but denies any foul-play at hand The Half-Genies and even the bosses themselves are pretty one-note for the most part. It's about as video-gamey as plot structure gets. Find Half-Genie, kill Siren, bam, onto the next thing. Oh, but surprise surprise, Risky Boots was behind the entire thing!!! Well, partially at least. Because the Empress Siren made a deal with Risky if Risky kidnapped the 5 Half-Genies. Soooo… yeah. Almost entirely Risky’s fault. But here’s the thing. If Risky wanted to kidnap the genies, how in the HELL did she not take notice to Shantae? Shantae is Risky's arch nemesis; she’s SEEN Shantae do her genie moves in previous games. Why only leave Shantae? Why not kidnap them all? Sure, It’d be overkill, but nobody else would be able to rescue the Half Genes, let alone Rottytops and friends while they’re lazing about. Oh, and the Empress Siren? She just feeds off of the Genies to survive because Harmony’s mother placed a spell on her. Then she practically kills Risky, and then plans to become immortal by taking everyone’s life force. They fight, a shitty boss battle occurs- WAIT.

I’m completely with Yuzrnaime on this, the fights are genuinely TERRIBLE. Not only do they have an UNHEALTHY amount of HP, a majority of them sped long periods of time in invulnerability. IT’S GENUINELY IRRITATING. I’d type out a long ass rant, but I’m writing this at 2AM. Bitch, PLEASE. But once you kill Empress, she dies, Risky comes back, Shantae and friends leave, the end. Sweet dreams.

Seven Sirens is certainly one of the most disappointing games I've ever played through. As a follow up to the two best entries in the series, it really falters. It's a game with 80% hot air in between it's content, succeeding at almost nothing it does in the remaining 20%. I didn't feel terribly angry while playing, just mildly annoyed. Shantae's abilities? Occasionally fun, but mostly annoying. The world map? Generic and mostly annoying. The dungeon designs? Among the worst in the series for simply how annoying they are. The bosses? Padded out and annoying. The music? Bland, and more importantly, annoying. I left Seven Sirens mostly ambivalent to its content, no desire to really play it, but most importantly, annoyed. I feel annoyed at this game's very existence. Not angry. Simply. Annoyed.

I played a bunch of these games when I was younger and (as is typical for child Whom) never beat any of em, so I wanted to at least finish this one before checking out Rift Apart.

I love the retrofuturism, I love the stretchy animation, I love Clank being a little cutie, I love the simple as can be environmentalism, I love the absolutely nuts electronic soundtrack, and I love the early 00s silliness of it all, right down to Ratchet being an asshole skater bro too self-absorbed to even care about entire worlds being destroyed. I truly hate that little shit but it's fun seeing that "whatever man" attitude being pushed to such a ridiculous extreme and getting the latest and least earned turnaround possible.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is what really comes up short and makes this not come together nearly as well as I would hope. It's all kinda crusty in a way its more polished peers never were. Beyond minor UX woes with the menus that add up, my main problem is that the optimal strategy in nearly every combat scenario is to stay out of range and pick everyone off at a distance. This isn't too much of a problem at first but up-close combat gets less and less viable as you approach the end of the game and there's a point where it's pretty much a forced playstyle. Not only is exploiting enemy sightlines not that engaging of a way to play, but in this kind of giant arsenal game I expect to have a lot of unique ways to approach combat encounters and those are pretty lacking. The last few levels are mostly spent shooting rockets at stationary enemies who would annihilate you if you got too close, and that's a shame because other than the combat you're mostly left with a few scattered distractions, as the platforming is rather barebones.

I do like those distractions though! They are relics of the era that I adore: minigames and other jarringly different modes of gameplay. Like sure, I'll take racing sequences and a one-off optional turret defense minigame in my action platformer. Not that stuff like that doesn't happen anymore, but it seemed to be obligatory back then, and I sure appreciated any reason to stick around and just hang out in a game as a kid with a limited library who only needed the smallest bit to work with to remain engaged for a long-ass time. Playing this now, I only wish there were more.

I can still find quite a bit to enjoy, but I think the OG Ratchet & Clank is mostly of interest to me because it's a nostalgic curiosity released in the exact time many of my first permanent memories were forming. Ratchet & Clank is neat but it's no Jak and Daxter, let's put it that way.

+ Innovative entry for the franchise
+ Great difficulty for Pokemon
+ Story and twists are good
+ Interesting region that's fun to explore
+ Completing the dex is extremely fun thanks to being able to catch Pokemon without battling them
+ Agile/Strong moves are a great yet simple innovation
- Some Pokemon locked behind owning BDSP, which prevent people who don't from catching the mascot of the game
- Not being able to buy necessities such as Ultra Balls and Max Potions without completing certain quests
- UI is annoying to navigate when it comes to items and the map

Cool game and all, but funny how they waited a month to reveal the microtransaction Tekken shop instead of announcing it at launch. Surely they didn't hide it to bump up review scores, right?
(But genuinely whyyy did they do this, they have much better pricing than SF6 and MK1 and would have been fine if they were up front about it, its the fact that they hid it that's so scummy to me.)

Edit: Lol, lmao
They did the street fighter thing where costumes cost $4 in the shop but you can only buy the premium currency at $5. Also they have single use items (ie fireworks) that cost real money too, arguably worse than what MK1 and SF6 are doing somehow. Not to mention still not fixing one of the games biggest issues - rage quitting - despite pretty much every other fighting game having solved it?

Edit: They're also charging for a battle pass that, just like SF6, has basically nothing worth the cost on it. I'm not surprised but I am disappointed. Plugging problems have not been fixed, recent patches have been widely maligned by players that actually know jack about high level Tekken, so I'm inclined to believe that those arguments are valid.

wao, this is certainly a video game. The girls on the cover definitely jebaited my curiosity only to blindside me with a very ho-hum puzzle game with varying degrees of jankiness.

The game is basically like a weird mixture of pipe dreams and tetris where you stack together these fleshy intestinal tubes and making a completely enclosed section causes it to disappear. There's also occasionally times where a fairy will come down and destroy the bottommost layer of the board, which can honestly hurt things just as much as it helps. I will admit there is SOME layer of sauce that can be found, as i was able to do a few decent combo chains by smartly arranging blocks, but it's all too RNG dependant on block drops to feel all too skill based. It's also the first virtual boy game to actually hurt my eyes after playing for a while, as the entire playfield likes to suddenly pulsate outwards at points for no reason, and that quick having to readjust my focus forward then immediately back to normal is just unnecessary eyestrain. The game has a GIANT message in both english and japanese telling you to take a break and rest your eyes after every two levels and when the game is paused, and I think I understand why they did that. At least they have a girl on the right side of the screen at all times, complete with 3D "jiggle physics" (i am putting that in air quotes because i feel like the occasional one-pixel movement of the girls chest barely qualifies) so I guess that counts for something?

It's just a bizarre release for sure. Apparently it's one of the last VB games to come out and as such is one of the rarest, reaching absurd prices in the secondhand market. I shouldn't have to tell you that shit aint worth it lmao. If I do have to give this game credit, it's that the development history for this game is certainly interesting!

Really, the bad game hall of fame has a better and more detailed writeup about this game and the circumstances that created it than anything I could ever write so give it a read! They even managed to interview the sole developer!

Between 3, 4, and 5, Persona 3 was always my least favourite. Tartarus was a tedious slog, you didn't get to delve very far into your relationships with the people you were closest to, there were bizarrely no option to just be friends with any of the love interests meaning you just didn't get to finish Social Links, and above all there was simply no definitive version of the game with FES and Portable both having features the others lacked. But what Persona 3 did always have was a strong story, a well-defined message, a great main party, and of course, a tremendous soundtrack. While Persona 3 Reload disappointingly lacks a FeMC route, I am happy to say that it features everything else I could want from the game and more, and (unless you want to experience the better main character), the easiest version of the game to point to and say yes, you should play Persona 3.

For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.

The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.

Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.

P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.

And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.

There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.

Like A Dragon's pivot to turn-based RPG fighting finally pays off in the sequel, as the improvements to the combat and job system start to give the battles their own identity. Kiryu's unique job with its fighting styles and beat-em-up finisher is a particular highlight, and I look forward to see if those evolve in future entries. But the strength of the Ichiban games have always been the likeable and well-rounded cast of characters mixed with a compelling crime drama. While the story is ambitious, it can drag at times. Ultimately I don't think it manages to mix these elements or stick the landing as well as LAD7 or 0, though those are extremely high bars that make this criticism a minor one. Either way, the real payoff is in the plentiful character moments for Ichiban and Kiryu, and showing that the true heart of the series is a deep kindness and respect for humanity. It manages to be a great sendoff for Kiryu, truly the best thing that's ever happened to him is being forced to hang out with Ichiban's dumbass friends.

I enjoyed the original Hebereke when I played it back in 2022 and I’m glad to say Hebereke 2 delivers. The game tries to be different with the approach to level design going for more of a linear progression with slight differences and a bit of a new level design in some revisits. The game still does lock some levels behind characters you need to unlock or abilities like the original. It’s clear here that a lot of passion was put into this title. It really does respect the original game with how good it feels like this could have been a game from the 90s outside of the graphics. Even the writing and charm is perfect here outside of the whole schtick of video games sure being different nowadays kind of talk. I also really love seeing more conversations, the group can be really funny sometimes. Freeon Leon and Bop Louie from the PAL version of the original even cameo in this game, I don’t even play that version and that got me excited seeing that.

Going into that early, the game graphically is a treat. I adore how this game looks and while it does in some ways hide the budget the game probably has, I appreciate them going for this rather than something like the usual pixel art. I think one of my favorite details was the text boxes and Famicom sprites of the cast being made out of perler beads. The music is pretty good too in its own way. I wouldn’t say it’s better than the original but think of it more as a nice alternative to the OG soundtrack. I will say though that the Switch version has frame drops so be thoughtful of the version you play, I assume it runs better on Steam.

The only real negative I had with Hebereke 2 was the bosses. Look, the original was not hard and that also went for the bosses. I don’t even mind the game being easy because the journey is just so fun and relaxing at times that I can ignore it being easy. This isn’t the case for the bosses as they feel like a huge afterthought especially with the final boss. It’s a shame they weren’t given more interesting ideas but I guess it’s better than being frustrating.

If you want to play a game that’s fun, has really good graphics, isn’t $40, isn’t using bland 3D graphics and is a remake of a Famicom game, Hebereke 2 is not a bad choice to play. I will say though that you will probably enjoy it all that much if you didn’t care for the original. If you haven’t played the original, I’d recommend loading it on an emulator or waiting for the new rerelease coming this month to Switch to give the Famicom game a try. While the game isn’t $40, it’s still a $25 game and for how short the game is, that will probably be a tough sell for anyone that wasn’t a fan of the original game. I feel like my rating of Hebereke 2 might be too high but for me, I just had a lot of fun playing it and I’m glad it was worth the wait, glad to see Sunsoft return and hope they continue to make more cool games.

Also please Sunsoft, remake Wing of Madoola I’m BEGGING!!