Better than the first game purely on the basis that it has actual platforming and halfdecent mechanics around them, but I still don't really know if I'd consider this anything special in terms of being a platformer.

In terms of being an ADVENTURE game, its pretty great: Fun characters, mind-bending and narratively dense worlds with tons of clever writing and metaphors, and a bunch of genuinely heartwarming moments.

But with all that said, inbetween those moments this game IS still trying to be a 3D Platformer, and I don't really think it does a remarkable job at it. 100% completion is still just as tedious as the first game requiring you to backtrack to previous worlds with upgrades you need to grind for, managing your 8 PSI-powers is slightly less annoying with 4 buttons to use instead of 3 but is also slightly more annoying since combat places a far higher focus on using specific powers on specific enemies. The combat ends up becoming disorienting because all 4 shoulder buttons rotate between doing wholly different actions so frequently that you'll never get a satisfying, "muscle-memory" kind of flow.

Imagine a shooter with a lot of guns, right? Now imagine it also has a lot of different other utility tools: teleportation, guarding, etc. And now imagine all of these tools share the same buttons. Most shooters have one or a few dedicated "ATTACK" buttons that, no matter which gun you switch to, will ALWAYS lead to an attack, and have dedicated buttons for other abilities: This game lumps all abilities other than the basic melee attack onto the same four buttons.

Movement is satisfying enough, but it doesn't really do anything to elevate beyond feeling like a B-grade platformer in terms of design. If you'll end up liking this game it'll be due to the world, not the platforming.

Recently, it feels like I've been playing a lot more games where story and atmosphere the main draw. Obviously Ace Attorney and Layton, but also with stuff like Persona, 999, AI:TSF and even Shenmue. I've been able to get a pretty good sampling of what these games are like. And yet, Hotel Dusk struck a cord with me pretty much unlike any of the others, barring perhaps Shenmue. The games share a lot in common; A small, very "human" location being returned to over and over rather than a smattering of travel points and world-ending stakes, and pretty unconventional controls.

But above all else, its the tranquility of the two games I treasure so fondly. Like Shenmue, Hotel Dusk is a slow-moving game, one with a lot of just, normal conversations, human jokes, pretty much lacking the "theatrical" presentation of other Adventure games entirely. Not to say there's anything WRONG with that in those games-- I love seeing Ace Attorney characters gradually reveal just how off the shits they truly are --but that its impressive just how pitch perfectly Hotel Dusk is able to execute the complete opposite effect. With just how magically this game entraps you in its world through the art, music and writing, it turns into a game where I could very well argue most of its 'flaws' or rough edges are exactly what make it all click so well to begin with.

The visuals, being a game using 3D environments on the DS, obviously lack the detailed lighting and clean visual design you would see even in a 3DS game, yet the roughness of the visuals lend themselves almost perfectly to the aesthetic of the game--its a mystery game, about a rough, snarky guy gradually unraveling more and more about this seemingly mundane location. The visuals give off this near "uncanny" vibe that fit its tone almost too well, whilst also matching the iconic 2D character art pitch perfectly. There's no quick travel or anything, no objective marker or really much in the way of guidance, and as a huge lover of games designed around a lack of overbearing QOL this made me feel gleeful as can be. Its a game all about paying attention, both in dialogue and out.

All of this to say that the grounded set of mechanics, lacking many abstract 'videogamey' QOL systems, mixed with the slow pace and very human themes and interactions in the game, lead to a near unparallelled experience of pure attachment. That isn't to say that the game is perfect, and (again, like Shenmue) I definitely think the game lacks the kind of universal appeal a game like Ace Attorney has. But its also because of that direction that my heart was struck to begin with.

...I apologize if its weird, reading a dozen tweets about a story game without touching on the story at all, but that's because I believe this game NEEDS to be experienced wholly blind. I wish not to spoil this one-of-a-kind experience to any degree beyond a recommendation. Its one of those games that I know is going to stick with me for the rest of my life, both for how memorably gradual the story is and for how well the rest of the game compliments the feeling of slowly unravelling what's happing. A kind of game I feel we don't really see anymore.

Hotel Dusk deserved better. Yet because of its lack of success and imitators, in a way it feels even more special because of it. A bright star, shining pretty much all alone. And I do so love it.

[Playtime: 27 hours]
[Key word: Human]

I'll be honest, enjoying Halo: Combat Evolved to the degree I did when I played it came as a huge surprise to me. I initially only bought the Master Chief Collection as a novelty, since, y'know, "how can you have an Xbox without Halo?", and I thought nothing more of the series. Whilst it didn't exactly blow me away and certainly did "feel old", Halo CE was just so thoroughly likable and well put together: A game weaving linear enemy encounters with a more expansive sandbox of options so effortlessly, with a beautiful aesthetic to boot.

If you hadn't figured it out already from that intro, Halo 2 was a massive disappointment to me and a game I pretty much had to force myself to finish after getting past the 2/3rds-mark. Even now, months after finishing the game, I'm still trying to figure out exactly why that is.

The best way I can put it is this: Halo CE was a game that benefited from feeling indecisive. It didn't latch onto one kind of level design for too long: The intro level is a series of rooms, while the second level is made up of sprawling, beautiful landscapes. Whilst you can definitely feel a sense of insecurity from the developers' parts on what exactly the game "should" be, the linear progression of mission-to-mission lets this flaw become a strength: You're never bored of the game's pace because its always subtly changing. With Halo 2, it feels as if the developers looked at the different kinds of missions in Halo CE: Linear enemy rooms, sprawling sandboxes, even more slow and atmosphere-focused levels, and decided to focus squarely on the foremost, designing the whole game around mostly linear enemy rooms. What Halo 2 ends up being is, to me, pretty clearly more comparable to a "Cover Shooter" like Gears and Killzone than what Halo CE ever was. And sure CE had an energy shield that regenerates, but its design also felt like it was blending that element with FPS design of yore.

Essentially, CE feels to me like a perfect marriage of the old and "new" of shooters, wheras 2 steps almost fully in toward the new whilst still lacking the far more satisfying mechanics and polished level design of a game like Gears. That isn't to say Halo 2 is some thoroughly unappealing mess of a game or anything, far from it: It still does the move-and-shoot gameplay dynamic well enough, there's a fun arsenal of weapons to choose from and the dual wielding is actually a lot of fun to mess around with.

Story wasn't exactly a high point for Halo 1 (even when its atmosphere was exquisite) and while I still didn't pay much attention to the story in Halo 2 I did really enjoy all of the new elements it introduced, especially getting to see more of the Covenant and their religion. I don't want to delve too deep into the story in case you haven't played it because I think the surprising twists of it are a big part of the appeal, but it was certainly enough to keep me going despite having long grown tired of the repetitive gameplay.

Additionally, the action and spectacle has absolutely ramped up in this game over the first to the point where there are a lot of really memorable setpieces in this game that were almost all expertly handled.

Halo 2 left me disappointed, yet its changes to the core design of Halo could also be seen coming from a mile away. I perfectly understand why it is the way it is, but I'll just always prefer the hodgepodge of ideas that preceded it.

Playtime: ???
Key word: Narrow-minded

When the Switch launched 4 years ago near this day, I wasn't the most excited to play Breath of the Wild as everyone else. Despite owning the game on 3DS already, I bought Shovel Knight on Switch again on LAUNCH DAY just so I could play Specter of Torment as soon as possible. I was still in my days of being obsessed with Shovel Knight, having played the original game back when I was only 13. I obsessed over the game and its world, and even with the issues I had with Plague of Shadows, I remained infatuated with the game. There was just something about this world, this aesthetic, this cast of characters that I loved seeing, and wanted to know so much more about. In that sense, it almost feels as if Specter of Torment was made specifically for me. As if they made a game just to make me happy.

Only 3 years seperate the releases of the base game and the Specter of Torment campaign, and yet it was enough to invoke such powerful nostalgic feelings for me at 16. Beyond me being the perfect person for the game, it feels as if I was also the perfect age to play it. So while I'm going to delve into the gameplay and the feelings I have on it, I cannot stress enough just how absolutely blindingly perfect the game is in its presentation from that perspective. The music, visuals, world, and story, all clicks into place so utterly perfectly. But its more than just nailing that execution: It isnt just great music, great locations, great writing, all of that on its own. Its that all of those elements were made to build off of that original game from 2014. That each part of the aesthetic is made as a love-letter to it. Take Lost City: A level with decent music and a generic look, is suddenly contexualized into this greater world. You get to see the icy plains outside, with music hitting an emotional, narrative chord. And it clicks into place due to the familiarity you had with the original.

Everything just...clicks. It feels like the game Shovel Knight should have been, and yet its elevated so much higher due to how much the game's presentation and story mines from the player's familiarity with what they're seeing. Its a near-perfect execution of a prequel game. Its thus really heartbreaking to me that, just like the original Shovel Knight, the challenge of the base game has almost entirely disappeared for me and I no longer find the basic movement fun enough. Note the wording and caveats here, because I'll get back to them. Like Classic Mega Man you move with a sort of rigidity and a fixed speed, lacking the fluidity and self-expression of a game like Mega Man X, Zero, Hollow Knight, etc. The game is undoubtedly more satisfying to play than Shovel of Hope due to the new moves that ARE here, but it almost feels like a game thats chained to the original game, an ironic tradeoff for how much it gains from that deal in terms of presentation. The game is still rigidly divided up into screens, with a controlled pace, and the "intended way" to play always so glaringly obvious.

That untapped potential can almost be tapped into, however, with the Rail Mail armor upgrade. Giving you a core new movement option that ups the pace and expressiveness of the game, it in a way transforms it into something far closer to my ideal kind of 2D platformer. Combining this with playing the game on New Game+, which balances out the special weapon lineup far more and encourages a brisk, aggressive playstyle, leads to something magical. Its strange: "the game I wish this could've been" is just unlockable within the game itself. Even with this, there are just too many restrictions still in place. Enemies are still far too simple and unaggressive, the per-screen structure still halts the pace, and the game overall still isn't difficult enough due to not having enough depth to its mechanics to challenge.

In the end, what I have here is a game that is absolutely magical to me, that I can ALMOST turn into the game that I want it to be, yet is shackled by its predecessor to keep so many elements that just dont align with my philosophies for 2D Action games. Its able to ride so hard on the enchanting presentation, pacing, and the side-options that nudge it closer to my tastes, that it still sits among my all-time favorites. Yet I'm always going to wish it could've been unrestrained.

[Playtime: 50 Hours]
[Keyword: Bittersweet]

I finally got around to getting Mania Plus, and that means I sat down and played Encore Mode for the first time. The reasons why it took so long are extensive but I'll simply say that I think a rerelease of this nature was an incredibly scummy move and I didnt want to support SEGA directly for it. Hence, I got it second-hand once it was low enough, mainly just for the collection. But like I said, it gave me about as good of an opportunity as any to replay Mania, so I figured I might as well. One 2 hour sitting later and here I am.

I think I need to make it clear that I dont really...enjoy the Classic Sonic games, despite being a huge Sonic nut. I could break it down in far more nuance but I want to get a move-on, so I'll instead try to detail what it is that I want out of platformers, and mainly just action games in general:

-Difficulty. I want a game to present me with its mechanics and then task me with using those mechanics in interesting, engaging and challenging ways to overcome that which I wouldn't be able to otherwise. Beyond understanding them, I want using them well to be challenging. Bloodstained: COTM, Mega Man Zero, etc.

-Fun movement. If the game isn't the most challenging to just get through, I can often still be drawn to it if the simple act of moving around is satisfying and fun to experiment with on its own. Even easy sections can be a blast if I can clear them with creative expression of my mechanics. A Hat in Time, Sonic Rush, Ori 1&2, etc.

-Some sort of atmosphere. There are games I still love that only really go halfway with both of the points above, where I'm able to look past it due to the pleasant feeling of just being in the world. The original Mario Galaxy or Super Metroid are the prime examples here.

The action games that I adore the most are the ones that can, through whatever means, bulls-eye all three at once: Gunvolt, Hollow Knight, Sonic Unleashed, Halo CE, DKC Tropical Freeze. Even a game like Specter of Torment can ride so hard on only two points that it becomes a Top 10. So my issues with the Classic Sonic formula, then, is that it doesn't really...fulfill any of them.

They're games that aren't really designed to challenge, aren't really made for you to move around with fun, controllable movement freely, and...don't try too hard at atmosphere. Sure, there's "danger" in Sonic Mania's levels: Spikes, enemies, pits...but none of them really require a degree of skill to overcome, and are mostly there to slow the player down: The appeal of the series, obviously, is getting good enough at levels to the point where you won't need to slow down. Of course I understand that appeal. I'm a lunatic. I've S-ranked every level in Sonic Rivals for the PSP, I know what this series is supposed to be about. But it doesnt feel alluring to master a game where the movement simply isn't fun to play around with.

Yes, you CAN do cool things with Classic Sonic movement, especially Mania's highly-refined version of it. But its a movement system that is entirely reliant on level design.

You're not a hero darting through an obstacle course, but a sled waiting for the next downhill slope. Compared to a game like Sonic Rush, where at all times the player can hit top speed and pull off crazy stunts, and its up to the player to use these stunts to their fullest to truly master the game, this system of needing to DEPEND on the terrain to progress feels...restrictive. Its a dilemma for me then: The game only becomes challenging if you try to master its movement, but its movement is built on a foundation that I just fundamentally do not enjoy. It'd work fine if it was the gameplay threading the player along some engaging world and story but in Mania's case, not really.

Mania's a game that tries to take cues from Sonic 3&K the absolute most, which is a game with a very rigid design formula. The automated speed section goes here, and then the more rudimentary platforming section goes here. Alternate, rinse, repeat. For a lax playthrough, its a great way to keep the player engaged and keeping the variety fresh. Your brain is rewarded with delicious dopamine for doing a platforming section, in the form of a cool-looking speed section. But when I'm trying to mine more enjoyment out of the game than just a lax, empty playthrough, I notice just how formulaic it becomes. Its why Sonic CD is my favorite of the 6 Classic games: It abandons traditional game design to make a world with more atmosphere and, funny enough, environments that are more fun to move around in.

Encore Mode has its little quirks, but really it mainly feels like you're replaying Mania with a new color palette. And for the sake of replaying the game, its neat enough. Mighty and Ray aren't great additions but fill the void well, adding variety to a laid-back playthrough. I just don't have enough...meat to dig into, yknow? The bosses are all easy to steamroll and don't make use of the Classic Sonic physics at all, the levels are paced out well enough but dont offer much of any interesting challenges that test your knowledge of the moveset...Like Sonic 3&K before it, its a basic platformer where if you truly want to dedicate yourself to how the terrain physics manipulation work, you can make it look and feel cool. That is just not the kind of game I am willing to learn: Its far too reliant on learning levels over mechanics.

There's a lot of small things I could cover too that aren't really as important to my opinion. The game near completely lacks the kind of narrative and world-building throughline that both CD and 3K attempted making it a much less interesting game to want to progress in, the music style of obviously synthesized instruments pretending to be real instruments is not one I particularly enjoy, and the allure of 100%ing is completely gone with how poorly paced out that aspect of the game is. (tl:dr I don't think Mania/3Ks Special Stage system lends itself well to the pace of the game at all as it just interrupts the main gameplay with something completely unrelated at extremely irregular intervals)

Sonic is a favorite series of mine for many reasons, but most important to me is movement. And the movement in Classic Sonic specifically is the exact kind I would rather not bother with.

[Playtime: 2 hours] (+85 on the original Sonic Mania)
[Keyword: Uninterested]

So here's the hot take of the summer: This is actually my favorite game in the series. I love almost every piece of streamlining that was done from Zero 3, as while that game is fantastic in its own right it was also a little bit too easy to snap in half (That and I was never too big on the Recoil Rod in general).

Zero 4 takes the best aspects of the whole series: The simplicity of Zero 1, the varied brutality of Zero 2, and the customizability and polish of Zero 3, and rolls them together in a conclusive, jawdroppingly gorgeous package. While the crafting system is a dud and practically requires a guide, the rest of the game is ace in design and the Z-Knuckle is an absolute blast to toy around with.

Honestly still my favorite game in the series, even with its rough level design and relative simplicity compared to later games in the series.

There's just an aura of oppressiveness, brutality and hopelessness to the whole game that just isn't present in the sequels. Which, makes sense narratively, but this first game is the only one where you truly feel like the last stand for mankind, fighting back against forces infinitely more powerful than you.

Mega Man Zero in general is the peak of 2D action gameplay, and while this game isn't as mechanically complex as later games, it still stands heads and shoulders above most other games in the genre and is filled with tightly crafted bosses and challenging levels, with a lot of fun movement and combat options (Hint: Don't use the Buster, use Triple Rod instead).

The entire series gets my recommendation, and I have a soft spot for this one. But if it scares you off with its difficulty and general mean-ness, dont worry: The sequels get better with it.