Portal 2 feels like the fully realized version of the original Portal. At it's core it feels the same, but the sequel just has so much more going for it, more personality.

In this game, Chell is no longer bound to the test chambers of Aperture Science like in the first Portal. After an incident in the story, she decides to take a little stroll through an abandoned salt mine and the backstage parts within the facility while she's at it. All of this while she is accompanied by three unique companions throughout the game. Speaking of the companions, the dialogue in Portal 2 is a big improvement over the one in Portal. In the first game, GLaDOS' comments happened every now and then, but here you pretty much have a narrator by your side all the time. This alone makes for quite the tonal shift in atmosphere to Portal, which had a pretty isolated and empty feeling to it - I can see how people prefer that, but personally I really enjoyed the extra dialogue and characters, since GLaDOS' remarks in the first game were one of the best parts for me. Back to the atmosphere in general, I think Valve did a really good job with setting an unique vibe for each individual area. My personal favorite is the salt mine, the vintage setting really landed for me!

As for gameplay, Portal 2 introduces a variety of mechanics to make the puzzles more enjoyable than the first game. Energy balls are completely gone this time and are replaced with light bridges, gravity beams, new cube variants and three different sorts of paint. Sounds like overkill at first, but those mechanics don't really overstay their welcome and they are really fun to play around with.

The narrative weaves those puzzles together in a logical way, while also delving into the background story of Chell and Aperture Science; there's some really good worldbuilding in there. The companions aren't one-note personalities and each one adds to the story with a different purpose, which makes them distinctive and memorable in their own ways.

Overall it's an amazing puzzle game, absolutely deserves the praise it's been getting. Had a good time with the main story, but the community maps are a nice treat if you're still in the mood for some more Portal action.

A great little collectathon you can beat in one sitting. The launch of Celeste 64 caught me entirely by surprise and the fact that this game was made in just a week is astonishing. Not much to say about it except that it's a lot of fun (despite the janky camera) and translates the gameplay elements of Celeste into 3D fairly well. Wish it was a bit longer, but I'm not really complaining since it was made in such a short time - maybe this concept will be fully realized one day if the reception is positive? Only time will tell.

Final stats (taken from the results screen):
🍓x25
💀x089
⏱47:55:455

I have never actually finished Portal before, but this game has plagued my Steam library for years, so eventually I gave in this evening to see for myself why it's so universally loved. And now I can see the appeal!

It's a very straightforward puzzle game with the origin of one of the most iconic gimmicks in gaming - the Portal Gun. It's like the coolest thing you can have in a game besides grappling hook mechanics; sometimes I'd just shoot portals and walk through them continuously for fun or freefall for a bit. Portal also wastes no time with cutscenes, it's basically uninterrupted gameplay from start to finish (loading screens obviously excluded). In general, the puzzles are pretty clever and often require you to think out of the box (well, literally). A personal highlight for me were the snarky comments of GLaDOS - an AI assistant that accompanies you throughout the facility. I found the weakest part of the game to be like halfway through, where you have seen a bunch of mechanics a couple time already, but the game does little new to innovate them - before the ending segment, that is. The entire final sequence was a blast to play and felt fresh again after the tedium of some previous puzzles. That's the innovation I like to see.

If you're a puzzle fan or just need something you can beat in one sitting (if you're dedicated), Portal is a great time and I would very definitely recommend it for the low price you can get it on various Steam Sales. Really looking forward to playing Portal 2 soon!

I've actually been dreading to write this review for a while now, since I feel like Catherine's overall reception is... not so good for the most part (from what I've read atleast). That didn't stop me from having a blast in my time with it though and here's why.

As for the gameplay, the puzzles are fun, controls are simple and responsive. Once you learn a bunch of techniques as you play through the game, you can really feel how your skills improve (like in a fighting game) and this knowledge will carry over to each of the puzzles you do. Getting the hang of the mechanics just feels very satisfying and being able to master dealing with certain blocks you once had problems with is great. Overall it's genuinely some of the most fun and unique gameplay I've experienced (...Final Boss aside, but more about that later).

Catherine doesn't only excel in the gameplay department, it also has a great art direction and a very fitting soundtrack. It's really cool when the main menu reflects the characters' personalities already without actively spelling it out to the player. Katherine is being shown sitting in the shadows with Vincent being chained to the wall by her side, while Catherine herself appears in the foreground in the menu and changes her position depending on your navigation through the menu, presenting her "freedom" and being able to do what she wants. Maybe I'm interpreting too much into this and it wasn't the intention of the developers at all, but the fact that a menu even allows me to make those theories is good enough to me. Main menu aside, the entire game has a gloomy mood overall that's conveyed really well. I don't know if it's the lighting in the bar, the soundtrack, or the characters Vincent meets along the way. It's hard to describe and yet it feels like everything's at the right place somehow.

The story itself is actually pretty simple, but it was also intriguing enough for me to always look forward to what would come next. As a semi-Megaten game, Catherine features a "morality meter", and it basically works just like the alignment system in the Shin Megami Tensei games in a way that your answers to the characters will affect Vincent's morality and the further course of the storyline. However, you shouldn't just worry about how Vincent's doing, because other familiar faces are having the same nightmares as him and if you're not willing to listen to their problems properly, they might meet a sudden end...

Everything I said has been quite positive so far, but I'd also like to address some aspects that bothered me and... could just have been left out entirely. Let's start with the boring complaint first - I didn't like the Final Boss. They were too RNG-based for my likings and the sudden random homing attacks and the move that pauses you mid-movement (really great when you're standing on a trap block!) got somewhat frustrating after a few tries. In defense of the game, I could have just used the provided checkpoints to make it a little easier for me, but I wanted to get the Gold Prize for the level, so I had to do it without any checkpoints at all. This resulted in the final stretch before the last goal being one of the most intense parts in gaming for me (the music really elevated that feeling). Skill issue? Maybe.

My second complaint is the use of absolutely unnescessary transphobia in two scenes. This is an issue many other people are also having with the game, so I think it's really important to address this problem. Erica, one of the characters in Catherine, is a trans woman who has been friends with Vincent's gang since high school and works as a waitress at the bar. I don't even want to go in detail about what exactly is said, since I feel that's rude, but basically one of the scenes in Katherine's True Ending (which is a good ending by the way) has a character suddenly deadname Erica and making a rude remark about her. Got me rolling my eyes and pretend the scene just never happened (since it bears no importance on the story anyways), so I could just blank it out and not let it affect my overall enjoyment of the game I love so much for all the other reasons I mentioned.

Anyways, I just picked up Full Body on an eShop sale yesterday and am really looking forward to experiencing this game again in a new coat of paint (and especially to see how Rin is integrated into the story). Persona 3 Reload is also coming along nicely, almost done with it now. Speaking of Persona, did you know Catherine was originally a tech demo for Persona 5? That would make it the best tech demo I've played since Portal. In any case, thanks for reading.

Fanservice Sensory Overload

In the light of Sonic x Shadow Generations' release later this year, there's a good chance the original Generations would get delisted from Steam, so I went ahead and grabbed it as long as I still could, but waited until finishing Origins, as I wanted to see as many references as possible - wise choice!

As I've already mentioned in the opener, Sonic Generations is fanservice incarnate. Every stage present here is a reimagining of an already existing one and you're going through them in release order. Each level has two acts, with the first one always being 2D and the second one being a mixture of 3D and 2.5D - although I think it would have been better if Modern Sonic's stages were just 3D, since the 2D sections take out the speed from the levels they were built around, but also because there are cases like Planet Wisp's Act 2, where the 2D segments end up being a lot longer than the 3D ones, despite the latter being the main draw of Modern Sonic's levels. However, Classic Sonic is not all sunshine and rainbows either, as his physics feel a bit off compared to the original games, but I can turn a blind eye to this, as Generations runs on an entirely different engine. It's also worth noting that the 2D level structure generally feels a bit strange and half-baked at times, City Escape Act 1 stands out especially in that regard to me. YMMV.

In terms of presentation, Generations still looks fantastic 13 years later and is the prettiest Sonic game I've played so far. It's the type of game to leave a smile on your face as you rush through those familiar levels with newly composed remixes and experience them from a different perspective - 2D zones in 3D and the other way around. Seeing Speed Highway for the first time on the hub world gave me joy, the same can also be said for the revamped Shadow chase (good lord, that fight was messy in SA2) and the second boss in Generations. But I've already said enough, some of those surprises are just better if you see them with your own eyes.

Despite being rather short compared to the Adventure duology, Sonic Generations doesn't overstay its welcome with the main story and still has enough side content for those who want to play it a bit more. As an anniversary game, it completed its task successfully - celebrating 20 years of Sonic with a really fun time.

I finally found him... the Iblis Trigger!

One might argue about Sonic 06 being the worst Sonic game out there, or even one of the worst games ever made, but as someone who just got into the series a while ago, I personally don't share that sentiment. It has a fair share of issues, like universally reused levels across the three different routes and a really bad camera, but as an actual game, I think it's playable enough.

That being said, I do need to mention that I played it exclusively on Xenia, so the infamous long loading screens did not affect my enjoyment at all, as they were cut short to about a tenth of their supposed normal time. There's really a lot of them and it's silly how you even find them randomly popping up in the middle of a level. So if you're playing on original hardware, bring a book for the trials in Sonic's and Silver's routes.

Sonic's campaign is the most normal out of the three, he retains most of his Sonic Adventure moveset, but with a worse spindash and special mach speed sections. These speed sections are pretty much the prototype to the boost segments in Generations, except the speed is incredibly overtuned here and you're likely to crash every other second or get sent across the stage with just a slight misstep. It's especially frustrating when the camera shifts back and forth like in the Crisis City tornado chase, because it completely messes up your inputs and steers you in the wrong direction despite going for the right way before it shifts. But I'm not just going to limit my issues with the camera to the mach speed segments, it stays problematic for the entire game. For starters, the camera controls are inverted and you can't change it in the options at all. While this might seem jarring to get used to at first, the real culprit when it comes to 06's camera, is especially how it automatically "fixes" itself during homing attacks. Every time you attack an enemy with it, the auto camera shifts away from the ground and gives you a front view on the enemy - this is especially horrible for airborne enemies, when you don't have solid ground beneath you. It's definitely one of the worst cameras I have ever seen in a game and it made platforming much more worse than it had to be.

Silver's playstyle is mostly centered around projectile-based attacks and he has no normal melee moves at all, the closest thing you'll get is his electric ground pound, which allows you to throw most of the enemies you electrify afterwards - something I realized in Silver's final level, because the game does NOT tell you about it. So if you play through his campaign without knowing about this, two issues arise. The first one is clearly the dependency on throwables in the nearby vicinity, most of the time these are crates, but more than often also barrels or the bullets of enemies. In many scenarios a few crates just respawn indefinitely at certain locations to supply you with enough stuff to throw at the bad guys, but there are a few times where it's really bothersome when they don't respawn. My favorite example for this is the escort mission near the end of Silver's campaign, where you have to bring an NPC from one side of the town to the other, but you only have a few barrels on the way at your disposal and it takes a long time for them to respawn and I'm sure some didn't even respawn at all. I still think it's pretty strange that the playable Silver can't pick up the tables and chairs on the plaza, as he could do it perfectly fine in his boss fight in Sonic's campaign. Now, putting the scarcity of throwables aside, another big point is how reliant you're on the auto-aim. In most cases it works fine when you throw it in the general direction of an enemy, but when you're fighting a good amount of them at once, the aiming gets messy and can't really decide which enemy to go for anymore. I also found it extremely difficult to get the homing shots to hit the screws of the big robots when they're on the ground, so I had to skip finishing them every now and then just because most og the crates I threw just bounced off the robots instead of going for the screws. Again, a little melee move to just deal that final blow would have changed so much already. That being said, ultimately Silver was a nice change of pace from Sonic (even if it meant considerably slower combat) and it was fun to skip a few sections by abusing the horribly broken levitation mechanic - try mashing A instead of holding it, and you can fly like 50% over the intended distance to access areas where you're definitely not supposed to be.

Shadow the Hedgehog is a great character, but he's also the character with the worst opening level, which caused me to postpone his campaign until after Silver's. For the most part he plays similar to Sonic, but trades the spindash for an extended aerial combo and... armed vehicles? There clearly still was some Shadow 05 inspiration left behind, except he doesn't have guns this time. Either way, Shadow's campaign is no marvel in gameplay design, as the stage recycling is very apparent in this route and I'd say about 90% of the content (including bosses) are taken from Sonic's Story. Gameplay aside, the story direction in this campaign is pretty interesting and I like the emphasis on Mephiles as a villain, he also has a very cool theme. Shadow's conflict here feels like a more refined version of Shadow 05 and I think Mephiles plays a large part in this, as Black Doom just had that cartoonish tone to him, which didn't make him as imposing as... Shadow's literal shadow. So that was nice.

To round it all off, the Last Story truly is the cherry on top after all the already established misery and one-ups it with arguably the single most nerve-wracking and unfair level in the entire game. The End of the World consists of several smaller sections, where you play as the entire cast back-to-back in order to reclaim the Chaos Emeralds. Conceptually this sounds like a great way to end the game, a best-of consisting of... entirely copy pasted segments from the main levels, randomly spawning and unfairly placed insta-kill black holes and a random blue-ish color filter slapped on everything, but at least the background track gets you pumped. It's just not a good level and especially the black holes make things way more frustrating than they should be, the fact that they can just randomly pop up in your face is awful too. You get the point. As for the final boss, it's unfortunately just a really unengaging fight, but atleast the ending is alright.

And of course you can't miss the soundtrack in a Sonic game: His World, The Water's Edge and Kingdom Valley are some of my top picks for 06. (Those vocals in the Kingdom Valley track remind my a lot of NieR Automata, pretty nice.) Just another all-around great soundtrack overall and I'm glad to see that even haters of this game can admit the OST is good at the very least.

Would I recommend Sonic 06 to a friend? Probably not, you're likely better off playing Project 06 when it's finished.
Did I have fun regardless? Yeah.

In the name of Hades!

Creating a story-based game around roguelike gameplay is certainly a challenging task, but Supergiant did a fantastic job with the ludonarrative consistency throughout the game. The insane amount of (voiced!) dialogue really make you connect with Zagreus' journey through his eyes and all the various highs and lows he's going through. Also the gameplay is great, no wonder Zagreus is always going through those same chambers again and again!

Now about the cast, they're all great and unique and the artstyle paired with the designs really brings them to life. The friendship system and occasional encounters really help them flesh out their personalities. In my opinion the developers really did a great job on depicting Greek mythology in the way they did.

I should've mentioned this earlier, but the game is very casual-friendly for a roguelike and definitely worth looking into, even if you're not into these kind of games normally. Because of the sheer amount of dialogue and permanent upgrades the games presents you between your runs, you always have something new and fun to look forward to. It also has an easy mode, which still lets you experience the same journey with less stress - don't feel ashamed to use it!

Give Hades a shot if you love mythology or roguelikes, or the artstyle or anything! This journey has been truly unique, and I've hardly ever seen a gameplay loop integrated so well into a story. Can't wait for the sequel!

"Just focus on tying up all your loose ends - then you and I are leaving this city once and for all." ~ Judy Álvarez

For many, Cyberpunk 2077 will always be remembered as the game with arguably the worst launch next to No Man's Sky. It was a bugfest and the console experience was so bad that refunds were provided from the developers themselves. But I'm not here to talk about the launch - instead I would like to share my personal experience after ~100 hours of playing and getting all available endings, entirely in patch 2.1 and right off the bat with Phantom Liberty (which I reviewed already).

Cyberpunk really shines in terms of presentation. The vibes are incredible, Night City nails the feeling of a dystopian and futuristic metropolis perfectly. You know, flashy neon lights and advertisements are plastered all over the city and the streets are always busy. Another thing that really helps the immersion here is the lighting. An often overlooked aspect, but it's probably the best ambient lighting I've ever seen in a game alongside Red Dead Redemption 2. Do yourself a favor and cruise through Night City on a rainy night, you'll see what I'm talking about. By the way, this is without Raytracing. RTX enabled is a whole different beast, but I didn't keep it on for long, because it was taking a serious toll on my frames and I'm a person who likes to enjoy games with a smooth framerate over graphical fidelity all day.

The main story is solid, albeit not very long. You could probably finish it under 20 hours in total if you're beelining the main quests and ignore the side content. Despite the short runtime, you'll find yourself in a lot of cool setpieces and get acquainted to many great characters, each with their own individual questline. I would definitely recommend playing those quests, since they're a lot more personal than the overarching narrative and really help understanding the struggles and personalities of V's friends better. Speaking of those friends, I think the fluff text messages you get every now and then are a great feature. Makes the world feel more alive and it's always nice to see characters being relevant outside of their own contained substories. Romance is also a neat little mechanic - I really like how CDPR provides extra text messages for your partner, so they ask about V's life every now and then. There's an unique quest where you can also hang out with them at your apartment and talk about stuff, this is repeatable, but unfortunately the dialogue repeats after the first time. Just use your imagination here and you're golden.

Cyberpunk's side content is mainly divided into two different mission types - gigs and side jobs. Gigs are one-time missions where you do a quick job for a fixer of choice, like breaking into an apartment to retrieve some data for a client. How you handle those missions is entirely up to you (unless there's an optional objective you'd like to complete), so you could opt for a stealthy approach or just shoot your way through the enemies. Combat in general is very diverse, you can have Mantis Blade implants inside your arms or blind enemies with hacks - there are so many possible builds. I went with a Netrunner/Gunslinger build, since not many games offer you the opportunity to weaken your opponents by just hacking them! And pistols just feel like the most comfy ranged option to me - a silenced one for stealth and another unsilenced one for loud combat. If you're still unsure on a build, I'd recommend testing some of the iconic weapons (basically the "legendary" weapons of this game), since they come with unique perks. There's a lot of them, so I'm sure some of them will appeal to you. Now, I didn't go in detail about the side jobs, but that's because they're more narrative-driven quests. Some of them feel like the Stranger quests in RDR2, while others have more complex tales to tell. So basically they are a great pastime if you're looking for more worldbuilding in Night City.

If you found yourself asking the whole time "But what about the bugs?", while reading this, then I'll gladly answer that for you. In my 97 hours of playtime I only had a single crash happen (right before writing this review ironically), but since the game autosaves often enough, it was a loss of like 3 minutes only. I haven't encountered a single game-breaking bug, just some small immersion-breakers every now and then, alongside two "real" bugs. This includes various items clipping into the hands of NPCs when they were supposed to put them away and NPCs in general teleporting on rooftops where they aren't supposed to be. The "real" bugs were my V glitching through a wall after a character crashed my car into that wall in a scripted cutscene (had to reload my save) and I've also had enemies walk through a closed garage door once - but that one was rather funny, despite being unfair. There's another problem I'd like to address, but I'm not entirely sure if it's a bug, so I'm not going to label it as one. It's related to quests starting through calls of certain characters. The game explicitly tells you "Wait a day until this character calls you back." and then sometime they just don't call at all, despite 24 hours having passed in-game. Worst offender was when I tried to start the follow-up mission to the companion mission "Off the Leash", the quest giver was supposed to call after one in-game day but it took me two real-time hours (after several virtual days passed already) for that character to call. For your own sanity I recommend doing other gigs or side jobs inbetween, because I'm very sure the calls will come on time if you don't just try to exploit the waiting feature to skip to those quests instantly. Try to let it play out naturally.

Are you a fan of the Edgerunners anime? Well, good news for you! The world of Cyberpunk 2077 also includes small nods to the series, like the graves of the deceased characters at the cemetery. There's also a side job where you can get David's iconic jacket and you can find Rebecca's famous shotgun out in the world too (if you remember the spot she left it in the anime).

The final point I'd like to address in this review is the soundtrack. (Yeah, there are other songs besides I Really Want To Stay At Your House.) While the OST in The Witcher 3 had a calmer, more comforting vibe, Cyberpunk's music fits the high octane combat accordingly, but some of the best tracks come from the sad and serious moments in the game. For car rides, the different radio stations allow you to listen to your music genre of choice. Speaking of the cars, I find it a lot more satisfying to drive to quest locations than to just quick travel there (which I regrettably did a lot in like the first 20 hours of my playthrough). It's just a lot more immersive and driving feels great if you have a car you like. (My personal favorite ride is the Outlaw, great speed and handles well.)

I have talked a lot about this game now. That's because I love it. So if you would ask me if Cyberpunk is worth it, I would definitely recommend you to pick up the base game on sale sometime and go for Phantom Liberty if you want to spend more time in this fantastic world. It's pretty much in a fixed state now and if what I described in this review seems interesting to you, why not give it a go? There were very few moments where I was actually bored, even the beginning is great and brings you pretty fast into the action (unlike a certain cowboy game I have named several times in this review already).

That's all I wanted to share - thanks for reading.

The textbook definition of a flawed masterpiece.

It's no secret that the original Final Fantasy VII is a legendary game that changed the gaming landscape forever - would a remake ever be able to live up to it? Well, I'd say it depends on what you're looking for. I've only played the original FF7 up until the Shinra Building, so I can't really answer this question more in detail, but I can tell you the remake (and possibly the rest of the trilogy) is an exceptional experience, IF you're willing to accept something different. This might sound weird, so let me explain.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is not an 1:1 remake of the iconic original game. Without spoiling anything, it's trying something new in the already established world of Midgar in the hope of pleasing both fans of the original game and newcomers entirely new to the franchise or Final Fantasy VII in general. I'm not trying to give too much away, but basically, there are those new mysterious entities, and a common complaint is them being too involved in the plot. I wasn't a fan of those either for a long time, but after finishing the game and understanding their purpose, I reflected on their inclusion for a bit and then thought they were integrated fairly well actually. To sum things up, FF7R doesn't replace FF7 at all; they both have the same major plot beats, characters and everything, but are heading into different directions. This way there are new surprises in store for returning players, but it also brought out frustrations in others, since now will never be a "true" remake of the original game - and I can totally understand that sentiment.

The identity of 7R however wasn't the reason why I called it a flawed masterpiece in the opening sentence, instead it's some things that still could have been better. Even though I had a fantastic time with the game as a whole, I feel the need to still address those problems, as I'm not only writing those reviews for myself, but also to help others. With that out of the way, the most apparent flaw is the amount of filler content every now and then. A good example of this is near the end of the game, where the party backtracks to a previous dungeon as part of the story to retrieve an important item for another character. The issue at hand: a monster has stolen this key item! This results in a 30-minute segment of tracking down the monster by backtracking through the exact same segments of this dungeon used previously in the game. At least you get a sweet resolution for that character at the end, so it's not all for naught. But coming back to the dungeon/level design, that's a point I have mixed thoughts on. On one hand, Midgar in the original game was incredibly linear and the world only really opened up later, on the other hand, the remake could have fixed this - but this is where they decided to stay faithful! The Hallway Simulator™ complaints are entirely justified, however it never was that much of a problem for me, since those dungeons look pretty atleast and you get many fun conversations with your party members along the way, so it doesn't feel like the game is trying to waste your time.

Generally the setpieces are more lively than ever before, the little details everywhere and the new third-person camera make for a so much more immersive experience than the top-down view of the original game. My favorite example is the Wall Market chapter in the remake, the lighting and bustling streets really sold me on the festive vibe the devs were going for. The entire segment was a real joy to play through and it is a prime example of extending the overall playtime in a meaningful way. This also applies for the Collapsed Expressway and Train Graveyard in the remake for me, for fans of the original game those areas might be too long (as they were only one to two screens long in the original game), but I loved how the devs expanded on those already established locations, it adds to the sense of scale in the massive dystopian city of Midgar. In general, I believe this "sense of scale" is exceptionally well done throughout the game, there are several occasions where you can just gaze in awe upon the towering buildings of the city from below or some other parts where you can look from a high point into the far distance and see all the detailed infrastructure on the horizon, it's genuinely impressive how they handled it.

You know what else is genuinely impressive? The combat in 7R. It still follows the same rules as the original ATB system, but with more player agency. Instead of just waiting for some bar to fill, you can block and dodge enemy attacks (ironically, blocking is better 90% of the time, as the dodge has no i-frames!) or deal some physical damage by yourself. All of this is accompanied by intuitive switching between characters in the middle of a fight in order to exploit enemy weakness with certain Materia or gain access to different skills and movesets. With the return of the Materia system, every party member can be individually built to one's likings - you may turn someone into an Electric AoE damage dealer or give everyone in the group an Ice Materia for some reason, there's a lot of different combinations! Summons are also back and they look just as cool here as you would expect. Unfortunately they're not available too often, but on the flip side this means their appearances against hard bosses are even more satisfying.

Now, I don't think anything has to be said about the soundtrack. It's a Final Fantasy game, so obviously it's near perfection. Uematsu and the crew put a lot of heart into the new songs and remixes and it shows. There are so many good tracks and it's hard to choose favorites, but one overworld song that particularly stands out to me for being surprisingly captivating is the theme of the Collapsed Expressway. In terms of battle themes, the Ghoul fight is an incredible new composition and if we're talking about remixed songs, [this video contains spoilers!] the iconic One-Winged Angel got an utterly fantastic orchestral rendition in the remake. They really went all out in remaking an already superb soundtrack and certainly didn't miss.

So yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to playing Rebirth eventually, but I'll probably play through the original FF7 first (hopefully in the near future). I love those characters and this world so much and I can't wait to see where their adventure is going next!

Featuring Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles!

I love Sonic 3K, and I can see why it's widely regarded as one of the best games in the series, it really feels like the full package of 2D Sonic (...and Knuckles).

While Sonic 2 rewarded speed in the level design, 3K emphasizes exploration again in a similar fashion to Sonic CD; the player needs to track down hidden large rings in a level to gain access to the special stages, where Sonic navigates across a maze-like board to activate blue orbs, while steering clear of red ones. Simple in theory, but certainly tricky at times. I would absolutely recommend going out of your way to do these special stages, because you'll unlock the ability to transform into Super Sonic after getting all seven Chaos Emeralds, and blazing through later levels in the Super Saiyan form is a joy. That's enough talk regarding the special stages though, as the actual main level design is the meat of the game.

With over a dozen different levels with multiple acts, Sonic 3K is the longest entry from the classic 2D games, and it's very nice to see how consistent the quality remains throughout its runtime. I'm not going to bring up every stage here (like in my Sonic 1 review), as I don't have extensive thoughts on all of them. There will also be a bunch of inevitable comparisons to other (Sonic) games, as I bear the curse of only recently becoming a fan in 2024 and those games just happen to be fresh in my memory.

Angel Island Zone is an amazing opening level, as it introduces the player right to the design philosophy of 3K and has many easily accessible special stages and multiple of the newly introduced elemental shields. For those who don't know, the elemental shields replace the shield power-up from the previous games and all are special in their own way. The lightning shield allows Sonic to double jump and attract rings, the bubble shield provides a move similar to Bounce Bracelet in Sonic Adventure 2 and allows him to breathe underwater (so the bubbles aren't required), while the fire shield gives immunity to fire (including lava) and a mid-air dash. In Angel Island Zone no shield is particularly better than another, so it's a good place to try their abilities before using them in later levels which make extensive use of their specific traits. One of those levels is Hydrocity Zone, which follows directly afterwards - here the use of the bubble shield is encouraged, as the bubble placements in the levels are only at certain spots and the ability to freely navigate underwater is very important if you actually want to explore there to find special stages without a rush. Marble Garden is arguably the longest and most confusing stage in the game, but it's still enjoyable in its own way. Carnival Night is plenty of fun to rush through too and has some nice underwater segments, while Ice Cap Zone is one of my favorites in the game with the snowboarding intro and overall satisfying level structure - this is particularly cool, because I was already very fond of Ice Cap in Sonic Adventure 1. Meanwhile, Flying Battery Zone is the result of "what if we made Wing Fortress Zone but actually good", taking the airship aesthetic of that level and making it more fun and sightreadable and Sandopolis is an innovative desert level, where the second half reminded me a lot of Pyramid Cave in Sonic Adventure 2. Afterwards follows Lava Reef Zone, which felt very reminiscent of Celeste's Core to me, but also stood out from the rest with its more vertical level design and great soundtrack, causing it to quickly become a favorite. Everything is rounded off with the Death Egg Zone, which gave me huge SA2 vibes again, as the atmosphere felt quite similar to the ARK levels in that game, same with the gravity switching mechanic. The final boss for 3K was also surprisingly fun compared to the other classic 2D entries, and Doomsday Zone is a great bonus for players who got all the Chaos Emeralds. Man, I love Super Sonic, no matter how basic the idea behind him is.

Sonic 3's soundtrack is an interesting one to discuss, as I completed the game through Sonic Origins, which uses the prototype versions of a few songs, as I believe the licensing for Michael Jackson's songs ran out (don't quote me on this). I don't think those prototype versions are as horrible as some make them out to be, and I actually prefer Carnival Night's prototype rendition to the original. Can't say the same for Ice Cap though, the original song is iconic for a good reason and I love how it ties in with the snowboard section at the beginning. The prototype version just sounds a bit too upbeat for my taste here, considering the original track conveys the gloomy feeling of an icy cave perfectly fine. Putting the differences of MJ and prototype songs aside, some other songs I thoroughly enjoy are Angel Island Zone, Hydrocity Zone (Act 1) and Lava Reef Zone (Act 1).

Even 30 years after its original release, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles managed to provide me with a surprisingly good time and I hope that many more people will continue to play it over the years. I really wish I would have grown up with the Sonic games in my childhood...

It's Rewind Time.

Mega Man is a frustrating game, which is a real shame, as it holds some interesting concepts! I tried playing the original NES version of Mega Man several times before, but always quit early on because of the amount of unfairly placed obstacles and enemies and never even managed to beat a level. This time I decided to give it another shot, as the Legacy Collection has a rewind feature - which turned out to be a real game changer. (Obviously this wasn't a feature in the original Mega Man, so I'm not going to add any points for it, but I'm glad it's in there, so I could experience the game to the end.)

Being able to do the initial six levels in any order as you please is a cool idea, you can just play the stage you feel like playing at the moment. I've only learned later on that there's an "optimal" progression route or something, but I liked being able to choose which boss to go up against next. Despite being seemingly disconnected at first, doing levels in a specific order can change the way you approach them, as each boss you defeat nets you a new power themed after them. Ice Man's power lets you freeze enemies mid-air, Bomb Man's power lets you detonate an AoE bomb and Elec Man's power makes you shoot electric beams in all directions. Each power has a different use and can change the way you play a stage. Unfortunately, there's a specific case if you don't have Guts Man's power before doing Elec Man's stage - you can't reach an item that's required to complete the game. This was the case for me and I was unable to proceed in the final stage, as I was missing the Magnet Beam and had to backtrack (causing me to have to revert to an earlier save file). Speaking of the final stage, I respect everyone who actually beat it without using save states, rewind or anything like that. It's all the frustrating parts of earlier levels cranked up to 11, featuring boss rematches against all the earlier bosses right before the final boss. Flame Man's spamming fire pillars again and you can't do anything against it? Too bad, enjoy starting from Bomb Man's fight again. The infamous Yellow Devil fight wasn't even that bad compared to some other bosses, as he'd always follow the same moveset patterns. I'm convinced Cut Man and Fire Man can actually read your future though.

After having rewinded more than in my entire playthrough of Life is Strange 1, I was able to have a decent time with Mega Man despite the infuriating game design. Hopefully the later entries will cut back on some of the comically placed enemies and obstacles, because I like the idea with the progression and the unlockable powers!

I really loved Catherine Classic, which is why I decided to grab Full Body on an eShop sale that was just about to end, so I could compare the two releases back-to-back (and since I was eager to see how Rin fits into the story). After beating the game's new route, I'm glad Full Body lived up to my expectations. But now the real question: Is this version the definitive release of Catherine? Probably.

I'll try to not repeat myself on the things I already established in my Catherine Classic review and will be going over the additions in Full Body instead, starting with the rerelease's poster girl - Rin. Since she's advertised as a third possible love interest, I expected her to be a lot more involved into the original storyline than she actually is, but I ended up liking the role they gave her there. Rin never actually interferes with the story events of Classic, the major beats still play out all the same. She's a pretty passive character if you don't actively pursue her route and serves more of a supporting character if you're heading down the Classic Routes. Even as such a supporting character, I believe Rin plays a pretty big role in shifting the tone of the game compared to Catherine Classic. The original game was quite gloomy and Full Body contrasts this by adding her to balance it out, resulting in the game feeling more laid-back overall. This is accomplished with the lighting changes in the bar and a new jazzy rendition of the bar soundtrack. Speaking of the bar soundtrack, many of the Shin Megami Tensei songs on the jukebox were replaced with modern Persona tracks, including some really great ones like Beneath the Mask from Persona 5 or Snowflakes from Persona 4.

As far as gameplay changes go, Full Body doubles the amount of puzzles and adds a mode to skip those entirely (if you're only in for the story). The new Remix mode is a great change of pace (especially if you're coming from Classic), since it adds various kinds of Tetris blocks to the puzzles, changing their solutions from the original game. Some of the smaller gameplay tweaks like the backwards camera or outlines for ledges just make the game more enjoyable to play overall. The undo and retry system has been completely overhauled, the collectable pillows no longer give you a set amount of retries, instead you'll get a singular undo action added to the "undo queue". Like in normal mode you start with 3 undos at the beginning, but if you collect a pillow during a level you can actually undo your actions 4 times in a row until you reach the pedestal. I think it's a pretty good incentive to collect pillows now, since I basically had 99 lives all the time by the end of Classic and there was no real reason to go out of my way to get them anymore. However, the lives system has been removed entirely in Full Body and you can no longer die unless you run out of undos. While this sounds like it entirely trivializes the game, it really doesn't and just lessens your frustration of having to restart a level for a single misinput. I had multiple cases where I had to retry from the start of a level, since I tried some strategy that didn't work out in the end and I had no undos left to return the blocks to their initial state. It's also worth mentioning that the undos can no longer be abused to reset the combo timer, so you'll actually have to watch out for that if you're going for a Golden rating. Overall, I believe those balance changes alone make Full Body better in the gameplay department than Classic (despite Classic feeling so great already) and I could actually enjoy the final boss in this version, since I didn't have keep worrying about some random homing attack, just to die with the pedestal in sight already (yeah that actually happened to me in Classic). Although I must admit that the tension is definitely not on the same heights as the original here, the dread of having to restart the entire level if you took a wrong turn was really something special...

Full Body's narrative is pretty much the same as in Classic (unless you go for Rin's Route), but with new cutscenes and pictures to help the characterization of the original girls. Personally I think it helped Katherine's characterization especially and I found myself looking forward to the flashbacks involving her and Vincent each time. Sure, that's pretty neat, but Rin's Route is the part that actually impacts how the story plays out. Contrary to popular belief I found the handling of the themes in this route fairly good executed and had a great time with it! There are some really good messages in here. A common complaint is that this route goes a little off the rails in the end and I can see how that's offputting for some, but I found her finale to be some pretty cool stuff, especially in regards to the scenery and stakes there. Not everyone's cup of coffee, but a nice bonus after doing the 'ordinary' routes with Katherine and Catherine.

My main complaint about Classic were the transphobic remarks at times, so I'm glad to see Atlus addressed this in Full Body. Most of the transphobic dialogue has been replaced entirely, except that one exchange in Katherine's True Ending for some reason. But considering Full Body feels more modern and progressive in terms of writing, I'd say Atlus is on the right track with those changes, maybe they just forgot to remove that very specific conversation in that ending. You know the meme that goes "He's a little confused, but he got the spirit"? That's Atlus with this game.

Unfortunately my time with Catherine in general has come to an end (unless I decide to tackle the Babel levels sometime). I wish people were less negative about it online and embraced the positive aspects more - there's so much to love here. Personally I can only recommend Catherine to fans of puzzle games or Atlus games in general, especially the Full Body version (but you can't go wrong with Classic either if you want the vibes™). This review was particularly fun to write, so thanks for reading!

Just meh. I can count the things I liked in this game on one hand - Water Palace, the return of a certain SA2 boss and Emerald Coast Act 1.

Generations 3DS is a strange game, the first three Act 1s all have the level design stolen 1:1 from their original counterparts, Classic Sonic has a homing attack and Modern Sonic isn't even 3D. That's right, no 3D levels on a 3DS. This leads to Classic Sonic just feeling like a worse Modern Sonic here, as the spindash is a worse boost and they both share the rest of their moveset anyways. It's genuinely such a baffling design choice to me, why even include two different characters if they play the same? The switching between Classic and Modern was a huge part of Generations' identity, and it's completely lost in this version.

If the level design atleast made up for it, it would have been fine, but it doesn't. Radical Highway and Tropical Resort are both some of the most unfun levels I've seen in a Sonic game (I've seriously considered dropping the game because of Tropical Resort), and those are already two out of eight levels total. The rest of the levels are fine, nothing particularly stood out to me except Water Palace, but I somewhat liked Act 1 of Emerald Coast too. The bosses are hit or miss, you have some interesting remade ones like Big Arms from Sonic 3 and a late boss from SA2, or boring 2D races against bosses like Silver, who is in Tropical Resort for some reason! There is nothing "special" about the Special Stages either, you run through the same glass pipe seven different times, similar to the ones in Sonic 2, would have been cool if they were atleast designed to fit the design of their respective levels.

In the end, there's not really a good reason to play the 3DS port of Sonic Generations, but I suppose it's a decent way to kill some time if you're looking to scratch that Sonic itch on a 3DS specifically.

I've had my eye on the Metal Gear Solid series for a while now and eventually I got the incentive to try the first game in the series after @wheatie assigned it to me. Had a decent time with it!

Metal Gear Solid is a classic stealth game - you sneak your way past enemies, and usually don't face them head on. (Else you have to deal with really frustrating aiming controls!) Your tools consist of several weapons like a silenced pistol, a sniper or even a rocket launcher, but also handy gadgets like EMP grenades and... a cardboard box?

The overarching narrative was engaging and consisted of many, fully voice-acted cutscenes. Some of them longer than others, ranging from quick Codec calls to villains monologuing for minutes on the brink of death. I have to admit that there were times where the exposition and monologues went on for a bit too long for my taste and apparently the cutscenes are only getting longer in the later games. A shame, since I believe those moments drag down the pacing quite a bit.

As I mentioned before, my other main complaint are the controls. Sure, this game is 25 year old at the time of writing this, but other games released in that period had more understandable controls too (an example being Ocarina of Time). The worst offender was definitely the aiming, but then again I didn't find out until after the beating the game that there was auto-aiming. Oh well, too late now.

That aside, Metal Gear Solid was enjoyable enough to make me want to check out the rest of the series as well, considering MGS2 and MGS3 are praised highly. It's a fairly short game and was just the right experience to play after Red Dead Redemption 2, which took me about a month to beat. But let me tell you, going from the graphics of RDR2 to PS1 models was certainly something! Have a good day.